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Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is defined by the Home Office as "any violence between current and former partners in an intimate relationship, wherever the violence occurs. The violence may include physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse". The violence can be can be within any personal relationship, i.e. between a husband and wife, between partners or perpetrated by any family member, including in-laws, uncles and aunts, cousins, grandparents or significant others, wherever and whenever the violence occurs. Some specific forms of abuse include forced marriage, honour based violence and violence related to dowry demand.

Domestic violence is chronically under reported, however research estimates it accounts for 16% of all violent crime and will affect 1 in 4 women in their lifetime.

• It has more repeat victims than any other crime (on average there will have been 35 assaults before a victim calls the police)
• On average, two women are killed every week by a current or former male partner
• One incident of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute (Source: Crime in England and Wales 2006/07 report)
• There were 48,801 incidents of domestic abuse recorded in 2006-07 in Scotland, and 87% of these cases counted of a female victim and male perpetrator
• The overwelming majority of domestic abuses case (90%) took place in the home of the victim by a partner or ex-partner
• Just under a half of these incidents (49%) were recorded as criminal offence and only the 11% of these were recorded as serious crimes. (Source: Statistical Bullettin – Criminal Justice Series - domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland, 2006-07)
• At least 750,000 children witness domestic violence every year (Department of Health, Women’s Mental Health: Into The Mainstream, 2003)
• Women with uncertain immigration status have no recourse to public funds so are not eligible for the protection provided by refuges and may be forced to stay within an abusive relationship

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