One in two women report physical abuse in the UK

One in two women in Britain is a victim of physical abuse a new report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) revealed today.

The report Violence Against Women exposed shocking figures based on face to face interviews with 42,000 women in 28 countries across Europe and the participants included age group between 18 to 74 years.

The findings reveal one in three of all women in Europe has been a victim of violence during their life time.

Morten Kjaerum, FRA director, said: “Physical, sexual and psychological violence against women is an extensive human rights abuse in all EU member states and the measures tackling violence against women need to be taken to a new level now.”

Numbers revealed that more than four in ten women, which is a staggering 43 per cent, have experienced psychological violence from their partners and were either humiliated in public, locked indoors, forced to watch pornography or threatened with violence.

32 per cent of women suffered workplace harassment and 18 percent were victims of stalking on social websites, texting and emails.

Britain ranked fifth in the category of worst countries in Europe in terms of violence suffered by women since the age of 15. The top four included The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

The report revealed only 22 per cent of British women filed a complaint to the police when compared to a European average of 20 per cent leaving the perpetrators, mostly male, unpunished.

Dr Joanne Goodey, the co-author of the report, said:  “Overall violent crime rates are higher in the UK than some other parts of Europe and Britain’s drinking culture is responsible for the increase in domestic violence in the UK.”

Commenting on the FRA report, Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary, said: “The Government needs to take urgent action to stop Britain languishing at the bottom of this EU-wide league table and to stop more women becoming victims of violence.”

Aastha Gill