Explore and read more about what we do at VictimFocus

VictimFocus works with police forces and victim services (including non-profits) to improve services, resources, advice, support, and training for professionals working with victims and witnesses of crime. 

Becoming a victim or witness of crime can be a life-changing traumatic experience, and a time at which children and adults will need considerable support and compassion. No matter the crime type, the impact the crime has on the victim, witness, and their loved ones will be unique. 

Criminal justice is rare. For most victims, they will never receive justice for the crimes committed against them. The vast majority of crime goes unreported, and victims have been giving the same common reasons for why they do not report crimes to police or authorities. In our recent research with over 1600 women and girls, we found that they were very unlikely to report crimes committed against them (an average of 5-11%), and when asked why that was, they provided the answers below. Participants could select or write as many answers as they wanted:

‘I didn’t think anyone would believe me’ – 32%

‘I didn’t know it was a crime’ – 42%

‘I was too embarrassed’ – 42%

‘I wanted to get over it without having to report the crime’ – 38%

‘I thought I would be judged’ – 36%

‘I thought I would be blamed’ – 31%

The themes of not being believed, not knowing whether the act was a crime, being embarrassed, being blamed, being judged, and wanting to move on from the incident without police involvement are common and repeated throughout criminological and psychological research. 

For this reason, and many more, at VictimFocus, we specialise in improving victim care. Thousands of professionals work directly with victims of crime as part of their work (police officers and lawyers), but thousands more work with victims of crime without realising, and without the specific knowledge they will need. Teachers, social workers, therapists, nurses, youth workers, midwives, support workers, care workers and HR professionals often find themselves supporting people subjected to crime.

Please contact us to discuss your training, resources or support needs

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Vicarious trauma, also known as secondary trauma or compassion fatigue, is a form of trauma that results from repeated exposure to the traumatic experiences of others. 

It can occur when a person is exposed to the trauma of another person, often through hearing their stories, witnessing their experiences, or providing care or support to them. This repeated exposure can cause emotional, psychological, and physical experiences similar to those experienced by the person who was subjected to the primary trauma.

Vicarious trauma can be particularly challenging for healthcare professionals, social workers, police officers, paramedics, firefighters, first responders, therapists, and others who regularly work with trauma, distress, abuse, violence, death, and oppression. They may experience feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, guilt, and shame, and may struggle with their own sense of safety and security. It can also affect their ability to provide effective care and support to those they are working with, leading to burnout and other negative outcomes.

VictimFocus work with many professionals and organisations who have been impacted by their role, including police forces, medical professionals, social workers, probation workers, therapists and support workers in a range of sectors. 

In 2023, we created the Vicarious Trauma Temperature Check Toolkit.

The toolkit helps professionals and organisational leadership to consider how embedded vicarious trauma is, and how much it is impacting practice. 

Our clients work with us to identify and address vicarious trauma in their organisations, to ensure their workforce remain healthy, supported, empowered and protected from further trauma and pathologisation. 

You can find our Vicarious Trauma Temperature Check Toolkit here

Vicarious Trauma Temperature Toolkit

To discuss working with us, please contact us for a meeting.

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One of our specialist areas is VAWG - violence against women and girls.

Global statistics suggest that women and girls are extremely likely to be subjected to violence and abuse in their lifetime, with some studies finding that 97% of women have been sexually harassed (YouGov, 2021) and over half of women have been forced to have sex they did not want (Taylor and Shrive, 2021). The NSPCC have been warning us for many years that 1 in 4 girls will be sexually abused before the age of 12, and 1 in 5 British adults report that they were abused in childhood (CSEW, 2017).

Globally, male violence against women and girls has meant that between 60 and 100 million women are missing from the population due to sex-selective abortion, as couples prefer to have sons than daughters (Watts and Zimmerman, 2002). Every year, 700,000 to 2,000,000 women and girls are trafficked across the world for sex. When disasters or conflict strikes, women and girls are often raped, murdered, abducted, and exploited not only by perpetrators in conflict, but also by the aid workers that arrive to help. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls are raped during warfare, often as a tactic of ethnic cleansing through impregnation. 

Acts of male violence committed against women occur in every country, every community, every religion, every time period and every language. Violence against women includes domestic violence, femicide, rape and sexual violence, corrective rape of lesbians, child sexual abuse and exploitation of girls, prostitution, trafficking, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, street harassment, online misogyny, forced abortions, ritual abuse, juju, acid attacks, public flogging of women, surrogacy and slavery.

We are committed to exploring, learning, teaching and sharing our knowledge with thousands of professionals every year. On average, we work with thousands of professionals per year to improve their knowledge, challenge their existing stereotypes and biases. We support organisations of all sizes to discuss and address violence against women, whether they work directly with victims as their clients, or whether the organisation is looking to address violence committed against their female staff. 

Our specialist areas of knowledge in VAWG are:

• Child sexual exploitation, child sexual abuse and child trafficking 
• Sexual exploitation of adult women 
• Rape and sexual assault of women and girls 
• Domestic abuse and coercive control 
• Psychological responses to abuse, violence, and trauma 
• Victim blaming and victim prejudice towards women and girls 
• Pathologisation and gaslighting in VAWG 
• Psychology of sex offenders and perpetrators of VAWG
• Responding to disclosures of abuse and violence 
• Critical perspectives of the harms of pornography and links to VAWG
• Sexual harassment and stalking of women and girls 
• Working with women and girls who become pregnant from rape and abuse 
• Supporting women and girls with their trauma after VAWG 
• Rights of women and girls subjected to abuse and violence 
• How to teach children and adolescents about VAWG
• Violence and abuse against lesbian women and girls

Get in touch with us to discuss implementing trauma informed approaches in your work

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One of our areas of expertise is the way global misogyny shows up in the workplace.

No matter whether you work in a supermarket, a hotel, a health service, or a police force, misogyny will always be present somewhere. It might manifest as misogynistic language, behaviour and actions in staff teams or leadership, or it might show up as sexist policies which mean women are kept away from leadership or promotion programmes. 

There has been a concerted effort to minimise and delegitimize the concept and language of ‘misogyny’. When we discuss the reality and impact of misogyny, we are now met with accusations that misogyny is a myth dreamt up by feminist and ‘social justice warriors’.

The word ‘misogyny’ comes from two words. ‘Misos’ meaning hatred and ‘gune’ meaning woman. In the mid-17th century, it began to be used as ‘misogyny’ to mean the hatred of women. 400 years later, the definition has not changed, and we continue to discuss the global phenomenon linked to sexism – the hatred of females.

To people who have never considered this before, the concept of people hating 51% of the global population probably seems unlikely or farfetched. However, as our work, and the work of many others have shown, there are thousands of examples of the constant, enduring ways we hate, harm, control, abuse, infantilise, sexualise, and kill women and girls all over the world and throughout history.

Misogyny is displayed in so many direct and indirect ways. Sometimes they are obvious, and sometimes they are hidden in seemingly benevolent messages and beliefs about women, men, and social roles.

Misogyny has existed in several forms for thousands of years. Aristotle wrote that women were ‘inferior, incomplete, deformed versions of men’ (Freeland, 1994). Ancient Greek mythology contains many examples of misogyny, in which stories are told that the world was a peaceful and balanced place until Gods created women. However, later Greek literature generally considered misogyny to be a disease, as it contradicted all natural and social aims and norms to hate women and girls.

In a society that has embedded and supported misogyny for so long, it is not hard to see why violence against women is commonplace, ignored, minimised and even supported. It is so embedded in fact, that lots of studies have shown that women and girls apply misogynistic values to themselves and to other women (Ringrose, 2013; APA, 2007). Whilst some people may assume that men are the only ones to display misogyny, it is clear that women do, too.

Our work in misogyny has included cultural audits of misogyny and sexism in large and small companies and organisations, recommendations for policy change, development of resources, leadership debate and discussion programmes, female leadership supervision and support, and training courses addressing misogyny in the workplace.

Get in touch with us to discuss sexism and misogyny in your workplace.

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VictimFocus is the leading organisation in the UK, supporting many services and organisations to explore and implement trauma-informed working.

We work with schools, police forces, social services, residential care services, HR services, non-profits and NHS. 

The trauma-informed approach to understanding mental distress and mental health considers that a change in behaviour, thought, or emotion arises from past or current trauma. Within this context, trauma can be variable and dynamic. Whilst trauma was historically considered to be a one-off, life-threatening event, it is now accepted to encompass any event or set of events that cause deep distress, disturbance, oppression, fear, harm, or injury. 

A trauma-informed approach is opposed to the labelling, medication, pathologisation and problematising of humans. Instead of seeking what is ‘wrong’ with the individual (whether that is called a ‘mental health issue’ or a ‘disorder’), the trauma-informed approach supports the individual from the perspective that their responses to distress are normal, natural, justified, understandable, and valid. Therefore, a trauma-informed approach does not engage in systems or narratives which seek to position the individual as having an internal issue that needs to be diagnosed, treated, managed, or solved with therapy, medication, or social isolation.

The term ‘trauma-informed’ has been heavily used recently, and is in danger of becoming a meaningless, toothless buzzword. The reason we must ensure all leaders have a solid  understanding of what it means to be ‘trauma-informed’ is precisely because it is a framework of  mental health.  When we talk about being ‘trauma-informed’, we are talking about a theoretical and philosophical approach to understanding mental health, disorder, illness, distress, oppression, and abuse. It is one of several theoretical approaches. It is quickly becoming more popular but is not the most dominant approach to understanding human distress. The most common approach is the widely used ‘medical model’, which is dominant in all sectors in the UK (and wider western cultures/societies). Our NHS, policing, social work, safeguarding, probation, prison services, psychology and psychotherapy services, nurseries, schools, colleges, universities, charities, court services, law and legislation are all based on the medical model of mental health.

To move towards a trauma-informed approach is to move towards revolutionary paradigm change.

Whilst this may feel particularly huge and/or insurmountable, there are already many trauma-informed NHS funded pilots, police forces, education providers, social work projects, charities, and private services that have successfully implemented change.

Change is possible!

Get in touch with us to discuss implementing trauma informed approaches in your work

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Our main goal here at VictimFocus, is to eradicate victim-blaming of people subjected to trauma, abuse and violence. 

It is our main area of expertise, and we work consistently to create solutions to harmful and life-changing victim blaming narratives and practices. We do this by utilizing our academic and practice expertise in the psychology of victim blaming, victim contempt and self-blame. 

‘Victim blaming’, defined as the transference of blame from the perpetrator of a crime to the victim, was first coined by William Ryan in 1971.

Ryan used the original term ‘blaming the victim’ to argue that shifting blame towards Black people in the US was justifying racism and violence towards Black communities. This came after the Moynihan Report (1965) blamed poverty and racism on Black family life, stereotypes of single mothers, absent fathers, and lower levels of education. Ryan argued that Moynihan was blaming Black communities for being subjected to racism and oppression perpetrated against them by White people.

Victim blaming is therefore not unique to sexual violence or to women.

In sexual violence against women, victim blaming includes the blaming of the women’s character, behaviour, appearance, decisions, or situation for being subjected to sexual violence, rather than the attribution of blame towards the male offender who committed the act (Burt, 1980).

Whilst victim blaming is not unique to sexual violence or to women, the way in which women are blamed for sexual violence perpetrated against them by men has become a central feature of victim blaming literature – and of wider cultures, media, religion, beliefs, justice and public health campaigns.

Simply put, victim blaming is the transference of blame for an act of sexual violence away from the perpetrator of the violence and back towards the victim of the violence.

Types of victim blaming

Victim blaming is generally split into behavioural, characterological and situational blame; however, they often overlap.

Behavioural victim blaming, blames the behaviour of the woman as the reason for the sexual violence perpetrated against her.

Common behaviours we blame are:

• She was drinking

• She went out with her friends

• She walked home alone

• She got a taxi alone

• She was using a dating app

• She was flirting

• She was asking for it

• She wore revealing clothing

Characterological blaming blames her character or personality for the sexual violence perpetrated against her.

Common character or personality traits we blame are:

• She is promiscuous

• She is sexualised

• She is too trusting

• She is naïve

• She is vulnerable

• She makes poor choices

• She takes risks

• She is not very clever/wise/savvy

Situational blaming places the blame on the situation the woman or girl was in, rather than blaming the perpetrator for choosing to commit violence. When the behaviour nor the character of the woman or girl can be blamed, we tend to blame the situation they were in. Situational blame is a curious approach, because it erases the offender from their own crime and blames something inanimate.

Common examples of situational blame:

• Parties like that can be dangerous

• Well, you know what happens at that park

• If you go to hotels like that, it might happen

• Walking home through parks is dangerous

• Going jogging alone is a risk factor for rape

• Carparks are a dangerous place for women

Often, victim blaming types occur simultaneously, such as when women are blamed for being promiscuous, walking home alone and being described as wearing revealing clothing. All victim blaming minimises or erases the actions and choices of the offender from their own offence.

Situational blame is particularly interesting because it is employed often by police forces, local authorities and safety campaigns. In posters which state ‘alcohol is the leading cause of rape’ or ‘go out with your friends and have a good night, but do not take risks that might lead to rape’ – the narrator is erasing the male offender from the offence.

For example, in situational blame, the rape or abuse of the woman becomes almost metaphorical – as if the party or the carpark or the hotel is attacking her. There is no mention of how the rape or abuse happened, who perpetrated it or who caused it. Just a mention of it happening in a situation. Sometimes a direct causal link is suggested between the situation and the rape. What remains consistent however, is that the male rapists are never mentioned.

We work with our commissioners to address victim blaming attitudes, policies, practices, interventions, resources, theories and service designs that are harming children and adults subjected to trauma, violence and abuse. Victim blaming is accepted and applied by 30-50% of the general public, and so we tend to see similar endorsements in professional practice (including professionals who work in specialist abuse services). 

Contact us to discuss how to tackle victim blaming effectively in your teams 

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In all of our work here at VictimFocus, we must keep a close eye on the way all of our expert subjects are impacted and influenced by oppression, stereotyping and biases about people and their cultures, traditions and roles in society. 

Developing anti-victim blaming, trauma-informed services requires that considerable time is spent recognising and understanding how oppression, marginalisation and discrimination play a role in trauma, abuse, violence and our subsequent portrayal of behaviours, cultures, traditions, expectations, and stereotypes of victims.

Whilst little known, the term ‘victim blaming’ is not confined or specific to VAWG, and was first used when describing the way that Black communities in the US were blamed for being subjected to segregation and racism by the White ruling elite, and the White communities around them. Marginalised and oppressed groups of people have long been pathologised, and then blamed for their own oppression. Psychology, law enforcement, social services, and psychiatry have long histories of diagnosing, medicating, sectioning and abusing people based on their race and ethnicity, sexuality, social class, age, disabilities, cultures, traditions, appearances and even languages. 

In the present day, Black women are still more likely to be portrayed as angry, aggressive, violent, out of control, disordered, emotionless, and uneducated. Lesbian women are still more likely to be diagnosed with personality disorders, and make up a disproportionate amount of people in psychiatric wards. Women with disabilities and health issues are still likely to be told that their experiences are exaggerated, made up, attention seeking or part of a mental disorder. Behaviours that are celebrated and glorified as recreational in higher social classes such as drinking or taking Class A drugs, are portrayed as dangerous, violent, and unstable in working class people (Carr & Spandler, 2019). 

Our work includes helping organisations to explore and address where stereotyping, myths, biases and beliefs are influencing, harming and changing policies, theories, professional practice, responses to clients, and the treatment of those in need. We also deliver training courses and resources to challenge embedded beliefs about marginalized groups of people.

Contact us to discuss working with us to explore how oppression and stereotyping affects your service.

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