Police forces are routinely failing to investigate complaints about the circulation of image-based abuse, previously known as “revenge pornography”, according to research that has triggered a super-complaint over the way such crimes are handled.
Lawyers have gathered evidence from ۱۰۰ people who reported intimate images being shared online without their consent. Their research suggests that image-based abuse is still frequently dismissed or not recognised as criminal offending, despite being described by the former prime minister Keir Starmer as a national emergency.
Referrals to the Revenge Porn helpline, the charity that helps victims get non-consensual images removed from the internet, increased by more than ۴,۰۰۰% between ۲۰۱۵ and ۲۰۲۵, but data from ۳۹ police forces in England and Wales shows that charges were lodged against perpetrators in an average of just ۴.۵% of cases last year. In some forces the figure was lower than ۱%.
Some police officers responded inappropriately when women tried to register complaints, researchers found. One reported that the officer “almost giggled on the phone to me”, while another said the officer responded: “Boys will be boys.” Another said: “I bet you’ve learned your lesson.”
Image-based abuse overwhelmingly affects women and girls, who make up ۹۸.۹% of reported images.
Lawyers from Leigh Day and the charity the Centre for Women’s Justice are working with the charity #NotYourPorn to highlight systemic police failings in responding to image-based abuse, defined as “the taking, sharing or creating of intimate content without the survivor’s consent, or threatening to do so”.
They note that rapid innovations in AI are helping abusers find new ways to create and disseminate synthetic explicit material, sometimes known as deepfake content.
Their research classifies the policing response as “fragmented, inconsistent and incapable of meeting the scale of the threat posed by image-based abuse”. “Despite the increased public awareness, and the creation of new criminal offences designed to address this conduct, there has been no corresponding increase in charging rates, prosecutions or convictions,” the complaint says.
“The unavoidable conclusion is that the overwhelming majority of this offending goes unaddressed.”
Home Office data shows that there were only ۵۶۹ charges issued for image-based abuse in ۲۰۲۵/۲۰۲۶. The Revenge Porn Helpline received almost ۲۵,۰۰۰ reports in ۲۰۲۵.
Researchers found that the vast majority of survivors of image-based abuse did not report it to the police, noting that “embarrassment, shame and fear” contributed to their reluctance. Police outsourced the evidence-gathering process to survivors in many cases, the report notes, leaving them to work out how to collate proof that the images were being disseminated widely and how to get the content removed from the internet.
“It felt like to them it wasn’t a priority, it wasn’t even a crime,” one woman told researchers. Another said: “Police involvement has not alleviated the harm caused by this offence. Instead, it has intensified my distress and left me feeling powerless and completely unsupported as a victim.”
A police super-complaint is a mechanism introduced in ۲۰۱۸ to allow concerns to be raised about ways in which the police operate that may significantly harm the interests of the public generally, rather than focusing on an individual force of officer.
The complaint will be jointly considered by the College of Policing and the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which will decide whether to respond by opening a wider investigation.
Harriet Bland, a lawyer with the Centre for Women’s Justice, said: “Without an urgent overhaul of police guidance and training on image-based abuse – which must be regularly updated – and a clear national strategy rolled out across forces, survivors will continue to be let down.”
