Reported domestic violence increases by 173%

Home Office figures revealed by More4 News yesterday show reported domestic violence incidents in England and Wales almost tripled last year.

There were 658,736 incidents reported to police in England and Wales, up from 241,027 in the previous year.

A Home Office spokesperson said:
We see the increase in the reporting of domestic violence as a reflection of the improvements we have made in the Criminal Justice System, through the Specialist Domestic Violence Courts, through the provision of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers and through trained criminal justice personnel. Victims of domestic violence are increasingly confident that they will be listened to and their reports effectively investigated.

"We want to see further increased reporting. This is why we have not set reduction targets for the reporting of domestic violence within the new crime reduction Public Service Agreement. Instead we are requesting that local areas improve their responses to the reporting of such offences."

Although the Home Office claim that the increase is due the more reporting of attacks, convictions of domestic violence incidents reported to the police have decreased from 11.6% for the year 2005-2006 to just 5.3% last year.