Domestic abuse is still underreported in England despite a recent rise in offences recorded by police, according to a report by Women’s Aid.
Despite the police recording a 60% increase in recorded incidents of domestic abuse offences in just less than three years, a recent survey of abuse survivors who use the charity’s refuges and outreach support services in England showed there continued to be low levels of women reporting domestic abuse to the police.
In its report Survival and Beyond, published on Wednesday, Women’s Aid reveals that only 28% of women using community-based services reported domestic abuse, while 43.7% who use refuges reported.
According to the report, even fewer women had seen criminal sanctions or a criminal case against the perpetrator or perpetrators of abuse – 13.2% of the community-based service users and 17% of the women resident in refuge services.
The charity says it believes the low reporting levels underline a need for continuing support of refuges alongside improvements in the criminal justice process, the latter being the subject of a new domestic abuse bill set to go out to consultation on Thursday – International Women’s Day.
Katie Ghose, the chief executive of Women’s Aid, said: “From our work with survivors, we know that it takes a lot of strength and courage for women to build up the confidence to report domestic abuse to the police.
“The police have made significant progress in transforming their response to tackling domestic abuse, but for some women the barriers to reporting to the police or proceeding with a prosecution will remain insurmountable.
“That’s why it is vital that all agencies, from healthcare to housing, make tackling domestic abuse their business.
“Our new findings show that very few women experiencing domestic abuse see any criminal justice outcomes in their cases and have limited involvement with the police, but they do access lifesaving support from specialist services.
“That’s why refuges and community-based support services are vital for survivors to be able to get the help they need, when and where they need it. These life-saving services are not an optional extra but an essential piece of the jigsaw in our response to domestic abuse.
“They not only provide survivors and their children with a safe space and vital support, but they are also often the key to survivors having the confidence to report the abuse to the police.”
The domestic abuse bill consultation, expected to be launched on Thursday, risks being overshadowed by the crisis faced by women’s refuges amid a major UK-wide funding overhaul proposed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
It plans to remove refuges and other forms of short-term supported housing from the welfare system.
This would mean vulnerable women fleeing abusive partners not being able to pay for their accommodation using housing benefit, the final guaranteed source of income available to refuges. On average, housing benefit makes up 53% of refuge funding.
Ghose added: “The government’s planned changes to the way refuges are funded threatens the future of these life-saving services. If these planned funding changes go ahead, refuges will be faced with the awful reality of either turning more women and children away or closing their doors forever.
“The landmark domestic violence and abuse bill is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make sure survivors and their children get the support they need, but the government’s plans for refuge funding risk undermining the bill’s good intentions.
“We want the government to give survivors a cast-iron guarantee that these disastrous planned changes to the way refuges are funded are off the table and that they will work with us to create a long-term and sustainable funding model so that every survivor and her child can safely escape domestic abuse.”
