Mark Rowley, head of the Metropolitan police, described the extent of violent crime committed by men against women as “eye-watering”. In a report last week for the London policing board, he said that with up to 4 million mostly male perpetrators of violence against women and children in England and Wales, the scale of the problem is “beyond policing and justice system capacity”. The Met’s figures show that 50% of violence suffered by women in London relates to domestic abuse, with 1m reports to police in England and Wales annually. New research from the National Police Chiefs’ Council will be published over the summer. The National Crime Agency estimates that 750,000 adults have a sexual interest in children.
Some in the women’s sector welcomed Mr Rowley’s bluntness. For England’s most senior police officer to outline the problem so clearly is preferable to it being ignored or shunted behind priorities such as counter‑terrorism and fraud. But for victims and those at risk, it is chilling to learn that that the police believe only a massively upscaled, multi-agency approach would enable them to do their job.
There are 310 officers per 100,000 people in London, down from 350 in 2012. Due to living costs, recruitment pressures are particularly severe in the capital, across all public services. Public confidence in the police remains low across England, particularly among women and ethnic minorities, with the authors of one recent study saying that the challenge facing the Met to rebuild trust is “monumental”.
Last year, national police chiefs formally raised the level of seriousness that violence against women and girls is dealt with. The proportion of domestic abuse cases referred by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service rose. But victim support remains chronically under-resourced. Meanwhile, the response from policymakers to mounting evidence of the harms caused by sadistic pornography on the internet has been slow and weak. Police and charities are rightly concerned about the impact of such material on children.
Sentencing guidelines have been toughened for people (nearly all men) who kill their partners or former partners. The Domestic Abuse Act criminalised coercive control and non-fatal strangulation and imposed new housing duties on councils. But such changes risk appearing cosmetic against the backdrop of a criminal justice system strained to the point of collapse. As Harriet Wistrich, the director of the Centre for Women’s Justice, wrote in a recent book, laws have limited meaning if not backed by enforcement. While the latest figures are shocking, high-risk and repeat perpetrators evading justice is nothing new.
The crown court backlog was 67,573 at the end of last year, 8% higher than 2022. While the current prisoner release scheme is sensible, given horrifying conditions in some jails, high-risk violent abusers should not be freed early – as in a case revealed by Charlie Taylor, the prisons watchdog, last month.
Labour has pledged to create 80 dedicated rape courts, train more specialist police officers and increase prison places. The party is right that investment is needed after years of cuts. But victim support, prevention and rehabilitation of offenders must not be overlooked. The government has responsibilities beyond convicting and punishing perpetrators.
Mr Rowley was right to highlight this. But the alarming scale of the problem must not become an excuse for not tackling it – for the police or anyone else.
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