Understanding Domestic Abuse
What is Domestic Abuse?
The Domestic Abuse Act 2021
Behaviour of a person is classed as domestic abuse if:
- Both persons are aged over 16 and personally connected, and the behaviour is
‘abusive’
Abusive behaviour can be classed as:
- Physical or sexual abuse
- Violent or threatening behaviour
- Controlling or coercive behaviour
- Economic abuse (affecting someone’s ability to acquire, use or maintain money,
and obtain goods or service)
- Psychological, emotional or other abuse
Terminology
Lomards and McMillan (2012)
Domestic abuse or domestic violence?
- Domestic abuse steers away from the focus on physical violence
- But does it water down the seriousness of the crime? (Aldridge, 2021)
Victims, survivors or battered?
- “victims” is more in keeping with CJS terminology
- “survivor” provides more agency in terms of dealing with their experience
- “battered” is a more popular term in the US but tends to avoided in the UK due
to the link with force
The Prevalence of Domestic Abuse
DA is on the rise, increasing by 6% from March 2020 to March 2021 to 845734 cases
recorded by police (ONS, 2021)
This makes up 18% of the crimes recorded by police
The largest monthly percentages correlated with the strictest COVID lockdowns
Almost 1 in 3 women aged 16-59 will experience DA in her lifetime (ONS, 2019)
2 women a week are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales
(ONS, 2019)
Can we Trust these Statistics?
This comes from the Office for National Statistics but excludes the Crime Survey for
England and Wales (CSEW)
During COVID the CSEW was done via telephone and therefore due to safety
concerns, questions about DA were left out
Therefore, this data relies on police and government data, and data from victim
services
So, who does this leave out?
There are always people who won’t report it due to factors such as:
- Fear of retaliation (45 percent);
- Embarrassment or shame (40 percent);
- Lack of trust or confidence in the police (30 percent);
, - The effect on children (30 percent). (HMIC, 2014)
The Criminal Justice Response
Police made 33 arrests over 100 DA related crimes in the year ending Mach 2021 –
this is the same as the previous 2 years (ONS 2021)
The CPS charging rate decreased (down to 70% from 76%)
85% of domestic abuse victims sought help at least times from professionals before
receiving effective enough help to prevent the abuse (SafeLives, 2015)
Historically police have been reluctant to intervene unless the abuse is serious, and
there has been recognition of misogynistic attitudes at both an institutional and
individual level (Myhill, 2019)
However, police training is being investigated (HMIC, 2014) and new laws are
emerging (The Domestic Abuse Act, 2021)
Victims Service Response
National Domestic Abuse Helpline – increase of 22% in calls (ONS, 2021)
Refuge has seen a cut of 80% of its funding since 2011 (Refuge, 2021)
57% of referrals in 2019-2020 were rejected due to lack of space and capacity
(Women’s Aid, 2021)
MARACs – Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences which specialists from victim
services can attend, as well as Independent Domestic Violence Advisors
Victims services are also offering support to abusers…
Refuge: I am an Abuser
Note: On the PowerPoint
The Impact on Women
This is an issue that is significantly more likely to affect women – 73% of victims of
domestic abuse-related crimes were women in the year ending March 2021 (ONS,
2021)
In the year ending March 2018, 9 times more women were killed by a partner or ex-
partner than men (ONS, 2019)
83% of high frequency victims are women (i.e. they’ve been a victim more than 10
times) (Wallby and Towers, 2018)
Victims + The Cycle of Abuse
What is Domestic Abuse?
The Domestic Abuse Act 2021
Behaviour of a person is classed as domestic abuse if:
- Both persons are aged over 16 and personally connected, and the behaviour is
‘abusive’
Abusive behaviour can be classed as:
- Physical or sexual abuse
- Violent or threatening behaviour
- Controlling or coercive behaviour
- Economic abuse (affecting someone’s ability to acquire, use or maintain money,
and obtain goods or service)
- Psychological, emotional or other abuse
Terminology
Lomards and McMillan (2012)
Domestic abuse or domestic violence?
- Domestic abuse steers away from the focus on physical violence
- But does it water down the seriousness of the crime? (Aldridge, 2021)
Victims, survivors or battered?
- “victims” is more in keeping with CJS terminology
- “survivor” provides more agency in terms of dealing with their experience
- “battered” is a more popular term in the US but tends to avoided in the UK due
to the link with force
The Prevalence of Domestic Abuse
DA is on the rise, increasing by 6% from March 2020 to March 2021 to 845734 cases
recorded by police (ONS, 2021)
This makes up 18% of the crimes recorded by police
The largest monthly percentages correlated with the strictest COVID lockdowns
Almost 1 in 3 women aged 16-59 will experience DA in her lifetime (ONS, 2019)
2 women a week are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales
(ONS, 2019)
Can we Trust these Statistics?
This comes from the Office for National Statistics but excludes the Crime Survey for
England and Wales (CSEW)
During COVID the CSEW was done via telephone and therefore due to safety
concerns, questions about DA were left out
Therefore, this data relies on police and government data, and data from victim
services
So, who does this leave out?
There are always people who won’t report it due to factors such as:
- Fear of retaliation (45 percent);
- Embarrassment or shame (40 percent);
- Lack of trust or confidence in the police (30 percent);
, - The effect on children (30 percent). (HMIC, 2014)
The Criminal Justice Response
Police made 33 arrests over 100 DA related crimes in the year ending Mach 2021 –
this is the same as the previous 2 years (ONS 2021)
The CPS charging rate decreased (down to 70% from 76%)
85% of domestic abuse victims sought help at least times from professionals before
receiving effective enough help to prevent the abuse (SafeLives, 2015)
Historically police have been reluctant to intervene unless the abuse is serious, and
there has been recognition of misogynistic attitudes at both an institutional and
individual level (Myhill, 2019)
However, police training is being investigated (HMIC, 2014) and new laws are
emerging (The Domestic Abuse Act, 2021)
Victims Service Response
National Domestic Abuse Helpline – increase of 22% in calls (ONS, 2021)
Refuge has seen a cut of 80% of its funding since 2011 (Refuge, 2021)
57% of referrals in 2019-2020 were rejected due to lack of space and capacity
(Women’s Aid, 2021)
MARACs – Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences which specialists from victim
services can attend, as well as Independent Domestic Violence Advisors
Victims services are also offering support to abusers…
Refuge: I am an Abuser
Note: On the PowerPoint
The Impact on Women
This is an issue that is significantly more likely to affect women – 73% of victims of
domestic abuse-related crimes were women in the year ending March 2021 (ONS,
2021)
In the year ending March 2018, 9 times more women were killed by a partner or ex-
partner than men (ONS, 2019)
83% of high frequency victims are women (i.e. they’ve been a victim more than 10
times) (Wallby and Towers, 2018)
Victims + The Cycle of Abuse
