'National emergency': 3,000 violent crimes against women recorded every day, report reveals

  • England

Violence against women and girls rose by almost 40% in the last five years, according to a report from the National Police Chiefs' Council, as ITV News reporter Sangita Lal explains.

Violence against women and girls is a “national emergency” with nearly 3,000 crimes recorded every day, a leading police chief has warned in a new report.

More than one million violent crimes against women and girls were recorded by police in 2022/23, according to a report by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing.

The National Policing Statement for Violence Against Women and Girls found that such crimes accounted for nearly 20% of all police-recorded crimes excluding fraud in England and Wales between April 2022 and March 2023.

The report estimated that at least one in every 12 women will be a victim per year – equating to two million women – with the exact number expected to be much higher as some crimes go unreported.

The deputy chief executive of the College of Policing said violence against women and girls had “reached epidemic levels” in England and Wales and called for government intervention in the “overwhelmed” criminal justice system.

Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth told ITV News that these figures represent the 'tip of the iceberg' and that many crimes in this 'epidemic' remain unreported

Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said the creation of a National Centre for Public Protection would support police forces with specialist knowledge and training for investigators and officers.

She added that the data from the National Policing Statement was “staggering”, with police records of violence against women and girls increasing by 37% from 2018/19 to 2022/23.

Ms Blyth said the criminal justice system was “under-performing for victims”, with the report saying violence against women and girls was at such a scale “it cannot be addressed through law enforcement alone".

One in 20 adults or 2.3 million people in England and Wales are perpetrators of such violence every year, the report estimated, with the actual number thought to be significantly higher.

The age of offenders is also getting younger, with the average age of a suspect for child sexual abuse and exploitation being 15.

In February 2023, the Home Office classified violence against women and girls as a national threat to public safety. Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth stated that a new national framework has aligned the police response to this issue with counter-terrorism efforts.

It comes as she says online influencers like Andrew Tate could radicalise young men and boys into extreme misogyny in the same way terrorists draw in their followers.

Over the past year, more than 4,500 officers have been trained to investigate rape and serious sexual offences, leading to a 38% increase in charges for adult rape from December 2022 to December 2023.

The report also estimated a 435% increase in child sexual abuse and exploitation offences from 2013 to 2022, rising from just over 20,000 to nearly 107,000 cases.

The NPCC said police forces were seeing “ever more complicated types of offending” causing “significant harm to victims and society as a whole”.

Arrests for domestic abuse-related offences increased by more than 22% in the year ending March 2023, compared with the previous period, with one in every six murders in 2022/23 being related to domestic abuse.

Ms Blyth, who is NPCC lead for violence against women and girls, said society needed to “move forward” and “no longer accept violence against women and girls as inevitable”.

She added: “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.”

Minister for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips, told ITV News that education will play a role in preventing violence against women, especially given the rise in controversial figures such as Andrew Tate

Ms Phillips added: "It is still predominantly the responsibility of women in our country to look after themselves and this government says that isn't good enough anymore."

Sophie Francis-Cansfield, head of external affairs at Women’s Aid, said the report’s findings were “alarming”, adding that many survivors do not report their experiences meaning the issue is “much larger than the data shows”.

Ms Francis-Cansfield added: “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.”

If you or somebody you know has been a victim of assault or domestic violence, support is available from the following places:

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