What is Violence?
We have adopted the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) definition of violence as:
“The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation.”
There is no single definition of serious violence. The scope of the Government’s Serious Violence Strategy is:
“Specific types of crime such as homicide, knife crime, and gun crime and areas of criminality where serious violence or its threat is inherent, such as in gangs and county lines drug dealing. It also includes emerging crime threats faced in some areas of the country such as the use of corrosive substances as a weapon."
The Government’s primary success measures for Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) are related to reducing homicide and violence involving knives and sharp objects. For the purposes of the Serious Violence Duty, in addition to homicide and violence against the person (which may include knife and gun crime), violence is defined as including “domestic abuse, sexual offences, violence against property and threats of violence”, but not terrorism.
Both VRUs - like the Humber VPP - and specified authorities for the Serious Violence Duty are required to set their own local definitions of serious violence. These must include as a minimum the scope of the Serious Violence Strategy, including a focus on youth violence in public spaces, and take account of the local impact and prevalence of other types of violence such as those outlined above.
The Humber VPP and Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) have agreed a shared definition to meet both requirements – helping to develop a joined-up approach across our area.
Based on the Strategic Needs Assessment and discussions across our partnership, we have defined Serious Violence in the Humber area as violence which consists of the following headline crime types:
- Homicide
- Violence against the person (public space)
- Robbery
- Possession of a weapon
- Domestic abuse
- Sexual offences
- Violence against women and girls (VAWG)
- Child exploitation and county lines
- Modern slavery
- Organised crime groups
Because the extent and nature of serious violence varies across our area, each CSP will tailor its focus accordingly.
