Why Police Officers Must Listen And Learn From Women Who Have Lived Through All Forms Of Sexual Abuse.

13th August 202613th August 2026 Francesca Lilleystone 0 Comments London News, Police Officerd, Sexual Violence, Women min read

There are, and we will repeat this time and time again, outstanding police officers in our community.

Officers who go above and beyond, doing a truly amazing job on our streets.

Across Havering and London, officers are making arrests. They are charging individuals who need to be removed from our streets. They are working long hours, missing days off and putting in the work to protect our communities.

But once officers have done their job, the justice system takes over.

And officers can sometimes find themselves seeing the same faces they have arrested back out on our streets.

The cycle begins again.

Hard work, long hours and enormous effort go into getting perpetrators off our streets. Yet sometimes the wider system does not appear to support the work that officers have put in.

But there is another part of this conversation that we must have.

We need to listen to women.

Particularly women who have experienced sexual abuse, sexual violence and other horrific crimes.

Because sometimes we forget just how difficult it can be for a woman to come forward and tell someone what has happened to her.

Imagine having to sit in front of a stranger and describe one of the most horrific experiences of your life.

Imagine having to repeat it.

Imagine having to explain something deeply personal to someone you have never met.

For many women, that takes an enormous amount of courage.

And this is where specialist training is so important.

A woman who has experienced sexual abuse may struggle to speak about what happened. She may find it difficult to remember everything. She may become emotional. She may shut down. She may struggle to find the words.

That does not make what she is saying any less important.

We need officers who understand trauma.

We need specialist officers who are trained to deal with survivors of these awful crimes.

And, importantly, we need to listen to women who have actually lived through these experiences.

Because how can we truly understand what women need if we do not listen to them?

How can we improve the way these cases are dealt with if we do not hear from the women who have experienced the system themselves?

Yes, we have outstanding police officers.

Yes, officers are working incredibly hard.

Yes, there are genuine concerns about the wider justice system and what happens after an arrest.

But we must also look at what happens when a woman finally finds the courage to walk into a police station and say:

“This happened to me.”

That moment matters.

The way she is spoken to matters.

The way she is listened to matters.

The questions she is asked matter.

The understanding of trauma matters.

And the support she receives afterwards matters.

This is not about attacking police officers. It is about giving them the right training and specialist support to deal with some of the most difficult crimes they will ever investigate.

And it is about learning from survivors.

Listen to them. Hear them. Understand them. Learn from them.

It is impossible to fully understand an experience you have never lived through.

But we can listen.

We can learn.

And we can do better.

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