Washington DV Press

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Some 88,139 women were arrested for violence over 12 months – nearly 250 every day. That is an increase of nearly 1,000 on a year earlier.

The number of men arrested for violence fell by 10,000.

It is the second straight year in which women were more likely to be held for crimes of violence than for any other offence. Shoplifting had previously led the list.

Violence against the person – a category which includes manslaughter, assault and grievous bodily harm – accounted for 35 per cent of all arrests of women. This compared with 30 per cent of arrests of men.

The figures were even more stark in Hampshire – 48 per cent of women arrested in the county were suspected of violence. Since 2002, the number of women arrested for violent crime has more than doubled.

Dominic Grieve, the Tory justice spokesman, said the figures were deeply disturbing.

‘That an increasing number of women are resorting to crime, including fraud, drugs and violence, is a damning indictment on this Government’s failure to get to grips with a range of social problems,’ he said.

Experts have blamed increasing levels of drunkenness among young women on Labour’s 24-hour drinking laws. There have been a string of shocking cases of vicious gang attacks by females.

Chelsea O’Mahoney was 14 when she took part in a ‘happy-slapping’ attack in which a man was beaten to death.  She filmed her friends on her mobile phone as they battered bar manager David Morley, a survivor of the Soho bombings. She then kicked his head like a football and gloated: ‘Pose for the camera.’ O’Mahoney was jailed for eight years for manslaughter in 2006.

Dr David Green, director of the Civitas think-tank, said there had been a trend among some young females to become more like men and then emulate the very worst of them.

But Police Minister David Hanson said: ‘Overall violence has fallen by 49 per cent since 1995 and we welcome the fact that with historically high numbers of police on the streets they are taking tough action against violence by arresting more criminals.

‘Women commit less than a quarter of all violent crimes, but we know it has a devastating effect on communities.

‘We are not complacent about any serious crime, which is why we have invested heavily in tackling violence of all kinds through responsive policing, tough powers, and funding for prevention projects.’