Perpetrator focus and interventions

Immediately, the Home Office, as the lead department for the response to violence against women and girls, in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Transport, and national and local policing organisations, should prioritise prevention activity targeting the perpetrators of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. This should include the following actions:

a. Immediately, the Home Office commissioning research to draw together and analyse information on the perpetrators of sexually motivated crimes against women in public, in order to help target preventative activity. This should include analysis of:
i. information from behaviour change programmes on perpetrators' patterns of behaviour; their motivations for behaviour change; and what is most effective at preventing this behaviour; and
ii. information from academic and operational knowledge produced by Project Vigilant, Operation Soteria, the Metropolitan Police Service's Violence Against Women and Girls 100 (V100) programme and similar programmes of perpetrator-focused work.

b. By November 2026, the College of Policing and, within it, the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, in collaboration with the National Police Chiefs' Council, should use this research to develop training and guidance on how to identify and target policing activity against potential perpetrators of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces. This should include an interventions toolkit for use in forces. The training and guidance should be rolled out to forces by April 2027. It should then be updated annually, based on priorities identified in the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategic Threat Risk Assessment (which the National Police Chiefs' Council should update in light of the research in Recommendation 17(a)).

c. By December 2027, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary should complete an inspection of the implementation of the new training and guidance in Recommendation 17(b), and of the efficiency and effectiveness of forces in adopting a perpetrator focus. This should include assessment of how successfully forces are balancing this focus with an appropriate and effective response to victims.

d. Immediately, and while acknowledging the fact that many sexual offences are never reported to the police, the Home Office should include, as a metric within its evaluation of the success of the Government's commitment to halve violence against women and girls in ten years, the number of perpetrators of these crimes who are prevented from further sexual offending. As a minimum, this should include: the number of perpetrators who are (i) arrested; (ii) prosecuted; and (iii) convicted of these crimes; and in addition (iv) information on reoffending rates for these categories; and (v) data on the number of individuals interrupted through Project Vigilant patrols.