Law Articles

The stats on domestic abuse 15/11/2018

The figures are drawn from the most recent Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and included in a report by the Office for National Statistics which brings together statistics to enable more thorough analysis of how domestic abuse is dealt with at the local level within England and Wales.

There has been no significant change in the prevalence of domestic abuse experienced in the year ending March 2018 compared with year ending March 2017.

Women were four times as likely as men to have experienced sexual assault by a partner (including attempts). Female victims of partner abuse were more likely than male victims to experience non-physical abuse (emotional, financial) and sexual assault by rape or penetration (including attempts). Male victims of partner abuse reported a higher level of force than female victims.

There was a significant decrease in the proportion of female victims of partner abuse reporting to the police in year ending March 2018 compared with the year ending March 2015, the last time this was asked about in the survey.

The patterns for the different types of domestic abuse experienced showed that abuse was more commonly perpetrated by a partner than another family member. The year ending March 2018 CSEW showed that:

• non-sexual domestic abuse (physical, emotional and financial abuse, including threats) was the most common type of abuse (5.6%), with 4.0% of adults aged 16 to 59 years experiencing this type of abuse by a partner and 1.8% by a family member;
• for non-sexual abuse, non-physical abuse (4.1%) was more commonly suffered than threats or force (3.0%);
• domestic stalking was experienced by 1.2% of adults aged 16 to 59 years (0.9% by a partner and 0.5% by a family member); and
• domestic sexual assault was experienced by 0.3% of adults; 0.2% of adults had experienced sexual assault by a partner and 0.1% had experienced sexual assault by a family member.

For the full statistics click here.

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