25th July 2025
The Crown Prosecution Service released its 2024/25 data summary this week, showing that Honour Based Abuse has the lowest conviction rate of all flagged crimes in England & Wales, despite an overall increase in convictions of 3.7%.
Since January 2020, the CPS has published quarterly data tables and summaries of main trends and performance information relating to overall prosecution figures, police referrals, as well as charging rates in a range of offence types. This includes domestic abuse, rape-flagged offences, hate crime, child sexual abuse and Honour Based Abuse.
The data shows the following conviction rates:
- HBA: 48.4%
- Forced Marriage: 53%
- Domestic Abuse: 75%
Despite the severity of risk, this data also shows that nearly 1 in 2 prosecutions for Honour Based Abuse fail due to the following:
- 🔻 Victim/witness withdrawal: 24.2%
- 🔻 Evidential gaps: 22.1%
This data shows why we at Karma Nirvana are pushing for a statutory definition of Honour Based Abuse, and ‘Honour’ to be treated as an aggravating feature in criminal sentencing. This will ensure:
- Police are motivated to recognise HBA early.
- Investigations recognise the lived experiences of HBA.
- Cases stand a stronger chance of making it to and through court.
We need change, and we need it now.