Huge increase in stats for sexual assaults

[Artygirlghost]

I saw this article in the Evening standard today which shows a big increase in sex crimes. 25 rapes are reported every day. A 65% increase since 2016. 21% up on the previous 12 months. The article also say that there is a surge nationwide.

www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/sex-crime-london-rapes-ons-knife-crime-crown-prosecution-service-b1035615.html

And this is only the tip of the iceberg as we know that many victims will choose not to report the assault.

I am really finding it harder and harder to cope with the constant violence or threat of violence that women (I know it is no just women who are the victims of sexual violence but the majority will be men assaulting women) have to face.

I was victim of a sexual assault myself by a so called friend las year.

What do we need to do to stop this? is it better education for boys? better policing? harsher sentences? look at the negative impact of online porn?

It really is hard to think that in 2022 this is still happening. Why is it that the message is just not getting through and that things it seems are getting worse, not better.

There’s another thread about Andrew Tait and the views he expresses about women having a ‘market value’ amongst other things. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these two things occur together.

@waterwitch I will have a look at that thread. Thank you for suggesting it.

Sorry, not really a thread (yet?) just a reminder of a profoundly depressing individual and the opportunities they have to indoctrinate our youth :-(

Education on what sexual assault actually is as defined in UK law makes an interesting angle on this.

In both perpetrators and victims, historically there has been a high proportion who do not name what happened as a sexual assault.

As this shifts, with better education and awareness, more victims name sexual assault when it happens, making them more likely to report.

The unsettling bit is that education and awareness has little impact on perpetrators naming sexual assault correctly.

@Jibberstanley I was just about to post something along the same lines. I do think women are becoming better at identifying sexual assault/rape.

Plus other women are starting to point out when something is SA/rape. There have been a number of threads on MN where an OP has been left upset after an incident but not identified it as SA/rape and others have pointed it out, to their shock.

I imagine those who confide in female family and friends are also being gently told this was SA/rape.

The question for me is as far as I am aware most mothers are teaching sons (and daughters) about consent. So who or what is influencing boys and men that they don’t or don’t want to recognise SA/rape for what it is I.e. not a stranger. Porn and internet are probably the answer.

Some of it is down to criming standards through NCRS. So a lot more things are being recorded as crimes that perhaps weren't before.

For example, if a person reports a domestic incident to police - such as an argument between them. If the victim states that many years ago she was the victim of a sexual offence with another partner - that would now need to be crimed as a separate crime. Even if the victim wants nothing more to do with it and has 'moved on'

Or say, during a conversation with a member of the public, they state that they don't like going to a certain pub because last time they were in there someone grabbed their bum. Than would now need to be crimed.

I agree there are probably some social / reporting factors influencing levels. Doesn't change the unacceptably high base of course.

Yes I would agree as a detective who specialises in this area there are a number of factors

• Crime recording standards changing have a significant part to play
• peoples awareness of what is an assault is changing and quite rightly
• People are also reporting historic crimes. We still see an enormous amount of historic reports as people find their confidence to tell us what happened to them

I’m not sure if this is helpful or not really to your concerns. The rate of sexual offending against women and children is far too high and the reasons for it are societal and structural and far beyond my ability to tackle! If I can do my bit trying to improve prosecution rates in my little bit of the world then I count that a success.

I do think that there's much more info education and awareness now as to what is considered sexual assault and the policing response to sexual assault has improved slightly in terms of better awareness of the needs of survivors and more empathetic practices (although we still have a long way to go) and i think there's been a lot of media coverage about sexual assault and very visible individuals stepping up and being open about what happened to them. That's all bound to have an impact on the rates of reporting. If I think back to being in uni out of a group of 8 of us, 4 were sexually assaulted in various circumstances but only 2 of the 4 recognised it for what it was. The other 2 still wouldn't recognise that they were assaulted and none of us would have reported because in our minds sexual assault wasn't the same as rape which was the bad thing. Whereas now I think young women especially are much more informed around consent and what's acceptable and what's not which is a really positive step forwards. The problem is that we still have the focus on teaching women to firstly stay safe adhd secondly speak up when something happens, rather than focusing on addressing active and continued consent, healthy relationships, healthy masculinity and entitlement with young men. That work still isn't happening but there's the rise of incel and misogynistic propaganda occurring on social media so it's worrying what messages young men and boys are being exposed to as well.

It seems to be a taboo subject but I wonder how much this is influenced by the changing demographic of Europe in the last few years to include more men from patriarchal countries where the treatment of women is far behind the west.

For example, look at the NYE sexual assaults the other year. Over 1200 women assaulted in one night by men universally described as 'North African/Arab'.