Reviewed and updated 20 August 2026 using the latest published Home Office and Forced Marriage Unit statistics.
By Aneeta Prem MBE
When a child is threatened, controlled, confined, removed from education, subjected to FGM or caused to enter a marriage before 18, the safeguarding issue is not cultural sensitivity. It is child protection.
Official agencies generally use the term “honour-based abuse”. I use dishonour abuse in my own work because there is no honour in coercion or violence. But changing the language is only useful if it helps professionals recognise the behaviour and act earlier.
What the latest police data shows
In the year ending March 2025, police in England and Wales recorded 2,949 so-called honour-based abuse-related offences. That was 7% higher than the 2,755 recorded in the previous year.
The Home Office cautions against reading that increase as a simple rise in underlying abuse. Crime-recording systems, identification, officer training and local recording practice all affect the figures. The increase was also influenced by a substantial rise in recorded offences by the Metropolitan Police following changes to its crime-recording system.
The 2,949 recorded offences included 109 FGM offences, 125 forced-marriage offences and 2,715 other offences tagged as related to so-called honour-based abuse.
Those are police-recorded offences. They are not a prevalence estimate.
What the statistics cannot tell us
Hidden abuse is difficult to count precisely.
A child may never reach the police. A victim may disclose to a teacher, doctor, social worker or charity but not make a criminal complaint. Several offences may relate to one victim. Recording practice can also vary between forces.
That means official figures are essential evidence, but they do not tell us the total number of people experiencing abuse.
The Forced Marriage Unit makes the same point about its own data: its statistics cover cases referred to the unit and do not represent the true scale of forced marriage.
What the 2025 Forced Marriage Unit figures add
In 2025, the Forced Marriage Unit received 1,295 contacts concerning a possible forced marriage and/or possible FGM. It provided tailored assistance in 406 cases; 391 related to forced marriage and 15 to FGM where the victim or potential victim was overseas.
Of those 406 tailored-assistance cases, 163 — 40% — involved victims aged 17 or under, and 75 — 18% — involved mental-capacity concerns.
The unit also warns that changes in recording practice mean the 2025 tailored-assistance figure is not directly comparable with earlier years.
That caution is important. Good advocacy does not turn a change in recording into a claim about prevalence.
Children do not have to prove coercion before the law protects them from marriage
Since 27 February 2023, it has been an offence in England and Wales to do anything intended to cause a child to marry before their eighteenth birthday, even if violence, threats or another form of coercion are not used.
That matters in safeguarding practice. A child may appear calm. They may say the family expects the marriage. They may not identify themselves as a victim. None of that removes the legal protection created by age.
Why behaviour matters more than stereotypes
Forced marriage and related abuse can affect people of different sexes, ethnicities, religions, ages and backgrounds.
Professionals should understand known patterns of risk, including family or community enforcement, overseas travel, threats linked to reputation, isolation and control. But risk assessment must remain individual.
Heritage is not evidence of abuse. Religion is not evidence of abuse. A family holiday is not evidence of abuse.
The evidence is the behaviour: coercion, threats, surveillance, restriction, preparations for a marriage, withdrawal from education, previous family history, FGM risk or other concrete safeguarding indicators.
This distinction protects children while avoiding the lazy assumption that an entire community is suspect.
Silence is not the same as safety
Children and adults experiencing family-enforced abuse may have powerful reasons not to disclose. They may fear violence, rejection, homelessness, loss of siblings, immigration consequences or retaliation against somebody they love.
Professionals therefore need to notice patterns rather than waiting for a perfect disclosure.
A change in attendance, sudden travel plans, withdrawal from friends, unusual restrictions, fear about family reaction or a sibling’s history may warrant sensitive questions and proper safeguarding consideration. None proves abuse on its own.
Why I say dishonour abuse
The official term matters because professionals need to recognise the language used in law, guidance and data. My preferred language matters for a different reason.
I say dishonour abuse because “honour” describes the perpetrator’s claimed justification, not the victim’s conduct. The child has not dishonoured anyone by wanting an education, refusing a marriage, choosing a partner or asking for help.
The responsibility belongs with the person using fear, pressure or violence.
What better safeguarding looks like
- Recognise forced marriage, FGM and family-enforced coercion as safeguarding issues, not private family disputes.
- Use current statutory guidance and the official terminology professionals will encounter.
- Ask sensitive questions without alerting family members where doing so could increase risk.
- Share information lawfully when safeguarding requires it.
- Record evidence accurately and distinguish fact from concern.
- Act on individual indicators rather than ethnicity or religion.
Final word
The latest figures tell us what has reached official systems. They do not tell us how much remains hidden.
That is why prevention cannot depend on a child finding the perfect words at the perfect moment. Safeguarding means noticing risk, asking the right questions and acting proportionately before control becomes irreversible harm.
Dishonour abuse is abuse. When the victim is a child, it is a child-protection issue.
Sources and further reading
- Home Office: so-called honour-based abuse offences, year ending March 2025
- Forced Marriage Unit statistics 2025
- GOV.UK: multi-agency forced-marriage guidance
