NORTHUMBRIA Police and Crime Commissioner, Kim McGuinness has unveiled plans to drive culture change and stop abusive behaviour against women in the North East.

The Commissioner’s new plans also include investing £1 million into working directly with perpetrators following a successful bid to the Domestic Abuse Perpetrator’s fund.

The focus of this work will be around prevention in order to protect people, including children, from experiencing domestic abuse.

More than 1400 people responded to a Safer Streets survey conducted by Kim’s team at the end of 2022 and all the views and experiences collated have helped inform the development of the strategy and the work being delivered by the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office.

Kim McGuinness said: “For me, this VAWG strategy sets out our stall with everything we need to be doing to drive real, lasting change. We owe it to the young girls growing up here in the North East.

"As well as continuing to ensure there is valuable support for victim-survivors and that we continue to improve their journey through the criminal justice system; I want to work towards a future where we don’t have victims at all.

“Society needs a reset. Men absolutely need calling out when they make women feel uncomfortable. I want their friends to challenge their mate’s behaviour or actions, not pump them up or egg them on.

"If we intervene, we’re telling the perpetrator that their behaviour is not OK, but by saying nothing it’s almost an endorsement. This is the problem, and this plan is all about solutions.

"Work like the active bystander training is just one of many projects we want to build on to achieve that vision of a safer North East for everyone.”

Northumbrian Water is one of many companies that have just signed up colleagues to the Northumbria Violence Reduction Unit's domestic abuse champions scheme.

The VAWG strategy acknowledges that men and boys can also be victim-survivors of VAWG crimes, and women can perpetrate abuse against men and other women. – in the year ending March 2020 alone, there were an estimated 618,000 female victims (aged 16-74) and 155,000 male victims of sexual assault (including attempts). 98.3% of perpetrators were male.