{"id":2034,"date":"2018-03-02T17:44:17","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T17:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/?p=2034"},"modified":"2022-03-02T13:11:05","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T13:11:05","slug":"were-there-over-29000-cases-of-domestic-violence-and-abuse-in-2016-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/factcheckni.org\/topics\/law\/were-there-over-29000-cases-of-domestic-violence-and-abuse-in-2016-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Were there over 29,000 cases of domestic violence and abuse in 2016-17?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The claim is accurate.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On 9 February 2018, Anthony Harbinson (Head of Community Safety Division, Department of Justice) said<\/a>: \u201cOver 29,000 incidents of [domestic] violence and abuse took place in our cities, towns and rural areas last year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This remark was republished in an ITV News article<\/a> that announced the joint launch of the \u2018Don\u2019t tackle it alone\u2019 campaign by The Irish Football Association, Ulster Gaelic Athletic Association, and Ulster Rugby. Their aim is to encourage more individuals to come forward and report domestic abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do the statistics tell us?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n While the term \u2018domestic violence\u2019 is used familiarly, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) use the term \u2018domestic abuse incidents and crimes\u2019, to distinguish from those domestic abuse incidents that include a chargeable offence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PSNI\u2019s statistics on domestic abuse<\/a> report that in the twelve months from October 2016 to September 2017, there were 29,404 incidents recorded with a domestic abuse motivation. Of these, 16,810 did not contain a crime (meaning no \u2018notifiable offence\u2019 occurred); the remaining 12,594 incidents contained one or more crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harbinson\u2019s claim is accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How does this compare to the rest of the UK and Ireland?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n There were a total of 1,068,020 domestic abuse-related incidents and crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales<\/a> in the year ending March 2017, with 46% recorded as domestic abuse-related crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Scotland<\/a>, from 2016-17 there were 58,810 incidents of domestic abuse recorded by the police and 47% of these incidents included the recording of at least one crime or offence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Ireland, the Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na record domestic abuse incidents without a chargeable crime as \u2018domestic abuse \u2013 no offence caused\u2019. For domestic abuse incidents that do contain a criminal offence, the Garda Inspectorate noted in a 2014 report<\/a> that these are not being recorded as a \u2018domestic crime\u2019 (and the Inspectorate recommended that they should be<\/a>). Likewise, the Inspectorate reported that 45% of domestic violence calls to Garda\u00ed were not recorded<\/a> in the organisation\u2019s Pulse computer system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This situation has been reported by The Irish Examiner, in an article published on 13 May 2017 (\u201cGardai\u2019s domestic violence stats \u2018not robust\u2019\u201d<\/a>). Since then, the Central Statistics Office has published some data \u201cunder reservation\u201d<\/a>. We deem the data for domestic violence and abuse in Ireland as unreliable, and we do not include it here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n