Domestic Abuse Statistics
The following is a breakdown of statistics collected by the PSNI relating to domestic abuse and crime in general across Northern Ireland. Though statistics can be valuable in providing a snapshot in time, and are a useful tool in helping us to bring violence against women to an end, they do not always provide the full story. As domestic abuse is under-reported, police statistics do not reflect the scale of domestic abuse in Northern Ireland. Rather, the increase in figures is a reflection of increasing awareness of domestic abuse and knowledge of the help and support that is available.
According to official PSNI statistics collected since 2004/05, while overall crime has decreased in Northern Ireland, domestic abuse incidents and crimes with a domestic abuse motivation have increased.
|
11/12 |
12/13 |
Change
|
|
| Total number of domestic abuse incidents |
25,196 |
27,190 |
+7.9% |
| Total number of domestic abuse crimes |
10,387 |
11,160 |
+7.4% |
| Sanction Detection Rate |
41.1% |
34.8% |
-6.3%
|
Domestic Abuse Incidents
- The number of domestic abuse incidents reported to the PSNI has increased by 7.9% (1,994 incidents) in 2012/13 compared to the previous year.
- This is a total of 27,190 domestic abuse incidents in 2012/13.
- This means, in 2012/13, the PSNI responded to, on average, 74 domestic abuse incidents per day.
- This means a domestic abuse incident is reported every 19 minutes of every day of the year in Northern Ireland. This figure is a slight increase on 11/12 which was every 21 minutes.
Domestic Abuse Crimes
- The number of domestic abuse crimes increased by 7.4% (773 crimes) in 2012/13.
- There were a total of 11,160 domestic abuse crimes in 2012/13.
- That represents on average, approximately 1 domestic abuse crime approximately every 47 minutes in Northern Ireland. (This figure was every 51 minutes in 2011/12).
- There were 5 murders with a domestic abuse motivation recorded during 2012/13, this is higher than the number recorded in 2011/12, which was 3.
- The number of all recorded offences of murder in 2012/13 total 17. Therefore, 29% of all murders in Northern Ireland in 2012/13 had a domestic abuse motivation.
Headline Statistics:
- The number of domestic abuse incidents recorded in 2012/13 is at the highest level since the data series was first compiled in 2004/05.
- The latest figure of 27,190 is 7.9% higher than 2011/12 and is 29.7 per cent higher than the level of 20,959 recorded in 2004/05.
- Both domestic abuse incidents and crimes were higher in each quarter of 2012/13 when compared with the same quarters in 2011/12.
- The level of 11,160 domestic abuse crimes recorded in 2012/13 is the highest level recorded since these statistics started being collected in 2004/05.
- The domestic abuse sanction detection rate rose year on year from 2004/05 to a peak of 46.5% in 2010/11. The rate has since fallen and now stands at 34.8% in 2012/13.
- There were 5 murders with a domestic abuse motivation in 2012/13. This figure represents a rise in the number of murders with a domestic abuse motivation from 2011/12, when the figure was 3 murders.
Domestic abuse in context with other crime
Domestic abuse crimes (11,160) represent approximately 11% of the overall crime in Northern Ireland (100,389).
In the year 2012/13:
- There were two and a half times as many domestic abuse crimes as drug offences (11,160 as opposed to 4,378).
- There were more domestic abuse crimes (11,160) than there were burglary offences (9,581). This is the first time that domestic abuse crime numbers have been greater than number of burglaries since recording began in 2004/05.
- There were five times more domestic abuse crimes (11,160) than thefts of motor vehicles (2,138).
- There were more domestic abuse crimes (11,160) than the total of the following crimes combined (9,976):
| Sexual offences | 1,948 |
| Shoplifting | 5,890 |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 2,138 |
All data is taken from the following PSNI reports:
Police Recorded Crime in Northern Ireland: Monthly Update to 31st March 2013, bulletin and accompanying excel spreadsheet – http://www.psni.police.uk/monthly_crime_bulletin_apr-mar_12_13.pdf
Trends in Police Recorded Crime in Northern Ireland 1998/99 to 2012/13 – http://www.psni.police.uk/police_recorded_crime_in_northern_ireland_1998-99_to_2012-13.pdf
Domestic Abuse and Hate Motivation Statistics Quarterly Updates to 31 March 2013, bulletins and accompanying excel spreadsheets – http://www.psni.police.uk/quarterly_domestic_abuse_bulletin_apr-mar_12_13.pdf
Trends in Domestic Abuse Incidents and Crimes in Northern Ireland 2004/05 to 2012/13 – http://www.psni.police.uk/domestic_abuse_incidents_and_crimes_in_northern_ireland_2004-05_to_2012-13.pdf