LONDON (Reuters) -Britain is seeing more violent threats to kill or harm young women and girls aged 16-25, with incidents of strangulation and suffocation also increasing, leading domestic abuse charity Refuge said on Wednesday.
Refuge, one of the largest specialist domestic abuse organisations in Britain, said 525 young women and girls receiving long-term support from the charity reported experiencing physical violence between April 2024 and March 2025. Around half of them were subjected to strangulation or suffocation — a 9% rise from a year earlier.
Nearly half of those reporting psychological abuse — about 615 individuals — said their perpetrator had threatened to harm them, marking a 4% increase. Additionally, 35% said they had been threatened with death.
“Domestic abuse often goes unnoticed, yet these new figures reveal the harrowing reality: many young lives are being devastated by this horrific crime,” said Refuge CEO Gemma Sherrington.
“To actively tackle domestic abuse, there must be a major societal shift towards improved education that shines a light on the many red flags of abuse.”
Refuge said many young victims were experiencing coercive control, a pattern of behaviour designed to isolate, manipulate, and intimidate.
Survivors quoted in Refuge’s report described how abuse often began with subtle controlling behaviours and escalated over time. Such behaviours can often be overlooked by authorities as markers of domestic abuse.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Britain would reassess a tool widely used by the police and domestic abuse specialist services to gauge the level of risk faced by victims following criticism that, among other issues, it downplays patterns of coercive and controlling behaviour.
Refuge has called for domestic abuse education to be more deeply embedded in schools and for the government’s upcoming strategy on violence against women and girls to strengthen support for young people.
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti and Catarina Demony; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar)
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