Every day, headlines bring the devastating scale of violence against women and girls (VAWG) into sharp focus.

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While this visibility is crucial to raising awareness and holding perpetrators to account, a side effect of the relentless cycle of reporting on horrific cases of abuse is the risk that such violence becomes normalised and increasingly seen as inevitable.

Every news story represents not just a survivor, whose life and wellbeing have been profoundly affected by violence and abuse – but an underlying culture of misogyny.

Time and time again we see how perpetrators are allowed to evade proper accountability, while survivors face sometimes insurmountable barriers to accessing justice. We owe it to all survivors to ensure that their voices and experiences are not lost amid the constant cycle of news coverage. Instead, their bravely shared testimonies must be an impetus for meaningful change.

As the UK’s largest specialist domestic abuse charity, Refuge sees the impact of VAWG day in and day out. We also know that survivors are up to three times more likely to develop mental illness than women who do not experience domestic abuse. Between 2025 and 2026, 35% of adults came to Refuge having experienced mental difficulties. The constant stream of VAWG-related news, which so often........

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