A majority of women have direct experience of violence or harassment, or know someone who has suffered it, in the last year, a poll has found.
The poll finds little faith in the police or government to stem the tide of male violence, and most believe the problem has got worse.
The survey was presented to a private meeting attended by police chiefs and police and crime commissioners just under three weeks ago.
It was conducted by Zencity and based on almost 1,800 female respondents aged over 16 across England and Wales.
The large scale and high frequency of violence against and harassment of women is something law enforcement and the government are trying to get a grip on.
Women were asked: “In the last 12 months, have any of the following behaviours happened to a woman/girl that you personally know … or have you heard or seen them happening to any woman/girl … (in your daily life) … domestic abuse, sexual harassment, sexual violence, stalking, taking/sharing intimate images without consent.”
Of women surveyed, 69% said they had first or secondhand experience of women being ill-treated within the last 12 months.
The figure was 55% for women aged 55 and over, and 74% for women aged 16-34 and a similar number for those aged 35-54.
Three out of four women surveyed said violence and harassment was a serious problem and, asked whether it had got worse in the last five years, 42% agreed, 28% disagreed and 30% thought it was the same.
Those who argue the system is failing have battled for years to have the issue taken seriously. A watershed occurred after a Metropolitan police officer kidnapped and murdered Sarah Everard in March 2021 and another Met officer, David Carrick, was unveiled as a serial sexual offender after the force missed repeated chances to identify him as a threat to women.
The poll found that four out of 10 women do not believe police treat violence and harassment of women seriously, and 16% disagree.
Asked about confidence in key institutions – the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the courts and local councils – to keep them safe confidence in police was 34%, and lower for courts and prosecutors at three out of 10, and lower still for councils.
The new police national lead on violence against woman and girls (VAWG), Helen Millichap, said: “We need to keep these issues at the top of the agenda, and the societal outrage we see in response to these crimes needs to remain. We need to challenge misogynistic views that only serve to drive these crimes.
“Policing has a role to play, and we are up for the challenge, but we are only one part of a wider system that must play their part.
“What I want, is to show the public that progress is happening and for them to be confident that it is happening everywhere.”
Four out of 10 told the survey they would report online harassment, almost the same number said they would not, and more than one in 10 said they would not report a rape or assault by a partner.
Police believe the extent of violence against women is under-reported and the survey said: “The most common reasons for hesitation [in reporting] are the belief that the police wouldn’t act (31%) or wouldn’t believe them (25%). These concerns outweigh more practical barriers such as the process being too hard or slow (18%). This indicates that hesitation is driven more by distrust in the outcome than by the mechanics of reporting … Restoring trust that reports will be taken seriously and lead to action is essential to encouraging more women to come forward.”
As part of the effort to show that police are serious, the Met today unveiled new technology that it said would increase charge rates of men who attack women such as their partners.
It enhances pictures of the wounds such as bruises suffered, and is being issued to frontline officers.
Police were finding bruises were harder to record on darker skin, and the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said the new breakthrough was “equalising the service” to female victims.
DS Sean Oliver said: “The device makes the image clearer. The definition of the image is better with the device. It can be shown to a jury.”
He said in a pilot the device led to an increase in charge rate of more than 10% and, in some cases, allowed prosecutors to bring higher charges carrying more jail time.
Rowley told the Guardian that he had protected the Met budget to tackle VAWG, with cuts expected elsewhere because of a funding crisis: “We’re making multiple steps and all of those steps help us improve the outcomes of victims.
“VAWG we have to see as an epidemic that society has to fix.
“I think we can be showing that we’re starting to win on this … bringing more people to justice, growing people’s confidence to come forward and report matters to us.”
The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, said courts and prosecutors, and not just police, had to improve and catch up: “There have been too many cases in the past where institutions have let down women and girls.”
