Womens Aid 2024 reported that all refuge services in England supported an estimated 10,824 women and 12,989 children in 2022-23, and that all community-based support services supported an estimated 120,518 women and 156,673 children. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the domestic abuse related crimes between 2022 and 2023 remained broadly the same at 889,918 crimes. This is a 14.4% increase from the year ending March 2020. There are other agencies offering support to victims of sexual harassment and stalking (e.g. universities) which don’t report service engagement and wider financial abuses that are also underreported.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated that 2.1 million people aged 16 years and over (1.4 million women and 751,000 men) experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2023 and that there were 51,288 domestic abuse-related prosecutions in England and Wales for the year ending March 2023, slightly down on 2022.
What do these numbers tell us? Some argue they indicate impacted individuals are increasingly willing and confident to report domestic abuse to services that can support them but prosecutions still lag far behind reported crimes. All services recognise the surge of requests for support during the Covid period and its lasting legacy on children too. Certain current environmental factors perpetuate the ingredients for domestic abuse. The cost of living crisis adds stress to many relationships and means that people who would be better apart stay together through financial pressure and accommodation shortages. There has been a rise in misogyny, particularly online which has fuelled negativity and abuse towards women and girls in backlash against progress in the equality gains for women.
However, you look at it, more women and girls are likely to be harmed by domestic abuse than men and children are the unintended victims too. Young people thrive less when they are in homes where there are sustained tensions and conflict and their mental health is often impacted. Difficult relationships, especially those involving coercive behaviour, and dealing with home and family pressures, are also major drivers of poor mental health in women, according to a survey of psychiatrists and mental health workers in the UK. When these professionals were asked to name the top three issues contributing to poor female mental health, 59% of respondents identified violence and abuse – more than financial worries, loneliness, hormonal health or work or exam pressures.
The Centre for Mental Health reported that “experience of domestic abuse – including physical, sexual and emotional abuse and coercive control – is gendered and a significant risk factor for mental ill health’, particularly in women and girls. Women who have suffered domestic violence are more than six times more likely than other women to be treated for psychological problems. When we address the issues of domestic abuse and increase understanding of healthy relationships in schools and workplaces, when we train health workers and therapists, and ensure capacity in our services for domestic abuse support, we begin to improve the mental health outcomes of women and children.
