Last year, 2024, marked 30 years since RISE registered as charity to support people experiencing or fleeing from perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence and abuse in Sussex. We are proud to have supported over 45000 women and children in those 30 years and we are proud to still be here, still listening, supporting and campaigning for change. The fact that we are still needed after 30 years is not good news – our work should not be needed but it still is and so we mark this moment in our history this month.
While the need for our services has not lessened, legislation and public understanding of abuse have both been building over our lifetime (see the Centre for Women’s Justice timeline here). It’s astonishing to think about just how recent some of these changes are.
A few years after RISE incorporated as a company, in 1997, Occupation and Non-Molestation Orders were introduced. These are key pieces of legislation relevant only to domestic abuse which allow survivors to legally prohibit perpetrators from being in the family home or harassing the survivor. Breaching these Orders is a criminal act and so the Orders can act as a gateway into criminal charges.
Ten years ago, in 2015, Coercive Control became an offence in law. This was a vital step as we know that the physical abuse that many people think of when they hear the term ‘domestic abuse’ is often only a small part of the story. In fact, figures from 2023 showed that the majority - 88% - of partner abuse victims in England and Wales experienced non-physical abuse. I will never forget a RISE survivor describing here experience as, “being stamped on mentally.”
Five years ago, Stalking Protection Orders were introduced - though recent reports say they are not being adequately used. Stalking is ‘very often’ a feature of domestic abuse, both during and after relationships.
A very recent change, just last month in February 2025, is that perpetrators convicted of controlling or coercive behaviour who are sentenced to 12 months or longer, will now be automatically managed under multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA). This is important as it means there is a legal requirement for agencies to work together to better manage the risks posed by these serious offenders, recognising the significant harm this kind of offending can cause. It also, for the first time, puts controlling or coercive behaviour on a par with other domestic abuse offences including threats to kill, attempted strangulation and stalking.
Legislation matters as it gives us a legal framework to operate in. Seeing the state take abuse seriously matters, to survivors, perpetrators and organisations like RISE - it can criminalise behaviour, place legal responsibilities on bodies like the police, and it can mean funding is allocated by government. But while I am glad to see these legislative changes, I am impatient for change and that has to come from society as a whole. Rape Crisis England and Wales recently shared that violence against women and girls is ‘a serious and growing problem’ - and, at the same time, it’s been found that the Home Office has not used it’s whole budget to tackle this issue, for a few years in a row. This is while we and our sister organisations are experiencing funding cuts and having to reprioritise our work and plans.
Recent high profile cases and reports have shown us that domestic and sexual abuse and violence, and consent, are still very much misunderstood. There is no excuse for abuse, ever, but Women’s Aid found, in 2022, that UK adults are likely to see perceived ‘poor behaviour’ by the victim as an excuse for the abuse they experience. It never is. No-one has a right to punish another a partner with abuse, no matter what. This belief needs to change.
As we mark International Women’s Day, and look back over our thirty years as a charity in March, I would like to set a vision for legislation and public perception of abuse in thirty years, In 2055.
I want to see strong legislation in place and being used, and perpetrators convicted. I want to see the police and other state bodies recognising the challenges that survivors face when reporting, and supporting survivors through them.
I want public perception to recognise that women don't need to be protected, we need to be fully respected as equal humans, with the right to make our own decisions and have those decisions respected. We are not blank canvases for male aggression, domination or sexual gratification and our bodies are not up for grabs - literally or figuratively.
I would like there to be a broad understanding that domestic and sexual abuse and violence are part of a fundamental disregarding of women as autonomous beings, and this is at the heart of both crimes. I would like to see abuse become utterly taboo, and no longer excused by friends, families or the public at large.
With all this in mind, I wish you a happy International Women’s Day and I wish RISE, the organisation I am so proud to be part of, a happy 30th birthday event. One day we won’t be needed. Until then, we’ll be here - and I thank all of you for being there with us, too.
