Over 90% of rapes and sex crimes in Hertfordshire happen to women - according to the latest figures

Statistics from the open crime database highlights just how much more vulnerable women are to these attacks.
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The suspected murder of Sarah Everard has highlighted the everyday fears a lot of women feel when going out on their own.

The JPIMedia Data Unit examined a Home Office database of crimes recorded by police forces across the two nations, to see how widespread violence against women and girls is.

In Hertfordshire 96.6 per cent of rapes happen to females. These rapes happen at a rate of 1.6 rapes every day.

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Police

The total number of rapes recorded in the county in the year to March 2020 was 593, 573 of the victims were female, 20 were men.

Women are also more likely to be the victims of sexual assaults, in Hertfordshire - 90.6 per cent of victims of sexual assault were women. On average that is 1.5 assaults every day.

The latest figures show 562 cases of sexual assault were reported involving women and 58 involving men.

Detective Chief Inspector Anna Wright, from Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Safeguarding Command, said: “Hertfordshire Constabulary takes all reports of sexual assault seriously, no matter what the surrounding circumstances are.

“We fully understand the devastating impact such an experience can have on victims and we want everyone, both male and female, to feel confident in being able to report incidents to police.

“We have specialist officers on hand to provide advice and support and will always strive to do everything we can to bring offenders to justice.

“If you have been a victim, please don’t suffer in silence.

"We are aware of some instances over the past 12 months where people have been reluctant to report information to police, for fear of reprisals around breaching lockdown restrictions.

"Please be assured that this is simply not the case. A victim of a sexual offence will always be treated as such, no matter what the circumstances.”

Nationally it is a very similar story, 6.3 times as many women are sexually assaulted than men, with women making up 86% of cases.

A woman is assaulted on average 103 times per day. When it comes to rape, female cases outnumber male cases 15 to one, with women making up 94 per cent of recorded crimes. A woman is also raped 103 times per day.

For more advice and information visit Hertfordshire Police's website.