Violence against women and girls

Violence against women and girls is a national emergency in England and Wales according to a recent disturbing analysis by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which described an estimated 3000 violent offences against women and girls daily.1 Every three days, at least one of these offences is likely to be homicide.2 Considering that many crimes go unreported, the NPCC’s findings probably underestimate the full scale of the problem.

Intimate partner violence is the most prevalent form of violence for women worldwide, with 27% of ever partnered women reporting lifetime experiences of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse by intimate partners.3 The prevalence of intimate partner homicide in England and Wales seems to be higher than in other high income countries such as Sweden, France, and Germany.4 Country comparisons must be treated with caution, however, because of missing data and varying definitions of violence45; even when a woman is killed, her death may not count towards estimates of femicide.6 Less well studied forms of violence can be especially heterogeneous across countries. …