The extent of violence in England and Wales, especially against women, is obscured by official Government statistics, a new study reveals.
Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, and Lancaster University, have found that government statistics on violent crime underestimate the extent and severity of violence against women by as much as 39%, and underestimates violent crime against men by 26%.
When it comes to domestic violence the statistics reduce serious domestic violence against women by 59% and against men by 5%.
The researchers say this is causing a sex bias in the official violence statistics and is the result of limiting the inclusion of repeated incidents.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) caps the number of violent offences against the same victim measured by the Crime Survey of England and Wales.
The current cap replaced a previous much-criticised system which stopped counting repeated violent offences against a victim after the first five.
However, this latest study, published in the British Journal of Criminology, reveals the current capping system also causes significant bias by masking violent crime against women, especially domestic assaults, which is often a repeat offence.
The study used 19 years of data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales (2001/02 to 2019/20) examining non-fatal assaults.
The authors say this sex bias in statistics on violent crime marginalises the experience of women and hides the repetition of domestic violent crime against women.
The study authors call for the capping method to be removed and, they argue, could be replaced with an alternative ‘moving average system’. This, they say, would also remove volatility in the statistics but would also prevent sex bias.
The study’s lead author, Professor Sylvia Walby, from Royal Holloway, University of London, said: “We welcome the Government Strategy to halve violence against women and girls and urge the ONS to improve the quality of its statistics by removing the capping and therefore the sex bias.
“Accurate measurement of the volume and distribution of violent crime is important for the distribution of public funding to the services that most need it in order to achieve social justice.”
Study co-author, Professor Brian Francis, from the School of Mathematical Sciences at Lancaster University, added: “By capping the actual statistics of violence against women, it underestimates what is happening in England and Wales, even though alternative statistical methods are available.
“We want to see the ONS include all repeated incidents to give us a proper and clear picture of what is happening in the UK, so we are better prepared on how to tackle violence reduction”
