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Feminism: chat

9 charts that show the scale of violence against women in England and Wales 6 months on from Sarah Everard’s murder

40 replies
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ScreamingMeMe · 03/09/2021 11:38

selected highlights

The statistics on rape are staggering.

In the year to March 2021, Home Office figures show police forces in England and Wales recorded 37,094 rapes against females aged 16 or over.

That was 14 times more than the number involving male victims – 2,577.

The figures exclude gang rapes involving ‘multiple undefined offenders’ – of which there were 1,180 against females – as the victims’ age is not specified.

Only a tiny fraction of victims will see their attacker charged – just 5.1% of the 55,373 rape cases wrapped up in 2020 ended in a charge.


Every year the ONS publishes its Crime Survey for England and Wales, which asks tens of thousands of participants about their experiences.

It is thought the survey is a truer reflection of crime than police data for some offences, as many people may not report their ordeals to the authorities.

Between April 2017 and March 2020, 3.2% of women aged 16 to 74 said they were a victim of either an actual or an attempted sexual assault. That compared to 0.9% of men – meaning women were 3.7 times more likely to be a victim.

But there were enormous differences in age groups, with 12.9% of females aged 16 to 19 – more than one in eight – experiencing an assault versus 2.9% of males of the same age.


Returning to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, in 2019-20 almost a quarter of women aged 16 to 74 (23.8%) said they had experienced domestic abuse from a partner since their 16th birthday compared to 10.5% of men.

And in just the last year alone, 5.6% of women aged 16 to 74 and 6.2% of those aged 16 to 59 said they experienced partner abuse. That is compared to 2.4% and 2.8% of men respectively.


Domestic abuse isn’t always physical. But sometimes it kills.

Between 2016-17 and 2018-19, there were 274 women killed through domestic abuse in England and Wales.

Domestic abuse isn’t always physical. But sometimes it kills.

Between 2016-17 and 2018-19, there were 274 women killed through domestic abuse in England and Wales.

More than four out of five female domestic homicide victims (218 of them) were killed by current or former partners. All but four of those 218 were killed by men.

Domestic homicides of men follow a different pattern. Of the 83 male victims, most of them (45) were killed by other family members rather than partners.

Most men killed in domestic homicides died at the hands of other males.

The most common suspects were non-immediate family members – perhaps aunts and uncles, cousins or in-laws besides parents, children or siblings.

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Wishingwell75 · 03/09/2021 12:00

Really disturbing.
How do these figures compare historically - say the last 25 years?
Are men becoming more violent or is it a combination of more women reporting crimes against them, more open conversations around domestic violence etc.
Are there more sexual attacks and rapes taking place?
What the hell can we do to change this? Harsher penalties, more custodial sentences, stricter laws around the viewing of hard core pornography? Definitely need to reach boys earlier than at present. It seems overwhelming to me, the rape jokes and rape culture, incels, women only spaces being eradicated, the return of fucking Taliban!
What can we do to change things for ourselves and our daughters and our daughters, daughters?

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PicsInRed · 03/09/2021 12:05

It's porn.

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PlanDeRaccordement · 03/09/2021 12:09

How do these figures compare historically - say the last 25 years?

I found this on rape. But it is not adjusted per capita so it is just raw number of rapes recorded for the year. Keep this in mind because as the population is increasing, the number of rapes can increase with rape actually becoming less common:

www.statista.com/statistics/283100/recorded-rape-offences-in-england-and-wales/

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PaleGreenGhost · 03/09/2021 13:39

Thanks for the highlights op, will have a proper read of the article later. This might get me started on writing to my MP.

The under reporting of rape must be huge, I'd have thought?

My personal experience was that female socialisation plus the general culture at the time really helped me internalise the blame and shame for what happened. Took over a decade before I even admitted it to myself let alone anyone else. And of course no point telling authorities by that time.

I always naively assumed as a society we were progressing forward, and that a girl experiencing today what I did, would at least know it was wrong and know to report it.

I am less convinced about that now. There seems to be so much emphasis in youth culture on not hurting people's feelings and inner identity trumping all. I think this just plays on female socialisation even more. Somehow the struggle for equality became pretending that males aren't physically stronger and don't commit the vast majority of sexual or violent crime. Whilst rape is always going to be the fault of the rapist, it can't help that girls today are being taught that boundaries are prejudiced.

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cushioncovers · 03/09/2021 13:55

Porn.
Violence and violent games/films more easily accessible online.
Women being more present in spaces that are typically know in the past to be men's domain.
Women reporting it more frequently.

It's an awful realisation that we may have peaked at equality and it's starting to regress. Just my opinion.

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PaleGreenGhost · 03/09/2021 16:10

Yet we've had nothing close to equality. Globally, women are to a greater or lesser extent, owned by men. Sure here in the UK we are very privileged in relation to many. But our rights were fought for (by women) and granted (by men) in recognition not of our equal status as humans but because men continue to hold structural power and continue to be a physical threat. And these rights are currently being taken away again.

I think the stats on rape simply puts into numbers the contempt with which women, as a class, are held.

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PlanDeRaccordement · 03/09/2021 16:23

@PaleGreenGhost
I always naively assumed as a society we were progressing forward

I did too. It wasn’t until middle age and after independently reading a lot of history that I realised that society has never progressed consistently in a linear fashion. There always seems to be progress followed by backlash followed by regression followed by progress again. It’s one step forward only to be pushed two steps backwards at times.

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PlanDeRaccordement · 03/09/2021 16:29

I think the stats on rape simply puts into numbers the contempt with which women, as a class, are held.

Yes it is contempt. The rape statistics combined with the fact that over 95% of rapists never spend one day in court or in jail, for me shows starkly that the men in power do not really think rape is a crime. It sobers me too that marital rape was legal when I married as a young woman. It appears on the surface we have made progress, but it’s not true because all the newish rape laws on the books aren’t worth the paper they are written on because they’re not enforced.

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PickUpAPepper · 08/09/2021 20:33

Like PaleGreenGhost, I believe men are getting worse, and it is being encouraged by culture. They expect every whim to be catered to from childhood, and they are soaked in cultures which value only power, abuse of others, and exploitation. Then they are given the porn-soaked internet, and given every freedom up to and including murder under law.

Women everywhere need to wake up to the reality of how much men hate them and ditch the extreme left-wing fear of upsetting men. It is not empowering to women.

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ColorMagicBarbie · 08/09/2021 23:49

It seems to me that the burden of proof is usually the confounding factor in rape cases as opposed to other violent crimes which often have witnesses and CCTV footage. Tbh, I'm surprised this isn't an avenue more focused on, as evidence would help drive convictions and potentially deter opportunistic rapists.

I don't know what solutions could be implemented. Tiny lapel cameras linked to remote monitoring services where you can discreetly press a button to simultaneously raise the alarm and start uploading the live footage? Definitely technically possible but unlikely most people would bother. How else can you prove you told him to stop etc?

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ColorMagicBarbie · 08/09/2021 23:54

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AssassinatedBeauty · 09/09/2021 01:36

The point is that there are too many men who are like that. Nearly all violence and sexual assaults come from men.

Recognising male violence as the problem and being utterly fed up with it isn't fucking "misandry".

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midgemagneto · 09/09/2021 07:46

Women cannot be absolved of all blame though as we are all part of society raising children

( slightly (?) cross at reading a couple of threads in the last few days predicated on " but he's a boy you see , a normal lively little boy" )

Wherever we have different expectations of boys from girls we are making poor adult male behaviour more likely


So to me it's a male problem , but it's not up to men alone ( as a group) to solve

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ColorMagicBarbie · 09/09/2021 09:07

@AssassinatedBeauty

The point is that there are too many men who are like that. Nearly all violence and sexual assaults come from men.

Recognising male violence as the problem and being utterly fed up with it isn't fucking "misandry".

Absolutely it shouldn't be ignored, but it's hardly something I see everyday. I work in an extremely working class, male environment (construction) and still I don't see male violence at work, or at client sites, or at the gym, etc.

I've no doubt that the majority of offenders are male, but I don't understand these 'sick of male violence' posts. Where are people encountering all this male violence? I can only assume it's stuff they read about online etc rather than actually in real life, and if this is the case then I'm not sure it's healthy. It's like spending all your time reading about people dying daily in Africa. It's perfectly understandable to feel empathy and want to help, but you shouldn't struggle to live your own life because of news etc. But that's just my take on it. Personally I have more men in my life who I can rely on than women so perhaps that influences my feelings.
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cushioncovers · 09/09/2021 09:24

"Women cannot be absolved of all blame though as we are all part of society raising children "


Ive raised two boys who are now 23 and 20 I've raised them as a single parent. They've watched me work, own my own home, drive a car all around the U.K. I've had to be both mum and dad to my children. So in a nutshell they have seen me as an independent woman who can take care herself and her family and yet they still come out with chauvinistic crap about women drivers and women being hysterical and over reacting to things. All the usual clap trap about how women wouldn't survive without men etc.

So my question is where are they getting these ideas from because it certainly isn't from me. 🤷🏻‍♀️ it must be so embedded in society all around the world. Because it's a problem all over the planet.

No matter how forward thinking a government is or how many tv shows show strong women etc in everyday life it seems to revert back to the patriarchal society.

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ColorMagicBarbie · 09/09/2021 11:36

and yet they still come out with chauvinistic crap about women drivers and women being hysterical and over reacting to things.

Well, personally I'd say there is some truth in both of those things. 😂 Most of my mates are terrible at parking in tight spaces etc. Young men are more 'dangerous' in terms of causing accidents but that's more down to recklessness and attempting risky overtakes etc, not so much being unable to drive the bloody thing. 9/10 times when a driver is holding up the traffic and taking ages to reverse into an enormous space it's a woman IME.

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AssassinatedBeauty · 09/09/2021 11:55

@ColorMagicBarbie

and yet they still come out with chauvinistic crap about women drivers and women being hysterical and over reacting to things.

Well, personally I'd say there is some truth in both of those things. 😂 Most of my mates are terrible at parking in tight spaces etc. Young men are more 'dangerous' in terms of causing accidents but that's more down to recklessness and attempting risky overtakes etc, not so much being unable to drive the bloody thing. 9/10 times when a driver is holding up the traffic and taking ages to reverse into an enormous space it's a woman IME.

There's no need for scare quotes. Men are more dangerous drivers than women, as born out by evidence. I find it remarkable that recklessness and attempting dangerous overtakes is considered being "able to drive the bloody thing", especially when it actually causes death and serious injury on a large scale. A bit of slow parallel parking is no problem to anyone, except impatient idiots who can't keep their emotions in check.
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EmbarrassingAdmissions · 11/09/2021 12:22

I work in an extremely working class, male environment (construction) and still I don't see male violence at work, or at client sites, or at the gym, etc.

I live in a working class area. I know a fair number of neighbours who refused to report their husband/partner's violence. Some of the elderly neighbours (80 yrs-old+) were beaten and raped by the man in question on their wedding night and this set the tone for their marriage.

Prison officers have a bullying culture and in many sites that's men on men and can involve overt rather than covert violence.

I saw a comment recently that hit home. Paraphrasing, "Most women know a woman who has been raped. Almost no men know a man who would acknowledge himself as a rapist."

If you saw the Daniel Schloss sketch, he outlines this very neatly.

I don't think for a moment that my individual observations trump the general picture offered by the ONS, Crime Surveys etc. - but they do give me a context for the figures and whether people report some crimes or experiences.

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PickUpAPepper · 11/09/2021 13:38

Dramatic much? I mean seriously it's like the Misandrotron 5000 got new batteries sometimes. Surely you don't really believe most men are like that?

Oh of course, in the new world pointing out that men are more violent than women and hold power is ‘misandry’. You are so funny.

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ColorMagicBarbie · 11/09/2021 18:56

Oh of course, in the new world pointing out that men are more violent than women and hold power is ‘misandry’. You are so funny.

Dogs are more dangerous than cats. Evil creatures! We need to put them all down.

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AssassinatedBeauty · 11/09/2021 20:10

@ColorMagicBarbie

Oh of course, in the new world pointing out that men are more violent than women and hold power is ‘misandry’. You are so funny.

Dogs are more dangerous than cats. Evil creatures! We need to put them all down.


Do you really think that feminists or posters here are calling for all men to be put down because they are evil and dangerous?? It's such a childish response to anyone wanting to raise and discuss the issue of male violence. If male violence reduced to the levels of female violence, the world would be a hugely safer and more pleasant place. It's self evident.
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ColorMagicBarbie · 12/09/2021 00:11

If male violence reduced to the levels of female violence, the world would be a hugely safer and more pleasant place. It's self evident.

No doubt, but it’s also pretty self evident that across a population of many billions the sex that has significantly higher levels of testosterone, and hence aggression, is going to be more aggressive in aggregate, even if the vast majority manage to function within society. Male violence will never be at the level of female violence unless the human species further evolves many millennia in the future. It’s like campaigning against having an appendix, and usually it’s just an excuse to have a moan IMHO.

I know the usual response on here is to quote Cordelia Fine (a psychologist not a neurologist) but there are reams of studies linking testosterone with criminal behaviour, aggression in mammals, and increased fight or flight mechanism.

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AssassinatedBeauty · 12/09/2021 01:08

Thankfully I don't see male violence as an inevitable consequence of their hormones. The fact that there are so many men who are not in thrall to testosterone means that it is possible to address those that are or might grow up to become. Something is going deeply wrong with the development of men who can't control their behaviour and are driven to violence by their hormones. That's what needs addressing. How we as a society bring up boys and what they are socialised into as men.

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ColorMagicBarbie · 12/09/2021 02:12

Something is going deeply wrong with the development of men who can't control their behaviour and are driven to violence by their hormones. That's what needs addressing. How we as a society bring up boys and what they are socialised into as men.

No doubt many of these men have issues, and I’d wager that there’s a proven link between alcohol/drug/trauma/etc and violent behaviour. It’s just that you can’t control every single person. For every violent act there were plenty more that almost happened.

However, I’m not sure violence is particularly unnatural, unpleasant as it is. We’re alone in the animal kingdom with our concepts of morality and it’s the suppression of instinct that causes men not to fight rather than dysfunction occurring when they do IMO. I feel a lot of people don’t see through the veneer of daily life and the covid situation really drove that home for me as many people seemed a bit confounded by the fact we weren’t in control of it.

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