From March 2024 to March 2025, one in eight women in England and Wales experienced some form of abuse¹. Countless survivors, families, charities and organisations have called for action to improve the safety of women and girls for years^2,3. Now, following years of calls for action Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) has rightly been named a national threat. A landmark cross-government strategy to tackle VAWG calls for a whole-of-society effort that engages policing, health, education, the criminal justice system, online tech platforms and beyond⁴.

VAWG is present in all layers of society, and methods of abuse are morphing as technology evolves. Forces estimate that 10% of VAWG offences occur online⁵, noting this as likely an underestimate due to recording practices. New threats, such as AI-enabled deepfakes, the misuse of seemingly innocuous smart devices, and prevalent tech like tracking-tags require a different approach. How policing -in tandem with the government and legislation-keeps pace with these threats, will determine the safety of women and girls in the years to come.

Part 1 of the Angiolini Inquiry, set up in the aftermath of the murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, a serving officer, detailed the sobering systemic sexism in forces and the failure to address harassment and sexual offences perpetrated by fellow officers. Part 2 of the Angiolini Inquiry looked at the safety of women in public spaces, highlighting the need for a systemic response to this threat.

The Inquiry’s report acknowledged that there were impressive initiatives at a local and regional level to tackle VAWG. However, it found an inconsistent response to evaluating and deploying those initiatives nationally, and a lack of focus on targeting the perpetrators of these crimes.

The Angiolini Report identified that VAWG is a systemic problem which requires a systems approach to solve, and improved mechanisms are required to convert promising local initiatives to national practice. Science and technology will play an important role in enabling policing to tackle new and emerging threats to women and girls, as well as unlocking improvements in our response to all aspects of VAWG.  This special edition highlights just some of the local and regional initiatives trialled by policing, government and partners, to help join the dots across the country.

We want women to not just feel safer, but to be safer at home, online and in public spaces, with faster routes to justice.

Operation Soteria

One research focused initiative which has been instrumental in the approach to tackling all aspects of VAWG is Operation Soteria – a transformational programme to improve policing’s response to rape and serious sexual offences.

Operation Soteria was launched in response to the low charge rates and prosecutions of police-recorded rapes between 2012/13 and 2020, and the systemic failings identified by multiple reviews such as the End-to-End Rape Review. The findings from Operation Soteria are embedded throughout this special edition.

The foundations of the programme were built on an earlier academic-police collaboration – Operation Bluestone - from Avon and Somerset Police. A team of academics then conducted deep-dive investigations across five “pathfinder” forces: Avon and Somerset; Metropolitan Police Service; Durham Constabulary; West Midlands Police and South Wales Police. The academics examined historic case files, observed live investigations, reviewed training and protocols, and undertook interviews and focus-groups with officers, support personnel and survivors.

The core findings were sobering:

• Many officers lacked specialist knowledge of sexual offending and trauma-informed victim engagement.

• Investigations disproportionately centred on testing victim credibility, with limited focus on suspect behaviour or context — reinforcing victim-blaming approaches and undermining justice outcomes.

• Resource constraints, variable training, heavy workloads and burnout undermined investigative consistency and confidence. These factors were exacerbated by complexity of cases and inconsistent force-level guidance.

The research findings from Year 1 informed the basis of a National Operating Model (NOM) which was rolled out to all forces in 2023. Since its implementation, charge rates and prosecutions have increased year on year – prosecutions for adult rape offences in Q2 2025 were 25.1% higher than the same period the previous year, and convictions have increased by 19.1%

The roll out of Operation Soteria has encountered challenges - the main being uneven implementation across forces, resource and staffing shortfalls for digital forensics and investigations, and pressures on victim-support services. Police forces are now supported by a dedicated team within the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection. This year, Government has pledged to equip officers with the capability and guidance they need to respond to VAWG using principles from Operation Soteria.