Violence against women at 'epidemic' levels and is a threat on par with terrorism, UK police warn

LONDON — Violence against women and girls has reached epidemic levels and police are treating it as a threat on the same scale as terrorism, Britain's police chiefs said Tuesday.

More than 1 million violent crimes against women and girls were recorded by U.K. police in 2022 to 2023, accounting for one-fifth of all recorded crime, a new report commissioned by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing said.

One in every six murders was related to domestic abuse in the same period. At least one in every 12 women each year will be a victim of crimes including sexual offenses, rape, stalking, harassment or online sexual abuse, the report estimated, with the exact number thought to be much higher because of crimes that go unreported.

“Violence against women and girls is a national emergency," Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said in a statement. "We need to move forward as a society to make change and no longer accept violence against women and girls as inevitable.”

Blyth said the data was “staggering” and growing in scale and complexity every year, with such crimes increasing by 37% from 2018 to 2022.

She said one growing concern is the way some online influencers “radicalize” young men and boys into extreme misogyny. Senior officers focusing on violence against women are in discussions with counterterrorism police on how to tackle the issue, Blyth said.

Teachers in the U.K. have expressed worries about the spread of “toxic masculinity” among boys influenced by the misogynistic views of some social media personalities.

Britain's government last year classified violence against women and girls as a national threat to public safety, and police forces were told to prioritize their response to the issue in the same way as they do terrorism and serious organized crime.

The report said thousands of police officers were newly trained to investigate rape and serious sexual offenses in the past year.

But Blyth said this wasn't enough and called for more government support to tackle a criminal justice system that's “overwhelmed and under-performing for victims.”