More than one in five people arrested for taking part in the 2024 summer riots have since been reported to the police for domestic abuse, according to data obtained under freedom of information laws from 21 police forces covering the 27 towns and cities where disorder erupted.
Of 949 individuals arrested for violent disorder between 30 July and 7 August 2024, 21% have been reported for offences linked to intimate partner violence, including common assault, controlling and coercive behaviour, breach of domestic violence protection notices and injunctions, threats to kill, actual bodily harm and criminal damage. The figures, released by forces across England and Northern Ireland, offer the first comprehensive picture of how participation in public disorder correlates with domestic abuse allegations in the months afterwards.
Police force data
The highest proportion was recorded by Cumbria police, where 14 of the 26 people arrested – 54% – have since been reported for domestic abuse offences. Of those 26, only four have been convicted for any riot-related crime, a conviction rate of 15% against the national average of 43%.
In Hull, where 116 people were arrested, Humberside police said 33 – just under 30% – have since been reported for domestic abuse. In Rotherham, where hundreds attacked and set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers, South Yorkshire police made 171 arrests; 40 of those individuals have since been the subject of domestic abuse reports. In Bristol, Avon and Somerset police reported 12 domestic abuse reports among the 60 people arrested.
Cleveland police, covering Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, recorded 38 domestic abuse reports from 182 arrests. In the month immediately after the riots, five individuals in those two towns were reported for malicious communication, threats to destroy property and assault.
Four police forces – including Merseyside and Greater Manchester – were unable to provide data within the cost limits of the FoI requests. Merseyside police made 221 arrests in Southport and Liverpool, sites of several days of rioting.
The connection between riot participation and domestic abuse
The findings build on earlier reporting that two out of every five (41%) of those arrested for the riots had been the subject of a domestic abuse report before their involvement. In Belfast, the proportion was even higher: 23 of 48 people arrested for race hate disorder – 48% – had previously been reported to the Police Service of Northern Ireland for domestic abuse.
The nature of the subsequent allegations suggests a pattern of escalating violence. One case in particular illustrates the trajectory. Keenan Sanders, 22, was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon and criminal damage while participating in the disorder in Manchester. After his release under investigation, he subjected his partner to coercive and controlling behaviour that included attacks with a knife, strangulation, pushing her into oncoming traffic and threats to cripple her. Sentencing Sanders to 10 years in prison, the judge described his actions as “prolonged, persistent and cruel, at times bordering on sadistic”.
The overlap between public disorder and domestic abuse has drawn attention to the rhetoric used at the protests. Many participants carried placards bearing slogans such as “protect our women”. Farah Nazeer, chief executive of the charity Women’s Aid, said: “It’s worrying to think that in those same crowds were people who had themselves committed, or been accused of, domestic abuse offences.” She stressed that the most common danger for women comes from known partners, not strangers, and called for an end to myths about who perpetrates domestic abuse. “It is misogyny that underpins domestic abuse, not immigration status,” she said.
However, the charity First Light cautioned against drawing simplistic conclusions. It warned that framing domestic abuse as disproportionately associated with individuals involved in riots risks reinforcing harmful stereotypes and obscuring the broader reality that abuse is widespread across all demographics. It also noted that “reported” does not equate to guilt or conviction. Women’s Aid itself pointed out that only one in five survivors report domestic abuse to the police, meaning the true scale of offending among those arrested is likely higher than the FoI data show.
The Safe & Together Institute, which works on domestic abuse perpetrator accountability, highlighted that perpetrator behaviour does not exist in isolation and that a failure to hold abusers accountable emboldens them. Experts have noted the irony of men demanding the protection of women while allegedly perpetrating violence behind closed doors.
Government and expert responses
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking in the aftermath of the riots, said that participants could expect to be held on remand and rapidly brought before the courts. The then home secretary Yvette Cooper promised “swift justice”. The first prison sentence was handed down a week after the disorder, but the fast-tracking of cases placed severe strain on the justice system. Justice officials have since revealed that magistrates’ courts came close to being shut down as prisons struggled to accommodate those remanded in custody.
Nationally, data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council shows that 50% of those arrested have been charged. The Crown Prosecution Service disclosed that 43% have been convicted for riot-related offences – although for one police force the conviction rate was as low as 8%.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Violence against women and girls is a national emergency, and we will continue to deploy the full power of the state to bring vile perpetrators to justice, and prevent harm before it occurs.” The spokesperson pointed to the government’s violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy, which includes the rollout of new domestic abuse protection orders to help police forces identify and target the most dangerous perpetrators.
Yet the effectiveness of previous strategies has been questioned. A National Audit Office report published in January 2025 noted that the 2021 VAWG strategy was not developed based on what works and that there was a lack of learning from past approaches. The NAO also highlighted a lack of a consistent definition of VAWG and insufficient oversight of prevention spending. A newer strategy, “Freedom from Violence and Abuse”, announced in late 2025, aims to halve VAWG in a decade, but responses from frontline services have been muted, with low confidence in the system’s ability to deliver change.
The 2024 riots, the largest incidents of social unrest in the UK since 2011, were fuelled by false claims circulated on social media and by far-right groups after the mass stabbing of three young girls in Southport on 29 July. The misinformation, which falsely suggested the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker, sparked Islamophobic, racist and anti-immigrant demonstrations that turned violent. Participants attacked mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, and committed arson, looting and racist attacks. An estimated 29 separate anti-immigration protests took place across 27 towns and cities in England and Northern Ireland.
The age range of those arrested was broad, from children to people in their late 60s. Fifteen per cent of all arrests were juvenile males under 18. In Hull, the CPS prosecuted nine under-18s, and in Rotherham five. Many of those children stated their involvement was spontaneous and not driven by far-right or racist views, according to the research briefing.
