A Quantitative Investigation of the Nature and Extent of Domestic Violence Reports to One English Police Force

• In Event: WCCJ Panel 8 – Measurement and Technology in Domestic Abuse

Abstract

This study, part of the Home Office-funded Bluestone Soteria programme (OSB), quantitatively explored the characteristics of domestic violence (DV) reports (2018-2020) to an English police force. OSB analyses suggest that around 1 in 3 rapes are DV-related which demonstrates the importance of understanding DV more generally so that officers can build a better picture of the breadth and scope of offending of both sex and DV suspects. This research supports the OSB work by exploring the wider context of DV reports. It investigated types of crimes occurring in a domestic situation, crime associations with victim and suspect-level factors, and predictors of three investigation outcomes: charge, case attrition and evidential difficulties despite victims’ support in pursuing the allegations.
Most suspects were male; most victims were female. Violence against the person was the most common type of offence (62.6%), followed by stalking and harassment (20.3%). The high proportion of interpersonal DV offences suggests, in line with OSB findings, the importance of having a holistic view of offending where a suspect’s wider criminal history is considered. Similar to OSB’s findings on case outcomes, DV charge outcomes were low: 5.9% of cases. Crime outcomes depended on victim-suspect relationship type, suspect age and the number of victim allegations. Intimate partners were less likely than acquaintances to be charged.
As in OSB’s findings on sex offending specifically, the low charge rates and the variability of charge outcomes point to similar conclusions relating to DV offences: more needs to be done to protect victims from this type of offence and to keep them engaged in the investigation and prosecution process. These findings can be fed back into OSB’s learnings in terms of enabling officers to better understand the wider context of a suspect’s offending history and to consider how offending patterns can be more appropriately disrupted.

Authors

• Arianna Barbin, University of Suffolk

• Ioana Madalina Crivatu, University of Suffolk

• Ruth Spence, Middlesex University