In a new report published on Tuesday, police have warned that violence against women and girls is a “national emergency” in England and Wales, with nearly 3,000 crimes reported every day.
Studies conducted by two law enforcement bodies estimated that at least one in 12 women will be victimized each year, and the actual number is likely much higher.
“Violence against women and girls is a national emergency,” Senior Police Chief Maggie Blyth said in comments accompanying the report.
The study found that over one million more violent crimes against women and girls were reported by the police in 2022-2023.
These accounted for almost a fifth of all crimes recorded by police in England and Wales between April 2022 and March 2023, excluding fraud.
The report said violence against women and girls increased by 37 per cent between 2018-2019 and last year, with domestic abuse making one of the biggest demands on policing.
The study says that one in 20 adults in England and Wales, or 2.3 million people, commit crimes against women and girls each year.
“These are careful estimates, because we know a lot of crime goes unreported and in policing we often only see the tip of the iceberg,” Blyth said.
She warned that violence against women in both countries had “reached epidemic levels” and called for government intervention in a criminal justice system that is “under tremendous pressure.”
Meanwhile, the report estimates that cases of child sexual abuse and crime have increased by 435 per cent between 2013 and 2022 – rising from 20,000 to nearly 107,000.
It says offenders are getting younger, with the average age of a suspect now being 15.
The report said that 85 per cent of online crimes are due to stalking and harassment.
Britain’s Home Office declared violence against women and girls a national threat to public safety in February last year.
More than 4,500 new officers have been trained to investigate rape and serious sexual offences in the past year, with the report detailing a 38 per cent increase in adult rape allegations from the year ending December 2022 to the year ending December 2023.
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