Violence against women soars by 40% as police chief brands crime rate a ‘national emergency’

Crimes involving violence against women and girls have surged by almost 40 per cent in England and Wales in recent years, according to a new report.

The study, by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and College of Policing, found the number of recorded crimes has soared from an estimated 789,703 in 2018-19 to 1,080,157 in 2022-23.

Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, deputy chief executive of the College of Policing, branded violence against women and girls a “national emergency”.

Researchers found almost 3,000 crimes of violence against women are recorded by the police every day – with at least one in 12 women becoming victims every year.

The new report, titled The National Policing Statement for Violence Against Women and Girls, found that offences involving violence against women and girls in 2022/23 made up 20 per cent of all crime.

The study calls for a policing hub named the National Centre for Public Protection to be set up to ensure forces are given specialist training as well as carrying out preventative work to tackle the problem alongside other agencies.

TV star Georgia Harrison, who was a victim of revenge porn at the hands of her former partner, fellow reality TV star Stephen Bear, told The Independent: “The fact the statistics show a dramatic rise in cases is horrifying to me.”

Bear was jailed for 21 months in March after he posted a video of the pair having sex in his garden in Loughton, Essex, in August 2020, to his OnlyFans account.

Commenting on the report, Ms Harrison said: “I truly believe misogynistic online algorithms play a huge part in the rise of violence against women and girls.

“I see it so often with young men scrolling through Instagram with so much of the content aimed at degrading women and encouraging sexism on every level. I have hope for change with Labour coming into power.”

Ms Harrison, who has appeared on The Only Way Is Essex and Love Island, called for men to treat their partners how they would like their mother, daughter, sister, or aunty to be treated – “with love and respect”.

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Ms Blyth, who also the lead for violence against women and girls at the NPCC, said: “We know that continuous improvement is needed to strengthen policing’s response to violence against women and girls.

“Improvements must be driven nationally, ensuring consistency from force to force to give victims the service they expect and deserve.”

She said a centralised hub within policing that combines “specialised skill sets” would enable police forces to improve how they deal with crimes involving violence against women.

Ms Blyth added: “However, this will only achieve progress as part of a wider, effective criminal justice system, which at present is overwhelmed and underperforming 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.

“We aspire to a position where an effective criminal justice response to violence against women and girls is the last resort.”

The report found child sexual abuse and exploitation has surged by more than 400 per cent between 2013 and 2022.

Researchers found that one in six murders was linked to domestic abuse in 2022/2023 and that arrests for domestic abuse-related offences surged by 22 per cent in the year ending March 2023, compared to the previous period.

Despite this, many victims are faced with homelessness or going back to their abusers because of a chronic national shortage of refuge places.

The study estimated that one in 20 people is the perpetrator of violence against women and girls each year – although the true scale of the problem is thought to be substantially worse.

Sophie Francis-Cansfield, of leading domestic abuse charity, Women’s Aid, said: “It is important to remember that many survivors will not report their experiences to the police, therefore we know the issue will be much larger than the data shows.”

She called for collaboration between the government, the criminal justice system, and experts.

Abigail Ampofo, interim chief executive of Refuge, a domestic abuse charity with which The Independent is partnered, said the report contains a “glaring omission” around how police are addressing “cultural change and dealing with institutional misogyny”.

She added: “Without a continued, relentless focus on rooting out police perpetrators of violence against women and girls, we fear that perpetrators will remain within police ranks.

“How are we meant to have confidence that police are treating violence against women and girls as a strategic priority if they aren’t even rooting out offenders within their own ranks?”

Responding to the recent Angiolini report, commissioned after the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens, Met Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “We must go further and faster to earn back the trust of all those whose confidence in policing has been shaken by events of recent years.”