The offence

Prosecutions under the Assault Against an Emergency Worker (AAEW) offence have grown sharply since 2018, from 348 convictions that year to more than 14,000 adult offenders sentenced in 2024. The offence now accounts for 52% of all female prosecutions for violence against the person and is the second most common indictable offence for women after shoplifting.

Women accounted for 29.7% of adult offenders sentenced for AAEW in 2024, despite making up around 15% of those accused of common assault.

In 2022, 3,578 women were convicted of AAEW, with 43% receiving a community sentence and 12% receiving a suspended sentence.

Since the offence was introduced, almost 130,000 assaults on emergency workers have been recorded. In 2025/26, the vast majority of recorded AAEW offences involved constables: 48,284 assaults were recorded against constables, compared with 4,373 against other emergency workers. Approximately 75,000 were brought to court.

The research

A Women in Prison survey of 540 women held in prison asked about their experiences of domestic abuse. These were the main findings:

• 29 per cent of respondents said that when police or emergency services were called to a domestic abuse incident, they were arrested.
• Women can find themselves criminalised for acts of self-defence, trauma responses or behaviour arising from their distress, including where perpetrators of domestic abuse make counter-allegations against them.
• Of the women who had been arrested and were now in prison, 15 per cent described their behaviour as responses to trauma and 10 per cent described their actions as self-defence.
• 13 per cent described a situation where counter claims were put against them by the perpetrator of abuse.
• In the research, women also described manipulation of the system by abusers, coercive control, and victim-blaming. Many women felt police lacked understanding of domestic abuse and misidentified victims as perpetrators.

In addition, women in mental health crisis, and neurodiverse women experiencing difficulties, are also being disproportionately drawn into the criminal justice system by this offence.

Conclusions 

Women in Prison recognise that the issue is complex and that the protection of emergency workers from violence and abuse is an important and legitimate public concern, and there must be an appropriate response when emergency workers are assaulted.

The Charity also says that this should not prevent us from asking difficult questions about the use and consequences of the AAEW offence, particularly when the person being prosecuted is herself vulnerable, has experienced domestic abuse, is experiencing a mental health crisis or trauma, or where the emergency response itself may have escalated the situation. 

It notes that the government’s own analysis acknowledges that the punitive legislation has had no deterrent effect: assaults on emergency workers have risen as sentences have increased.

Women in Prison argue that deterrence operates on the assumption of rational, premeditated decision-making. The vast majority of AAEW offences are not premeditated and occur at a time of crisis, confusion or extreme distress – precisely the conditions in which criminal sanction has the least power to influence behaviour.

Recommendations

The report makes a number of recommendations including:

• Mandatory trauma-informed, de-escalation, neurodivergence, domestic abuse and mental health crisis training for all frontline police officers. This should include a focus on how trauma responses in women with experience of abuse may manifest in interactions with police and how ethnicity, culture and religion may also have an impact. 
• A consistent vulnerability screening process should be introduced across all police forces, ensuring that any woman arrested for this offence is assessed by a liaison and diversion professional, mental health professional or domestic abuse specialist before a charging decision is made.
• The Government to act on Recommendation 6.5 of the Independent Sentencing Review and commission a study of the impact and consequences of the AAEW legislation, with particular attention to its effect on vulnerable individuals, the impact on black, racially minoritised and migrant women, the impact on deterrence and crime reduction.
• Revised CPS guidance requiring thorough and evidenced consideration of the public interest test for AAEW cases, including explicit criteria for declining to prosecute where the defendant was experiencing a domestic abuse incident, mental health crisis, was neurodivergent or was themselves a victim at the time of the incident.
• Significant expansion of diversion, out-of-court disposal and restorative justice options for AAEW cases involving people with mental health conditions, cognitive impairments, or neurodivergence, with specific pathways designed for women.