One in five crimes committed in the British Isles are violence against women. Every 30 seconds a domestic abuse is reported to the police. Every hour a rape occurs in London. Only 5% of rape and sexual assault cases end in a conviction against the perpetrator.
The latest report from the National Audit Office has served to spread an open secret: the United Kingdom is experiencing "an epidemic of violence against women and girls". And progress has been minimal since the tragic death of Sarah Everard that shook the conscience of the British...
Sarah Everard was a 33-year-old marketing executive who disappeared on March 3, 2021, while walking home in Clapham Common. 'Missing' posters covered the south of London for days, and the police even searched the bottom of a pond near where she was last seen.
Seven days later, her body was found in a forest in Ashford, 50 kilometers from London. She had been kidnapped and murdered by a police officer, Wayne Couzens, who was sentenced to life imprisonment. The case exposed the corruption and sexual abuse perpetrated by Scotland Yard officers and ultimately led to the resignation of Chief Commissioner Cressida Dick, who ordered a police charge against a peaceful vigil in her memory during Covid restrictions.
In September of that same year, Sabina Nessa, a 28-year-old teacher, was murdered when she left her home on her way to a nearby pub in Greenwich. Her body was found a day after her disappearance in Cator Park. She died from strangulation and had bruises all over her body. Koci Selamaj, an Albanian immigrant, was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder.
Despite the array of political initiatives announced at the time, acts classified as Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) have not only not decreased but have increased since then, reaching 20% of all crimes recorded between 2022 and 2023.
Police reports on rape and sexual assaults skyrocketed in the same period from 34,000 to 123,000, largely due to improved case records. However, as acknowledged in the annual report on rape victims, only 5% of cases result in a conviction, and the likelihood of going to trial remains "like a lottery".
The prevalence of sexual assaults among the female population has increased from 3.4% to 4.3% in the last year. Cases of domestic abuse have slightly decreased, from 9.2% to 7.4%. It is estimated that one in four women in England and Wales has experienced or will experience abuse at the hands of their partner.
"The fragmented approach to addressing the epidemic of violence against women and girls has resulted in a failure to improve the conditions of the victims," concluded Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown, head of the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament. "It is disappointing to see how the Home Department does not know how the money is being spent or if it is really making a difference."
The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, embroiled in the scandal of child sexual exploitation gangs, has promised to halve crimes of violence against women during his term. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has taken up the challenge and announced new measures against domestic violence and child abuse.
"The lack of preventive measures is deplorable", however, Andrea Simon, head of the Coalition to End Violence against Women, has denounced. "Almost all efforts in recent years have focused on preventing reoffending, but prevention has been neglected, especially considering that a large part of the abuses are not even reported."
For Isabelle Younane of Women's Aid, the underlying problem remains "the change in cultural attitudes and the lack of support for victims," amid a climate of entrenched sexism and misogyny in many layers of British society, reinforced to some extent by social media.