Violent crime victims by gender

With the tragic murder of Sarah Everard, attention has rightly been drawn to rates of violent crime and peoples feelings of "safety". As with many shocking events the news media and social media can make many bold claims and generate eye-catching headlines. But was do the facts and data actually say?

1) More than twice as many men are murdered each year compared to women with the rates for both women and men slightly lower than 20 years ago 2) When women are killed it is overwhelmingly by a partner/ex-partner 3) Depending on the 'type' of violence the most likely gender of the victim switches.

In homicide crimes, 35% of female victims are killed by a partner or ex-partner, compared with just 2% of male victims. This statistic represents the largest gender disparity of any perpetrators relationship with the victim. Men, meanwhile, are far more likely than women to be killed by a stranger or a friend/acquaintance. In 33% of male homicide crimes, the suspect was a stranger to the victim, compared with 13% of female victims.

The tragic murder of Sarah Everard, and similar crimes, are shocking and rightly draw attention to violent crimes committed against women, often giving the impression that women are in greater danger of being killed. The chart above shows that over the past twenty years, more than twice as many men as women were murdered in the UK. The rates homicide rates for both genders have fallen slightly during the period. The significant spike in female homicide victims in 2003 was due to the recording of the crimes of serial killer Harold Shipman

Of course, homicide is the most extreme form of violent crime, but other violent crimes rightly concern the public. The chart above looks at the proportion of male and female victims for four different types of violent crime.

As we have already seen, men are the victims in the majority of homicide crimes, but this switches for two of the other violent crimes we consider. Women are the majority of victims in crimes of violence against the person and violence without injury. In contrast, male victims make up a slight majority of victims in violence with injury crimes.