The latest report by Femicide Census reveals, of the 121 women killed by men in the UK in 2022, 12 were killed by their sons and 11 were killed by someone they did not know.
62 (51%) of the 121 women were killed by a current or former partner. The vast majority of women were killed in their own home, and evidence of gratuitous violence was found in just over two-thirds of killings.
Leaving an abusive male partner can be a highly dangerous process for women experiencing domestic abuse. Annual Femicide Census data consistently shows that separation is a risk factor for intimate partner femicides. At least 40% of women killed by a current or former partner in 2022 had left or were taking steps to leave him.
According to Women’s Aid and other organisations supporting survivors of domestic abuse, women experiencing domestic abuse face a number of barriers to leaving abusive partners, including the chronic shortage of refuge spaces, financial problems and continued abuse from their perpetrator.
Of the men who killed women in 2022, 71 men (57%) were known to have histories of violence against women and/or were subject to monitoring or restrictions by a statutory agency at the time they killed. The majority of men who kill women are charged with murder. 84% of all who killed, and 97% of those charged, were charged with murder, double murder or multiple murders.
The total number of women killed by men fell by 18% from 148 in 2021 to 121 in 2022.
Clarrie O’Callaghan, co-founder of the Femicide Census said:
“The State is able to solve most known femicides – nearly all perpetrators are caught – but what it does not seem able to do despite 14 years of our reporting on femicides, is prevent more women being killed.”
Karen Ingala Smith, co-founder of the Femicide Census said:
“Men who are known to be a danger to women are too frequently at liberty to harm, rape and kill. The Labour Party, now in Government, has pledged to halve serious violence, including men’s violence against women, in ten years. They are going to have to act fast and ambitiously to even approach that target.
Not only do they need to address how men who are known to be a danger are held to account and managed, how justice is served, how women and children who have been subjected to men’s violence are supported, they also need to look at how and why society creates a sex class of killers and rapists.”
Living under Patriarchy 