Norfolk Police say they haven’t seen the number of Domestic Abuse reports they expected
Despite a year-on-year increase, they had predicted more victims would come forward as lockdown eased.
Last updated 24th Jun 2021
The number of domestic abuse reports has been lower than expected in Norfolk. Norfolk Constabulary said they were prepared for a bigger surge as lockdown restrictions eased, but not as many came forward as expected.
Detective Superintendent Andy Coller is head of safeguarding for Norfolk constabulary:
“We haven’t seen what we expected… And I can’t really explain that.”
“There just hasn’t been the figures that have seen that really big spike. We are still seeing that steady climb though, so we are seeing more reports of domestic abuse today than we were last year and the year before.”
A report's found three in four reported cases of domestic abuse are dropped in the UK- without any charges being brought against the offender. The police watchdog says it's a 'huge concern' and also found the coronavirus pandemic is putting victims at greater risk.
The Daisy Programme is a charity based in Norfolk which supports people living with, or affected by domestic abuse. Leigh is the Programme Director:
“The statistics of those that actually reports are nothing compare to the crimes that are actually going on. That’s not to say the crimes aren’t being reported, it’s that they’re not being taken any further.”
It may seem like there’s less, but I would hazard a guess that there is as many, but they’re just not going to the same level of intervention.”
Christina is the Early help and community lead and says a survivor is assaulted 37 times before reporting it to the police:
“More often than not with the crimes that are committed, the evidence that the police require isn’t always there. It doesn’t mean that it hasn’t happened, it simply means that the CPS won’t take it any further.”
“That will put clients off wanting to report and go through that traumatic process. It’ll make them feel like they have no good protection or any justice at the end of that. “
Christina also tells us she gets a ‘mixed’ response from clients about how seriously they feel they feel their case has been taken.
“There are some that have been taken enormously seriously, have had all the support that they’ve needed…but that is very dependent on what evidence is available.”
“I really think that needs to be looked at how they substantiate the evidence in domestic abuse cases, because clearly they’re not going to that higher level of convictions.”
However Detective Superintendent Coller tells us Norfolk Constabulary did an “awful lot of work during lockdown” to try and get the message out that help is there.
“It’s something we desperately want to tackle. But it isn’t just A policing issue it’s not just about us arresting and investigating and taking people to court… we’ve got to look at the root causes.”
The police said they have seen an increase in certain other crimes since lockdown has eased.
“What we’ve seen since lockdown, is sunny weather and obviously people can get out and drink again… so we have seen general reports to the police about all kinds of crime and antisocial behaviour going up quite a lot in the last few weeks.”
The Daisy Project can be contacted on 01953 880903 or by visiting their website