Women’s Aid responds to the Office for National Statistics redevelopment of domestic abuse statistics
Sarah Davidge, Head of Membership, Research and Evaluation at Women’s Aid, comments:
This week, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), published new figures on domestic abuse. The publication included its analysis of the abuse scales as recommended by the University of Bristol and Women’s Aid, with the aim of providing a better national picture of the prevalence of domestic abuse and to better contextualise the headline prevalence measure which showed that an estimated 2.2 million women and 1.5 million men have experienced domestic abuse in the past year.
After decades of supporting and working with survivors, we are acutely aware of the challenges that are presented when it comes to measuring the prevalence of this heinous crime. We know that countless survivors will not report their experiences to the police – due to a lack of trust in policing, or feelings of shame – meaning that police data is severely limited. The Office for National Statistics collates domestic abuse data through its Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which is based on a household survey and does not depend on reporting to the police. This data comes with its own limitations and underplays the gender asymmetry that we know exists in domestic abuse.
The aim of the abuse scales released this week is to group together different types of victims that experience domestic abuse based on the abusive behaviours and their impacts. For example, the abuse scales show that women experienced significantly higher rates of domestic abuse in Clusters 2 and 3 (which indicate medium and higher numbers of abusive behaviours and impacts) than men. For partner abuse specifically, women were over three times as likely to experience higher numbers of abusive behaviours and impacts – 4.1% of women were grouped as experiencing partner abuse recorded as Cluster 3 compared to 1.3% of men.
Despite this step forward, this data breakdown still has significant limitations – for example, the scales will only apply to the experiences of abuse from the age of 16, ignoring the experiences of children and young people.
Whilst the ONS questions ask respondents whether they have experienced domestic abuse in the past year, they do not ask about the impact of this for the same period. The abuse scales instead measure the impact of abuse experienced by victims since the age of 16. It is therefore not possible to differentiate between when the abuse occurred and when these impacts were felt. This means we cannot know whether these impacts are recent, ongoing, or date back many years. We know from our work with survivors that many women experience long-term impacts from domestic abuse, including economic, along with many experiencing post-separation abuse, sometimes for a significant length of time.
Additionally, whilst the abuse scales account for the number of different abusive behaviours a victim experienced, the frequency of experiencing the same behaviour multiple times is not measured by the survey, apart from for physical abuse. The scales do not make any assessment or comparison of the severity of behaviours or impacts; however, we know that the severity of domestic abuse disproportionately impacts women. The overwhelming majority of domestic homicide victims are female (65.4% or 231 victims) and most perpetrators are male (224 out of 231; 96.97%).1
The ONS is still finalising the abuse scales methodology as part of its work to redevelop domestic abuse statistics. We urge the ONS to accept all of the recommendations made by the University of Bristol and partners including Women’s Aid, Respect and the College of Policing, and we call on the government to use the abuse scales for a more accurate and detailed measurement of the prevalence of domestic abuse. For too long, domestic abuse has been a crime that hid in plain sight, and it is only by accurately measuring it, and it’s devastating impact, that we can hope to eradicate it once and for all.”