“When I talk to these mums, they are so broken, really broken, and they’re grateful to me because they know I’m talking about all of us,” Mina Smallman said recently of her role as a women’s safety campaigner, in the years since her two adult daughters were murdered in a London park. As Ms Smallman knows, the relatives of women killed by men are also victims. Many more families struggle with the impact of rape and other violence against women.
These offences are now so prevalent that the National Police Chiefs’ Council refers, in a new report, to a “national emergency”. The body’s first analysis of data from official statistics, including the crime survey, reveals that about 2 million women in England and Wales are victims of male violence each year. In the 12 months to March 2023, police recorded more than 100,000 rapes and serious sexual offences, and more than 400,000 domestic abuse-related crimes. Most worryingly, the number of offences has risen sharply – by 37% in five years – while perpetrators and victims are getting younger. The most common age for victims of tech-enabled violence is 10 to 15.
