West Yorkshire – Violent Crime Awareness Course (VCAC)

The Violent Crime Awareness Course is available as a condition for:

The Violent Crime Awareness Course (VCAC) should be imposed upon every s.39 and s.47 Assault (non-domestic related) for an adult offender who is dealt with by way of a Conditional Caution.

For Summary only offences please note Sergeant authority is required. For either-way offences please note Inspectors authority is required.  (ie. Section 47 Assault) Please refer to DPP guidance for more information.

What does the programme involve?

The Violent Crime Awareness Course (VCAC) is delivered by the course facilitator and a cofacilitator to the offender, to ensure that they are given the opportunity to speak about the incident. The course can be delivered in person or online.

Prior to the course delivery, contact will be made with the victim. The victim must not have opted out of Restorative Justice. This ensures that the Restorative Justice Service can contact the victim to find out how they have been affected by the offence, to take their thoughts and any questions to the offender as part of the course. In addition, all victims will be offered the opportunity to engage in the Restorative Justice process.

The courses are approximately two hours in length and split into three parts, using a PowerPoint presentation (with videos) which promotes discussion.

The first part covers information about the offence (e.g. the law being broken, statistics for West Yorkshire and discussion around whether the offender understands why they have been given the condition to attend the course). The offender is shown a video which looks at the impact of similar offences on others. This provides an opportunity for the offender to consider how their offence could impact their victim.

The second part looks at the offence and the offender is given the opportunity to talk about what happened, the impact of the offence on those involved/connected, triggers and behaviours and how things could have been done differently.

Finally, it looks at restorative justice – what this involves, the benefits of it and whether the offender is willing to engage and to discuss their victim and what they want from the course.

To book, please follow the link to the booking page

Violent Crime Awareness