Hide this page Cover your tracks

What is the VAWG Strategy?

The priority of the VAWG Strategy is to raise awareness of violence against women and girls. VAWG itself refers to acts of violence or abuse that disproportionality affect women and girls. Among others, these offences include: 

Rape and other sexual offences

Sexual harassment is any unwelcome and inappropriate behaviour making someone feel upset, scared, offended or humiliated, or is meant to make them feel this way. This includes sexual remarks or physical advances in a workplace or other professional or social situation.

Crime stoppers defines public sexual harassment as:

• Flashing/exposure - for example, exposing genitals in a public place.
• Sexual comments/gestures - behaviour such as 'catcalling' and 'wolf-whistling', sexual propositions (verbal and non-verbal), and/or making comments about someone’s body.
• Stalking - classed as a pattern of fixated or obsessive behaviour which is repeated, persistent, intrusive and causes fear of violence or engenders alarm and distress in the person targeted.
• 'Cyberflashing' - for example, sending or showing sexual images and/or website content/links, commonly transmitted via AirDrop or Bluetooth.
• Intrusive/persistent questioning - when you’ve made it clear you don’t want to talk to someone - e.g. “Have you got a boyfriend/girlfriend?”, “Where are you going?”
• Deliberately touching or rubbing against the clothed body of another person in a crowd eg on a busy train or bus as a means of obtaining gratification.
• Watching explicit content in public areas - e.g. pornography, including in some cases trying to show this content to others nearby.
• 'Upskirting' - placing a camera beneath a person’s clothing to take a voyeuristic photograph without their permission.
• Standing too close when there is no need to/invading personal space - e.g. somebody standing/sitting unusually close to you on a bus or train service that isn’t very busy.#
• Physical and/or sexual assault, rape - e.g. non-consensual touching, grabbing, groping, stroking, kissing etc. Sexual intercourse of any kind without consent.

Support pages:

Victim support.

Suffolk Rape Crisis.

Stalking

A stalker will have an obsession with the person they are targeting. Stalking is an offence and should be reported to the Police.

Stalking may include:

• Regularly following someone
• Repeatedly going uninvited to their home
• Checking someone’s internet use, email or other electronic communication
• Hanging around somewhere they know the person often visits
• Interfering with their property
• Watching or spying on someone
• Identity theft (signing-up to services, buying things in someone’s name)

F.O.U.R

To help identify if a behaviour is stalking, ask these questions. Is it…

• Fixated
• Obsessive
• Unwanted
• Repeated

Stalking help & advice

• Do not engage with your stalker in any way
• Talk to family, friends, neighbours, colleagues or your manager. They may be able to help by collecting further evidence on your behalf or by putting protective measures in place.
• Be aware of how much of your personal information is in the public domain and take steps to protect your data.
• Above everything, trust your instincts.
• Limit the amount of information you share about yourself on social networking sites and check your privacy settings.
• Report any stalking activity on websites to the administrators. If they won’t act, contact the web hosting company.

What is stalking and harassment?

Stalking can be reported to the Police using 999 in an emergency and calling 101 for the national non-emergency telephone line.

You can also report online via the Police’s website.

Reports can always be made in person at the local Police Station

For advice and guidance call the National Stalking Helpline on 0808 802 0300. 

Domestic Abuse

Domestic abuse includes any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse. The abuse can be psychological, physical, social, financial, or emotional.

Domestic Homicide

Domestic homicide is where someone has died, or appears to have died, from violence, abuse or neglect by someone they are related to or have been in an intimate personal relationship with or were a member of the same household.

For further information visit our domestic abuse page.

 -          Honour based abuse (including female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and honour killings)

Honour based abuse is a crime or incident which has, or may have been, committed to protect or defend the honour of the family and / or community.

It is a form of domestic abuse that is often perpetrated by partners, ex-partners, or family members. The concept of ‘honour’ is above the safety and wellbeing of individuals and is used to justify emotional, physical, and financial abuse, disownment, and in some cases murder.

Examples of honour-based abuse are:

• Forced marriage
• Female genital mutilation
• Physical abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Psychological pressure
• Abandonment
• Honour killing (murder)
• Forced suicide

To find out more, please visit: Karma Nirvana.

Revenge porn

Intimate Image Abuse, also referred to as ‘Revenge Porn’, is the act of sharing intimate images or videos of someone, either on or offline, without their consent with the intention of causing distress. This is against the law and included in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act (2015).

The perpetrator shares sexually explicit images or videos of another person without their consent, causing distress of harm.

if you’ve experienced image-based sexual abuse it’s important to remember that you’re not to blame – only the offender is responsible for this crime taking place.

Find out more on Image-based sexual abuse.

Upskirting/Voyeurism

Upskirting is where someone takes a picture under a person’s clothing without their permission or knowledge, causing distress and harm.

Upskirting can happen to anyone and anywhere, but most commonly takes pace in crowded public places, e.g. public transport.

These crimes are deeply harmful to victims, survivors, and their loved ones, and have a huge impact on wider society.

Find out more

You can find out more about the tackling violence against women and girls strategy.

The Violence Against Women And Girls (VAWG) mural along Ipswich Waterfront forms part of the Ipswich Safer Streets 4 project. This was funded by a Home Office Neighbourhood Crime Unit grant delivered between August 2022 and March 2023.