Domestic violence
Chapter
1
ISSUES
: Domestic Violence
Chapter 1: Domestic violence
1
Domestic violence – the facts
General
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Two women are killed every
week in England and Wales by
a current or former partner
(Office of National Statistics,
2015) – one woman killed every
three days.
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One in four women in England
and Wales will experience
domestic violence in their
lifetimes and 8% will suffer
domestic violence in any given
year (Crime Survey of England
and Wales, 2013/14).
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Globally, one in three women
will experience violence at the
hands of a male partner (State
of the World’s Fathers Report,
MenCare, 2015).
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Domestic violence has a higher
rate of repeat victimisation
than any other crime (Home
Office, July 2002).
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Every minute police in the UK
receive a domestic assistance
call – yet only 35% of domestic
violence incidents are reported
to the police (Stanko, 2000 and
Home Office, 2002).
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The 2001/02 British Crime
Survey (BCS) found that there
were an estimated 635,000
incidents of domestic violence
in England and Wales. 81%
of the victims were women
and 19% were men. Domestic
violence
incidents
also
made up nearly 22% of all
violent incidents reported by
participants in the BCS (Home
Office, July 2002).
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On average, a woman is
assaulted 35 times before her
first call to the police (Jaffe,
1982).
Children
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25% of children in the UK have
been exposed to domestic
abuse (Radford et al. NSPCC,
2011).
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In 90% of domestic violence
incidents in family households,
children were in the same or the
next room (Hughes, 1992).
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62% of children in households
where domestic violence is
happening are also directly
harmed (SafeLives, 2015).
Health
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30% of domestic violence either
starts or will intensify during
pregnancy (Department of
Health report, October 2004).
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Foetal morbidity from violence is
more prevalent than gestational
diabetes or pre-eclampsia
(Friend, 1998).
Cost to society
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In November 2009, Sylvia Walby
of the University of Leeds
estimated the total costs of
domestic violence to be £15.7
billion a year. This is broken
down as follows:
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The costs to services
(Criminal Justice System,
health, social services,
housing, civil legal) amount
to £3.8 billion per year.
•
The loss to the economy –
where women take time off
work due to injuries – is £1.9
billion per year.
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Domestic violence also leads
to pain and suffering that is
not counted in the cost of
services. The human and
emotional costs of domestic
violence amount to almost
£10 billion per year.
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The above information is reprinted
with kind permission fromRefuge.
Please visit
for further information.
© Refuge 2016
Male victims of domestic violence and partner abuse,
key facts from the ManKind Initiative
• 12.2% of men state they have been a victim of domestic abuse since they were 16.
For every three victims of domestic abuse, two will be female and one will be male.
• 4% of men and 8.2% of women were estimated to have experienced domestic abuse
in 2014/15, equivalent to an estimated 600,000 male victims and 1.3 million female
victims.
• Partner abuse (non-sexual) was the most commonly experienced type of intimate
violence among both men (2.4%) and women (5.8%) in 2014/15 closely followed by
stalking (2.4% and 4.9% respectively).
• Male victims (29%) are over twice as likely than women (12%) to not tell anyone about
the partner abuse they are suffering from. Only 10% of male victims will tell the police
(26%women), only 23%will tell a person in an official position (43%women) and only
11% (23% women) will tell a health professional.
Source: Male victims of domestic violence and partner abuse, 30 key facts,
March 2016. ManKind Initiative. For further statistics about male victims
of domestic violence, please visit
.
