A campaigner who spent over a year on a university campus says the UK's "national emergency" of violence against women and girls is a devastating daily reality for students, with new data revealing a system that fails the vast majority of survivors.
The Grim Reality of Campus Life
Rape prevention campaigner Katie White has gathered stark testimonies during more than 12 months of research with students in Bristol. One young woman's statement laid bare the horrifying norm: "We are a house of five girls and three of us have been raped," delivered with a chilling tone of acceptance rather than shock.
The students described a world where sexual violence is a common, yet largely unaddressed, part of their first experience of adulthood. In 85 per cent of cases, the perpetrator is known to them. "It was my boyfriend's best friend. He offered to walk me home. I should have been safe," one survivor recounted. The taboo surrounding the issue creates profound shame, with one student explaining, "As a survivor you feel like you've slipped through the cracks, unnoticed."
A System Failing Survivors
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood recently labelled violence against women and girls a "national emergency," with the government unveiling a strategy to halve such offences within a decade. However, the true scale is masked by low reporting rates.
Each year, an estimated 450,000 people are raped in the UK, predominantly women. Shockingly, 60 per cent are under 24, with more victims of school age than university age. Yet, less than 15 per cent of survivors report to the police.
The journey to justice is vanishingly rare. Only about five per cent undergo a full forensic medical examination at a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC). Of the roughly 70,000 rapes reported annually in England and Wales, only about 2,200 reach trial, and a mere 0.25 per cent end in a conviction. This means 99.75 per cent of rapists avoid conviction under the current system, leading the former Victims' Commissioner to declare rape "effectively decriminalised."
A Radical Innovation: The 'Breathalyser of Rape'
Katie White, who co-founded the non-profit Enough with Tom Allchurch, argues that to meet its decade-long target, the government must adopt bold innovations outside the traditional criminal justice system. The solution she has launched in Bristol is a self-administered DNA kit.
Known on campus as "the kit that makes rapists think twice" and the "breathalyser of rape," it addresses two critical gaps. It provides a reporting option for survivors unwilling to immediately engage with police or a SARC, and it serves as a tangible threat to perpetrators who feel a sense of impunity. If a survivor later decides to report officially, the kit provides a time-stamped testimony and frozen DNA held at an accredited lab.
A trial at the University of Bristol yielded promising results. After six months, 70 per cent of students polled said the campaign and presence of the kits was preventing rape, and 86 per cent said they would report to Enough. The initiative also raised awareness of SARCs by 50 per cent among students.
Importantly, the campaign is engaging men as allies. In Bristol, as many young men collect the kits as young women. A university rugby club captain dedicated a match to survivors, stating, "It's not men v women, it's all of us against sexual violence." Enough also works with fathers, educating them on the scale of a problem many are unaware of: that rape is the biggest health risk to their daughters.
With eight and a half years left to halve violence against women and girls, campaigners insist the country must start trying radical ideas. The alternative is accepting a status quo where, for students and young women across the UK, a national emergency continues unchecked.
