The number of sexual offences have jumped 50% in the past two years.
According to the British Transport Police Authority, violence crimes against women and girls on the transport network have risen by 20% in the past year, and 50% in the past two years.
Sexual offences alone have increased by 10%, while reports of sexual harassment have more than doubled to 1,908 incidents.
The rise in these cases is alarming but not entirely surprising. The daily commute, especially during peak hours, places women in close proximity to strangers in confined spaces – conditions that can enable predatory behaviour.
Crowd anonymity, combined with a lack of immediate repercussions for offenders, creates an environment where these acts can occur with frightening regularity.
The number of crimes against women and girls rose from 7,561 in 2021 to 11,357 in 2023, while the number of sexual offences rose 10% from 2,235 to 2,475.
But for many individuals, these statistics are just a reminder of the wider threats that women face and the lack of structural measures taken to protect them.
Anna Birley, co-founder of Reclaim These Streets, the same organisation which organised the London vigil for Sarah Everard after she was murdered in 2020, said that the report by the British Transport Police is ‘just a reminder of the fact that we’ve got this issue of violence against women and girls that isn’t going away’.
A spokesperson for Charity Refuge also suggested the figures were evidence of a much more insidious problem.
‘Many women and girls are not able to report crimes committed against them because of the many barriers preventing them from doing so such as fear of not being believed and repercussions from their abuser, and a lack of faith in the system.’
The End Violence Against Women Coalition also said that the figures were the result of women not feeling safe and supported enough to report these kinds of crimes.
Executive Director Andrea Simon told reports that ‘for most women and girls, we have experienced incidents of sexual harassment and other types of non-contact sexual offended on the transport network for a very long time. It isn’t new to many women and girls.’
These comments highlight the widespread normalisation of womens’ experiences on public transport – and within society more widely.
Too often, women who are harassed or assaulted on trains face disbelief or minimization when they report these incidents.
The pervasive culture of silence only exacerbates the problem. It’s a vicious cycle: underreporting leads to a lack of awareness, which in turn allows these crimes to continue unchecked.
A sudden rise in reported violence against women on UK trains is likely due to a number of converging factors. The pandemic saw a decrease in the number of people using public transport, a number which has now spiked in the years since.
With the return of crowds, the opportunities for such crimes have increased. There’s also the broader context of gender-based violence in the UK, which has been the subject of much public debate and protest in recent years.
The murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa have sparked nationwide conversations about women’s safety, but these horrific incidents are just the tip of the iceberg. The rise in reported cases on trains is a reflection of a society that is still grappling with deep-seated issues of misogyny and violence.
Technology, too, plays a role—both as a tool for accountability and as a double-edged sword. The rise of social media has made it easier for women to share their stories, raising awareness and encouraging others to come forward.
But technology has also facilitated new forms of harassment, from unsolicited messages to covert recording. While empowering in many ways, the digital space has also expanded the avenues through which women can be targeted.
British Transport Police say the sexual offenses recorded in their most recent report include rape, indecent exposure, and upskirting.
They have described sexual harassment as ‘behaviour of a sexual nature which violates your dignity; makes you feel intimidated, degraded or humiliated; and creates a hostile or offensive environment.’
Last month, home secretary Yvette Cooper said ‘For far too long, violence against women and girls has been treated as an inevitability, rather than the national emergency that it is. Our mission is for the whole country to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. That has to start with drastically improving the policing and criminal justice response’.
But of course, this is not just about policing or technology – it’s about challenging the normalisation of misogyny and creating a culture that genuinely values and protects women’s rights to move freely and safely in public spaces.
The responsibility lies with all of us, from commuters to policymakers, to ensure that the next set of statistics tells a different story.
I’m Flo, (She/Her) a Senior Remote Writer at Thred. I recently completed a Masters in Visual Anthropology, and seek to interrogate the ways digital spaces can amplify marginalised voices in the arts and cultural sectors. Follow me on LinkedIn or ping me some feedback via email.
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