If you work in or around the criminal justice system and deal with violence against women and girls (VAWG) we need your expertise and experience to help inform a new project aimed at improving the way evidence is processed. The end product will be a new system that dramatically improves the way these crimes are investigated.

There are two ways to get involved. We’re looking for practitioners to take part in a single workshop (from a choice of three dates) and stakeholders to join a panel which will meet four times during the lifetime of the project. Depending on your role, you may feel that your input would be suitable for either option. Please see the links at the bottom for more information.

The project is due to run until March 31st 2024. It’s funded by the government’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) and run by the FCN and Staffordshire University. The FCN’s Dr Carolyn Lovell is in charge of coordinating community input.

She said:

“Violence against women and girls is a real priority for the forensic community, so this project is very exciting. We believe it will lead to significant improvements, but we have to be sure it’s rooted in the real-life experience of people who deal with VAWG investigations. That includes the voice of victims, right through to the companies who supply consumables. I hope my colleagues from SARCs to CSIs, court and custody staff and everyone else across the spectrum will take the opportunity to join in.”

For more detailed information please see below:

Stakeholder group:

Stakeholders wanted to develop a rapid automated system for trace evidence recovery, classification, analysis, and evaluation for the use against VAWG | FCN

Practitioner workshops:

Practitioners wanted to develop a rapid automated system for trace evidence recovery, classification, analysis, and evaluation for in cases of VAWG | FCN