Women are still the main victims of violence recorded in the police and judicial systems of the European Union, accounting for up to 85% of recorded cases of domestic violence, according to the ‘Behind the numbers’ report published on Friday 13 March by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).
The document, which analyses administrative data collected between 2014 and 2022 in 26 Member States, follows on from a series of initiatives to improve the quality of statistics on violence against women and is based on data collected between 2023 and 2024 from national authorities, mainly from the police and justice services.
In addition to the figures available, the report also examines the way in which these data are produced, recorded and interpreted, by comparing them with recent European surveys, including the 2024 survey on gender-based violence.
This leads to the conclusion that violence is ‘gendered’. And with good reason: in those Member States where detailed data is available, women account for an average of 85% of victims of domestic violence, 76% of victims of domestic abuse and 98% of rape victims. In 2022, almost 450,000 cases of partner violence were recorded in 12 countries, representing more than 1,200 reports a day.
It should be noted, however, that these figures do not fully reflect the reality, of which they are only a muted reflection.
According to the survey on gender-based violence published in November 2024 by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, the EIGE and Eurostat (see EUROPE 13537/21), while 30.7% of women in the European Union say they have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, only 13.9% of them have reported the incident to the police.
In addition, only 13 countries provided data on victims of domestic violence and 11 on the corresponding offences. In addition to these differences between Member States, there are also differences in legal definitions, counting rules and collection methods, all of which contribute to the difficulty of making comparisons on a European scale.
Also, some countries record only the most serious forms, while others take into account a wider range of situations.
The EIGE also reports a lack of information in the judicial field, and data on prosecutions, convictions or prison sentences is still limited.
“The availability of data also declines as cases progress through the criminal justice process”, says the report, which gives the example of intimate partner violence, for which “data on prosecuted, sentenced and imprisoned perpetrators is available in seven, five and three Member States, respectively”.
In addition, economic violence is rarely recorded and psychological violence is barely visible in the statistics.
According to the EIGE, there is therefore a need for harmonisation of practices, better cooperation between services and more comprehensive data systems.
In this sense, reliable and comparable information can guide public policy and improve the prevention of violence against women in the European Union.
The report: https://aeur.eu/f/lab (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)