A key crime measure routinely quoted by ministers excludes many crimes that affect women more often than men, the BBC can reveal.
The headline figure from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows “total” crime has halved since 2010 – but excludes sexual assault, even rape.
The ONS says it is more challenging to collect accurate data on these kinds of crimes.
But critics say the omission hides the extent of violence against women.
Violent crime statistics do not give a picture of trends in sexual assault because these crimes are classified as sexual offences and counted separately.
Sexual assaults are actually increasing, affecting just over 4% of women aged 16 to 59 in the year to March 2023, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2014.
Harriet Wistrich, of the Centre for Women’s Justice, said relying on a definition of “crime” or “violence” that excludes what many women experience and worry about “gives a distorted picture of how much safer ‘the general public’ are”.
“Women are ‘the general public’. But their experience of violence is different from men’s”.
Source: Key crime stat excludes rape and other sexual offences – BBC News