Women’s Aid respond to the Office of National Statistics’ overview of domestic abuse in England and Wales
Sarika Seshadi, Head of Research and Evaluation at Women’s Aid, said:
“Women’s Aid welcomes the publication of this year’s overview of domestic abuse in England and Wales from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). This year’s data has particular significance as the Government work toward their pledge of halving violence against women and girls (VAWG) over the next decade. With over one in four women over 16 experiencing domestic abuse in their lifetime, and at least one woman being killed by her current or former male partner a week, it is clear that urgent action towards domestic abuse needs to be taken as part of this commitment.
The data shows that domestic abuse continues to be a gendered crime. Homicide index data shows that 65.4% of the victims of domestic homicide were female for year ending March 2021 to year ending March 2023, which contrasts with non-domestic homicides where the majority of victims over the same time period were male (87.8%). Of the 231 female domestic homicide victims, the suspect was male in almost all of the cases (224).
Whilst we welcome the increase in the number of referrals of suspects of domestic abuse-related cases from the police to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the increase in the CPS domestic abuse-related charging rate, attrition remains unacceptably high in the criminal justice system. It is extremely disappointing that the percentage of prosecutions leading to a conviction decreased from 76.4% in the year ending March 2023 to 75.8% in that of March 2024. Evidence shows that specialist services are critical in support survivors with achieving successful outcomes when pursuing justice, making it essential for service provision to form a core part of the delivery of the Government’s VAWG strategy. Without this, improvements in the criminal justice system will not lead to a reduction in VAWG.
It is notable that while police recording of domestic abuse related crimes has decreased over the past year, this is likely due to changes in their recording practices. Consistency and accuracy in recording across police forces will also be critical in measuring progress of cases through the criminal justice system, and the wider Government pledge to halve VAWG.
Women’s Aid worked closely with academics and partners in the sector to develop improved questions on the experience of domestic abuse in the Crime Survey, which are currently being tested by the ONS, and we are looking forward to the update being published on the 3rd of December. The new questions have been designed to provide data not only on the prevalence of domestic abuse behaviours, including coercive control and economic abuse, but also the frequency with which they occur and the harm that they cause. The redevelopment of these questions is critical to the development of a robust measure of domestic abuse and will play an important role in measuring domestic abuse moving forward.”
The post Women’s Aid respond to the Office of National Statistics’ overview of domestic abuse in England and Wales appeared first on Women’s Aid.
