Accessible Reporting

Police services should come up with a way of catering to everyone’s individual needs when it comes to reporting experiences of abuse, as each individual person needs different help and support. This issue came up in the Women’s Aid Rise Report- The-Rise-Report-Final.pdf (womensaid.scot) which says how some women feel they need anonymity, financial support, counselling, or just someone to trust and speak to. These findings suggest that women feel that services, such as the police, are not always accessible or supportive enough for them, and that there needs to be wider systematic change to support young women. There should be services available specifically to support young people as their needs may be more complex. Also, young people should be involved in the development of these services. The report also discusses how young women would feel more supported by services if they knew they had sufficient training in anti-racism and understood LGBTQ+ experiences. As well as this, people suggest that to feel more comfortable when reporting incidents to services, there should be the option of asking for someone who is a specific ethnicity/gender/sexual orientation to increase trust and comfortability.

Having accessibility for reporting is vital as more women need to feel that they will be supported, believed, and have someone they can trust. With these adjustments, it is possible that more survivors would feel comfotable coming forward and talking about their experiences while trusting that services will take action to support them.