March 2017-March 2018
Last year an estimated 1.3million women suffered domestic abuse at the hands of another person.
The police recorded just 599,549 of domestic abuse related crimes and although this is a huge 23% increase to the previous year, so many victims are still suffering in silence.
Out of these reported crimes, only 225,714 arrests where made for domestic abuse related offences, unfortunately this is just 38% of perpetrators.
On average 2 women are killed by their partner or ex-partner every week in England and Wales.
130,000 children live in homes where there is high-risk domestic abuse
The Government defines domestic violence as:
“Any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality.”
This includes issues of concern to black and minority ethnic (BME) communities such as so called ‘honour-based violence’, female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage.
An adult is defined as any person aged 18 years or over. Family members are defined as mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, and grandparents, whether directly related, in laws or stepfamily.
Domestic Violence (abuse) is the physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and/or economic abuse of one person by another who is in, or has been in, a relationship with them. The relationship may be between partners, ex-partners or other family members.
Domestic abuse occurs across society, regardless of age, gender, race, sexuality, wealth, and geography. The figures show, however, that it consists mainly of violence by men against women. Children are also affected, both directly and indirectly and there is also a strong correlation between domestic violence and child abuse suggesting overlap rates of between 40-60%. This is not to deny the existence of violence toward men or that women abuse. It is acknowledged that domestic violence (abuse) occurs between same sex partners.
Certain groups face additional barriers and discrimination when trying to access services.