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Metro
5 days ago
- Metro
More than 5,000,000 UK victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking
Around one in 10 people have been victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking, the latest bleak figures reveal. One in eight women and one in 12 men have reported being victims of these types of crimes despite the government promising a clamp down. This is a total of 5.1 million people aged 16 and over in England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics said. Heidi Riedel, CEO of Woman's Trust, told Metro: 'The overwhelming number of abuse survivors are female. 'Survivors deserve better – and the government must do better if it's serious about addressing not only the incidents of VAWG but also the impact. 'What the numbers won't include is people who either don't yet recognise that what they are experiencing is domestic abuse, for example people in coercively controlling relationships or where their partner might be restricting access to finances, for example.' To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Around 100 women are killed by men each year – often ones closest to them. Ministers have promised to halve levels in a decade in its strategy to end violence against women and girls. The latest figures are slightly lower than last year's estimate of 5.4 million people. But the ONS said these estimates are still in development and are subject to change, and caution should be taken when making comparisons. Gemma Sherrington, CEO of Refuge, told Metro: 'We are in an epidemic of violence against women and girls (VAWG), so sadly, the latest ONS estimates around the prevalence of domestic abuse come as no surprise. 'We welcome improvements to data collection, but these figures are likely to represent the tip of the iceberg as VAWG remains severely under-reported. 'The Government must take urgent action if it is to achieve its pledge to halve VAWG within the next decade.' More Trending Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said it is the first time combining reports of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking. She said: 'As part of our mission to tackle the national emergency of Violence Against Women and Girls, we have made sure that for the first time the figures are being recorded in a combined way, showing that one in eight women were victims of domestic abuse, stalking or sexual assault last year. 'That is why we have already started to put domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms, invested in major new perpetrator programmes, and why we are publishing a transformative cross-government VAWG strategy in September, because everybody has a right to feel safe on our streets.' The figures have been published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using data collected as part of the Crime Survey for England and Wales. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Officer in Manchester Airport brawl 'was an uncontrolled bully with a badge' MORE: Multiple bodies found in Cornwall woodland during police hunt for missing man MORE: Man in his 60s 'raped in the street outside a church'
Daily Mirror
16-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
Domestic abuse 'epidemic' as one in four adults have been victims
WARNING - DISTRESSING CONTENT: New figures reveal one in four adults have been been victims of domestic abuse from the age of 16 The UK is suffering a domestic abuse 'epidemic' it has been claimed after new figures reveal one in four adults have been victims. One in four adults in England and Wales are likely to have experienced domestic abuse, according to new research released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figure is greater for women, at nearly one in three, while for men it is closer to one in five. The estimates taken from the age of 16 are the first to use an improved method for measuring how much domestic abuse there is among the population. A new set of questions has been added to the ONS's Crime Survey for England and Wales. Questions about health abuse and forced marriage are now included. And they reflect recent changes in the law regarding coercive and controlling behaviour. Reacting to the new figures, the UK's leading charity for victims of domestic abuse, Refuge, said it is now an 'epidemic' and warns they are just the 'tip of the iceberg'. Gemma Sherrington, CEO of Refuge, a charity which opened the world's first safe house for women and children in 1971, said: 'We are in an epidemic of violence against women and girls, so sadly, the latest ONS estimates around the prevalence of domestic abuse come as no surprise. 'We welcome improvements to data collection, but these figures are likely to represent the tip of the iceberg as violence against women and girls remains severely under-reported.' The charity said the Government must take urgent action if it is to achieve its pledge to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade. The new ONS research also includes details on economic abuse, when someone deliberately gets a person into debt or prevents them from getting a job. The ONS now estimates that in the year to March 2024, 26.1% of adults - around one in four - had experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16, the equivalent of 12.6 million people. Under the old research this was one in five. The new estimates suggest 30.3% of women and 21.7% of men surveyed in this period had experienced domestic abuse at some point since the age of 16, equivalent to 7.4 million and 5.1 million people respectively. Meghan Elkin, ONS head of crime statistics, said: 'The way domestic abuse manifests is constantly changing and is difficult to measure. In developing these questions, we have listened to victims and survivors of domestic abuse alongside a range of users from charities to academics and other government departments. '...The new approach has resulted in a higher prevalence rate as we have introduced questions to ask about types of abuse not previously covered by the crime survey, such as health abuse and forced marriage.' Health abuse includes anything from depriving a person of food and sleep, to forcing someone to terminate pregnancy. Responding to the findings, Dame Nicole Jacobs, domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales, said: 'Developing new ways to further our understanding of this terrible crime so we can put in place measures to tackle it and ensure survivors receive the support they need is absolutely vital. 'I welcome the ongoing focus on domestic abuse by the ONS, as only through knowing the full picture will we be able to rid society of it for good.' Women's Aid said they were 'pleased' with the new questions which they helped develop which they point out does not rely on police reports. 'Women's Aid has for many years been concerned that the questions in the survey have failed to adequately capture the lived experience of victim-survivors of domestic abuse.'
