The National Police Chiefs’ Council has declared violence against women a national emergency in England and Wales.
Missing from the conversation is what’s behind the emergency: the misogyny and male violence that underpins these stark figures.
For those of us who research violence against women and girls and support survivors, the “national emergency” declaration is a long overdue acknowledgement – it has been an emergency for some time. Data collected by the Femicide Census shows that on average, a man has killed a woman nearly every three days in the UK since 2010.
Last year, police chiefs placed offences against women and girls on the same level as terrorism and serious organised crime. The decision to now declare it a national emergency is perhaps an acknowledgement that the situation has not improved.
But still missing from the conversation is what’s behind the emergency: the misogyny and male violence that underpins these stark figures.
This violence is not just passively happening to women and girls. They are being subjected to violence predominantly at the hands of men. The majority (77%) of domestic homicide victims (killed by a current or former partner or a family member) from 2017-2019 were female, and 96% of the suspects in those homicides were male.
The national emergency is really men’s violence against women.
Men are also overwhelmingly the perpetrators of violence against other men. There are deep questions that must be answered to do with men, masculinity and violence.
A 2023 Women’s Aid report found a clear link between exposure to misogynistic views on social media, and having harmful perceptions of relationships.