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Friday, Aug 22, 2025

How many attacks on women are there?

How many attacks on women are there?

The disappearance of 33-year-old Sarah Everard in south London has led to a conversation about violence by men against women.

Many women have spoken about their fears and personal experiences.

How common are killings of women?


In the year to March 2020, 207 women were killed in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales). This means about one in five killings were of women.

The number of female victims was lower than in the previous year, when 241 women were killed. This was the highest number in a decade.


Research from the Femicide Census - an organisation which collects information on men's violence against women - calculates that across the UK 1,425 women were killed by men in the 10 years to 2018.

That is about one killing every three days.

Who are the victims attacked by?


In the past decade, there were 4,493 male victims of killings and 2,075 female victims (31%) in England and Wales.

More than nine out of 10 killers were men.

About 57% of female victims were killed by someone they knew, most commonly a partner or ex-partner. This compares with 39% of men.


The other victims were either killed by strangers - 13% in the case of women and 30% among male victims - or no suspect has been identified.

More than 70% of women were killed in their own home - twice the figure for men.

What about other violent attacks?


In general, men are more likely to be victims of violence such as assault.

It is estimated that about 1.3% of women were victims of violent crime in the year ending March 2020, compared with 2% of men.

Most violent attacks are by people the victim knows - 92% in the case of women and 79% among men.

How common are sexual offences?


In 2017, the latest year for which figures are available, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that 3.4m women had been victims of sexual assault in their lives. This included one million who had been raped, or had faced attempted rape.

About 650,000 men had experienced sexual assault.


Sexual assault was most common among younger women with about one in 10 students saying they had experienced a sexual crime in the past year.

One in five women has been the victim of stalking since the age of 16 - twice the number for men.

The estimates used the Crime Survey for England and Wales. This involves interviewing thousands of people and is seen as the best way of measuring crimes including those not reported to the police.

How many of these crimes are solved?


The vast majority of sexual offences do not get solved. In fact, most sexual offences do not even get reported to the police.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows 151,000 people - including 144,000 women - were victims of rape or attempted rape in the last year for which these figures are available.

But just 55,000 rapes were actually reported to the police last year.

In the same year, just 1,439 people were actually convicted of rape. This was the lowest number since figures started being released in 2014-15.



What about sexual harassment?


Official statistics don't provide estimates of how many women face sexual harassment.

However, surveys suggest the problem is common.

A recent YouGov poll for UN Women found that seven out of 10 of women had experienced some form of sexual harassment in public.

This number was nearly nine out of 10 for younger women.

The survey found:

*  Over half of women had experienced catcalling

*  Four out of 10 had been groped or faced unwelcome touching

*  A third of women had been followed

*  One in five had faced indecent exposure

Another YouGov survey, in 2016, found that half of women had been victims of sexual harassment at work, most often through inappropriate comments or touching.

How common is domestic abuse?


Last year, it was estimated that 1.6m women in England and Wales were victims of domestic abuse. There were 757,000 male victims.

These figures include all forms of abuse, including physical, emotional and financial.

There has been an increase in domestic abuse since lockdowns began in March of last year.


There were 444,000 domestic abuse-related crimes - against both men and women - in England and Wales between April and September.

This was almost one in five crimes recorded.

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