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Police believe there are as many as four million predatory offenders – largely men – across England and Wales who pose a serious risk to women and children, according to a report prepared for senior officers.
Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said the figure, uncovered by research carried out for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, revealed a culture of violence against women and girls and an urgent need for concerted action.
Sir Mark insisted the problem could not be solved by police forces and criminal justice agencies alone, according to a report in The Guardian this week.
He made the remarks on Tuesday to the London Policing Board – the official body which was set up in response to the force’s failure to identify serial offenders in its own ranks.
They included Wayne Couzens, who abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in March 2021, and David Carrick, who appeared in court in February last year to plead guilty to 85 serious offences against women, including 48 rapes, over 17 years.
Della Kagure Brown, director of The New Futures Project, said: “I am a psychodynamic psychotherapist specialising in working with trauma and I personally carry out more than 10 assessments a week for our project, around 500 clients a year.
“All of these women and young people have a life story which involves physical or sexual violence from a male perpetrator.
“I am not at all surprised by the figures quoted by Sir Mark Rowley and I doubt very much that anyone working with women and children will be.
“On behalf of our charity and the women I work with I would like to thank him for acknowledging the scale of this problem and I hope as a society we can come together to find a solution.”
However, she added: “We are underfunded and struggling to meet demand.”
The project hopes our ongoing fundraising appeal aimed at Leicestershire’s largest employers will increase our capacity to support people in need.
Mr Rowley told the board: “When you look across violence against women and children, there are millions of offenders in the UK. Some of the numbers are eye-watering.
“The scale of this is way beyond policing and the justice system and we need a frank conversation about it, that looks at prevention work, protective work, as well as enforcement.
“This is largely men offending on women and children … You’ve got millions of men in the country who pose a risk to women and children at some level.”
In a statement on its website, the National Police Chief’ Council sets out the nature and prevalence of crimes against women and girls.
It said: “The harm caused to victims and society by violence against women and girls (VAWG) in all its forms – including but not limited to harassment, stalking, rape, sexual assault, murder, honour-based abuse, coercive control – is immeasurable.
“While men and boys also suffer from many of these forms of abuse, they disproportionately affect women.
“A woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK.
“Domestic abuse makes up 18 per cent of all recorded crime in England and Wales. In the year ending March 2022, there were 194,683 sexual offences, of which 70,330 were rape.
“Policing, and society, must focus on violence against women and girls so that it can be eradicated.
“The policing response has been shown to be inconsistent and so there is now a national focus on supporting forces to prioritise VAWG-related crimes.”
The New Futures Project was set up more than 20 years ago to support women involved in sex work.
However, we have evolved into a comprehensive welfare and counselling service for women and young people dealing with sexual abuse or exploitation, domestic violence, trafficking, poverty and debt, substance use or mental ill-health.
Call us on 0116 251 0803 or send us a message at: info@new-futures.org.uk
You can find us at 71 London Road, Leicester, LE2 0PE.
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