Violence against women soars 40% as police chief calls it '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.

- MAYA OPPENHEIM

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.