Newly released data from the Femicide Census has cast a harsh spotlight on the persistent and devastating scale of violence against women in the UK, with a particular focus on the alarming trend of women being killed by those closest to them—including their own sons. The 14th annual Femicide Census, published in 2025, reveals that in 2022 alone, 122 women were killed by men, and more than half of these victims were targeted by their current or former partners. Even more disturbingly, the figures show that women are now more likely to be killed by their own son than by a stranger.
According to BBC reporting, out of 121 women killed by men in 2022, 12 were killed by their sons, while 11 were killed by someone they did not know. These numbers are not just statistics—they represent a deeply troubling reality for countless families across the country. The Femicide Census, co-founded by Karen Ingala Smith in 2015 to track rates of male violence against women, has become a vital tool in understanding the patterns and failures that lead to these tragedies.
Smith told The Independent, “Men who are known to be a danger to women are too frequently at liberty to harm, rape and kill.” She went on to emphasize the urgency of government action in light of the Labour Party’s pledge to halve serious violence, including men’s violence against women, within the next decade. “They are going to have to act fast and ambitiously to even approach that target,” Smith warned.
The data paints a grim picture. At least 40 percent of women killed by a partner had already ended the relationship or were trying to leave when they were killed, highlighting the perilous moment when women attempt to escape abusive situations. Seven in ten women killed in 2022 were attacked in their own homes, a place that should offer safety but too often becomes a site of fatal violence. Over half of these women were stabbed to death with a sharp instrument, while nearly a quarter were strangled. In 20 cases, men used brute force—kicking, hitting, or stamping the victim to death.
Perhaps most shocking is the fact that women are more likely to be killed by their own son than by a stranger. As reported by BBC News, 10 percent of women killed in 2022 were victims of their sons, compared to 9 percent killed by strangers. Smith noted that for every woman killed by her son, “there were many more living with and enduring serious violence and abuse.” The report highlights the lack of specialist support for mothers facing violence from their sons, with services such as police, health, and even domestic violence organizations often failing to recognize or adequately address the severity of son-to-mother violence.
The stories behind the statistics are harrowing. One mother from the Midlands described years of escalating violence from her autistic teenage son, beginning when he was just 12 years old. Despite more than 60 police call-outs, the Crown Prosecution Service declined to prosecute, citing a lack of public interest. “This is full-on assaults, GBH, ABH, sometimes strangulation,” her partner said to BBC News. The family eventually installed CCTV cameras for their own protection but felt criticized for involving the police too often. Their son was finally taken into care in 2025 after a particularly violent incident, but the family’s ordeal underscores the gaps in support and the absence of a clear statutory duty for authorities to intervene.
Adoptive families, too, face daunting challenges. One mother from the north-east of England described living in fear of her adopted daughter, who began exhibiting violent behavior at just three years old. “Neither of us were safe,” she told the BBC, recounting years of requests for respite care that were met only with offers of parenting courses. Ultimately, the mother made the heart-wrenching decision to end the adoption, saying, “I gave up everything in my life for my child, and it wasn’t enough.”
Legal and systemic shortcomings compound the problem. In England, the law does not currently recognize that children under 16 can commit domestic violence, despite calls for reform. No authority has a statutory duty to help families dealing with son-to-mother violence, resulting in patchy and inconsistent support across the country. Durham University researcher Nikki Rutter told BBC News that early intervention is rarely provided, with services often waiting until a crisis point is reached before acting. “For families, it must feel like there’s no way out,” she said.
The Femicide Census also reveals that nearly six in ten perpetrators were known to have a history of violence against women or were subject to monitoring or restrictions at the time of the killing. High-profile cases underscore systemic failures: Jordan McSweeney, who had 28 previous convictions for 69 offences and was wanted on recall to prison, murdered Zara Aleena in Ilford, east London, in June 2022. An inquest later found that a string of failures by multiple agencies left him free to kill.
Other chilling examples include a killer on extended licence for rape who strangled his wife and cut her throat, and another under investigation for rape who killed and inflicted more than 90 injuries on his victim. These cases, highlighted by The Independent, expose the dire need for better monitoring of known offenders and more robust intervention before violence escalates to murder.
Jess Phillips, the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, has described the situation as “nothing less than a national emergency.” She told The Independent, “That’s why we have pledged to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, including tackling child-to-parent abuse through an effective system to ensure problematic behaviours and victims are identified early, and services respond effectively to stop harmful behaviour from continuing or escalating.” Phillips also signaled plans to overhaul the policing and criminal justice response to domestic abuse, aiming to ensure that more victims are protected and more perpetrators are punished.
Despite these pledges, advocates warn that much more needs to be done. Ellie Butt, head of policy and public affairs at Refuge, told The Independent, “The figures in the Femicide Census report are shocking, but these numbers alone do not tell the full story.” She stressed that violence against women and girls remains severely underreported, with many deaths—such as those resulting from suicide—going unrecognized as abuse-related. “From inconsistent and frequently inadequate police responses to the chronic underfunding of lifesaving specialist services, women are being failed across the board—with fatal consequences,” Butt said. She called for the forthcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy to transform the response to domestic abuse so that “women no longer needlessly lose their lives.”
The government is expected to unveil its new Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy later in 2025, with a goal of halving violence in the next ten years. Whether these ambitious targets can be met remains to be seen, but the urgency is clear: lives are at stake, and the time for decisive action is now.
As the Femicide Census continues to shine a light on the realities of violence against women, the hope is that these sobering statistics will drive lasting change—and that next year’s report will tell a different story.
