Violence against women and girls is a ‘national emergency’ that has reached ‘epidemic levels’ – that is according to a new police report.
Between 2022 and 2023, more than one million violent crimes were recorded against women and girls.
This accounted for just under 20% of all police-recorded crime, excluding fraud, in England and Wales, between April 2022 and March 2023.
The levels are a 37% increase since 2018/19.
The report commissioned for England and Wales by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing, found at least one in every 12 women will be a victim per year.
This equates to two million women every year, but this could be more due to unreported crimes.
Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said the creation of a National Centre for Public Protection is needed to support police forces.
She said: ‘A centralised hub within policing that brings together specialised skill sets and capabilities would support police forces in improving their response to violence against women and girls.
‘However, this will only achieve progress as part of a wider, effective criminal justice system, which at present is overwhelmed and under-performing for victims.
‘Violence against women and girls is a national emergency.
‘We need the support and direction of government to intervene and address the current problems within the criminal justice system and lead the way on a whole-system approach to violence against women and girls.’
She said the scale of the problem means ‘it cannot be addressed through law enforcement alone’.
Violence against women and girls was classed as a national threat to public safety by the Home Office in February 2023.
Since then, a national framework had brought the police response in line with that of counter-terrorism.
This means more than 4,500 new officers have been trained to investigate rape and serious sexual offences over the last year.
This has resulted 38% increase in charges for adult rape from the year ending December 2022 to the year ending December 2023.
The report also estimated one in 20 adults are perpetrators of violence against women and girls each year.
Between 2013 and 2022, Child sexual abuse and exploitation offences also increased by 435% – from just over 20,000 to nearly 107,000, according to the report.
Police forces are dealing with ‘ever more complicated types of offending’, causing ‘significant harm to victims and society as a whole’, Ms Blyth said.
One in every six murders in 2022/23 were related to domestic abuse and arrests for domestic abuse related offences increased by more than 22% in the year ending March 2023.
Sophie Francis-Cansfield, head of external affairs at Women’s Aid, added that the findings are ‘alarming’ and said: ‘Women’s Aid agree that violence against women and girls is a national threat, and echoes calls for a whole-system approach to tackling the problem and centres the most marginalised.
‘This includes co-ordination between the criminal justice system, the government, and experts, and enhanced training and education, delivered by specialist services, to those working in statutory services like the police.
‘Without meaningful collaboration and action, women and children will continue to be failed when it comes to be protected and when seeking justice for the abuse they have endured.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
