The UKPRP VISION conference discusses how to mobilise a cross-government response to violence prevention, and launches a calculator and animation to support understanding of violence-related research.
By Eve Lacroix (Senior Communications Officer), Published (Updated )
Sexual violence in England and Wales costs the economy over £400 billion, according to new research.
The high economic cost of sexual violence on society
These costs are ten times higher than previously thought and were revealed at a conference in June hosted by the UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP) Violence, Health and Society (VISION) research consortium, which is based at City St George’s, University of London.
The conference launched a calculator tool which estimates the lifetime costs of sexual violence: from calling out police officers to a crime scene, to time in the judicial system, to survivors taking time out of the workforce due to trauma.
The calculator was created by researchers from VISION, the charity group Rape Crisis England & Wales, and the Women’s Budget Group.
Putting economics into feminism
At the conference, Professor Fiona Vera-Gray, activist and researcher in sexual violence at London Metropolitan University, discussed the public discomfort around talking about the financial costs of violence against women and girls, rather than the emotional impact.
“There’s a perception that talking about the costs taps into the wrong values. You want to tap into values of empathy, care, human rights,” she said.
She argued that when speaking to commissioners, the government, and public bodies, using financial terms was more effective.
Fellow speaker Janet Veitch OBE, Chair of the Women’s Budget Group and one of the founding members of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), agreed with the argument that talking in financial terms is more effective to make policy changes. She said:
Influencing government policy
The conference held sessions about how practitioners could influence government policy to better support survivors and prevent further violence.
Conference keynote speaker Dame Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, is the independent voice for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and has held this role since 2019.
Jacobs provides public leadership on domestic abuse issues by mapping and monitoring the provision of services (such as rape crisis centres), carrying out research to make legislative recommendations which government ministers are legally obligated to respond to.
Her role allows her to seek information from public bodies that is kept confidential to individuals.
Addressing the audience of activists, civil servants, and researchers, she said:
Emotion and embedding lived experience
The conference unveiled an animation about the importance of including those with lived experience of violence in violence-related research.
The video was co-created by VISION, the Violence, Abuse & Mental Health Network (VAMNH) and the charity SafeLives, which is dedicated to ending domestic abuse.
Alicia Stillman (VAMHN) and City St George’s sociologist Dr Elizabeth “Lizzie” Cook (VISION) introduced the animation to the delegates.
They were members of the Lived Experience Advisory Group, consisting of academics and those with lived experience of violence.
Together, the group wrote the script and collaborated with the creative agency, Bearded Fellows, to produce the animation.
Alicia and Lizzie described the development of the animation as one of co-production between academics and lived experience from start to finish. This process of collaboration they hope will be embedded into government responses to violence as well as further academic violence-related research.
Dr Danny Taggart, Reader in Clinical Psychology at the University of Essex, consults on the process of embedding lived experience voices in government inquiries, including the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.
Most recently, he works on the Mother and Baby institutions, Magdalene Laundries, and Workhouses in Northern Ireland, which saw the government acknowledge the harms caused when unwed mothers were forcibly separated from their babies, often being placed in religious institutions to carry out unpaid labour.
He said:
He believes both types of knowledge and approaches are needed to work together to bring about justice and social change.
Related schools, departments and centres
Other stories you might like
-
“Expect violence at work”: 1 in 12 UK employees experienced threats, insults or attacks in the workplace in the past year
New research co-authored by City St George’s, University of London and the University of Manchester finds workplace violence is more prevalent than previously thought, happens across all industries, a
-
“The Government must take responsibility for prevention”: Professor Katrin Hohl OBE delivers evidence in parliament meeting on tackling violence against women and girls
City St George’s criminologist urges the government to shift the dial at a Public Accounts Committee session on tackling violence against women and girls.
-
In memory of Holly Newton: Why teens fall between the gaps of domestic abuse support
Academics from the Violence & Society research centre echo Holly Newton’s parents call for domestic abuse policy reform to better protect teens.
