Concerns over confidence in reporting violence against women and girls in West Midlands
Natalie Queiroz challenged police bosses to get ‘ahead of the curve’.
A West Midlands campaigner for victims of crimes is concerned women may not feel safe and supported to report violent offences committed against them.
A report presented to the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner’s (PCC) Accountability and Governance Board showed 51,943 recorded violence against women and girls (VAWG) related crimes in the year up to March 31 2026 – a 16.2 per cent drop compared with the same period two years ago.
But Natalie Queiroz, the PCC’s Victims Advocate, said while the figure was impressive on the surface, there needed to be a more in-depth look to see if issues such as under-reporting of crimes had resulted in the decrease.
Other data showed rape and sexual violence was on the increase, the latter of which was put down to new offences being included since the Online Safety Act 2024.
At the board meeting, Natalie challenged police bosses to get ‘ahead of the curve’ and ensure these crimes are being properly investigated.
Last month, three teenage boys were allowed to walk free from court despite being convicted of raping two girls. Natalie said this case would hit confidence in the system when it came to reporting such crimes.
VAWG offences include domestic abuse, sexual violence including rape and sexual assault, stalking and harassment, honour-based abuse including female genital mutilation, forced marriage and honour killings, exploitation and tech-enabled abuse.
Natalie said: “VAWG is made up of a number of different crimes, and the complexity has to be understood and appreciated to really understand if we are seeing a true reduction in these horrendous crimes.
“We know that recorded sexual violence has increased by 12.4 per cent – driven by what is classed as ‘other sexual offences’ including the new sexual offences under the Online Safety Act 2024.
“Online sexual abuse and harm, including image based sexual abuse, sexual extortion (known as sextortion), digital stalking, sharing of intimate images without consent, ‘deep fake’ images using people’s ‘standard’ photo and manipulating it in the most horrendous ways to present an image of exposure or sexual act which has never happened – all form part of a horrendous and deeply worrying list which continues beyond even these listed.
“I challenged the acting Chief Constable to make sure that West Midlands Police are ‘ahead of the curve’ with investigating these crimes and bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to justice, and that we are protecting victims in the most effective way we can.
“We still do not know the true extent of these crimes as we know they are still under-reported, but they are an important part of VAWG and are certainly not on the decrease.
“Additionally, we have seen a rise in recorded rape offences by 4.4 per cent compared to year ending March 24. Which is deeply concerning.
“With the increases in these significant and deeply harmful crimes, the 16.2 per cent decrease in VAWG is something we cannot take on face value as a point to celebrate, regardless of how impressive it sounds as a headline statistic.”
“I have concerns around the numbers of women feeling safe and supported to come forward to report VAWG-related crimes.
“As highlighted by a member of the force in the meeting, increases in reporting can sometimes be attributed to increased confidence in the criminal justice system to report.
“Unfortunately, as I pointed out to WMP, the flipside of that can also be true, and therefore, actually the decreases in VAWG may be driven by decreased confidence in reporting.
“In a world where we have just seen three teenage boys, who between them had 10 rape convictions following them raping two girls, walk out of court without a custodial sentence as the judge didn’t want to criminalise them – How can we expect confidence in women and girls to report VAWG offences?
“It is appalling. To secure a conviction of rape is so hard, so many cases fail, and the traumatic impact of the progress through the criminal justice alone is so significant.
“To then get to that point of conviction and that be the judicial outcome is horrendous.
“What that outcome alone has done to those two girls is huge, alongside the horrendous trauma they have gone and are continuing to go through, and my thoughts are with them.
“It has taken so much from them and their lives, and their lives will be forever altered.
“The message this outcome sends out to every victim of these crimes is also hugely significant for other victims/survivors as they could understandably question the point of reporting – which is fundamentally wrong and is not justice.”
Natalie said victims of all crimes are entitled to rights under the Victims Code and can access support services by visiting: https://www.westmidlands-pcc.gov.uk/victims/for-victims/