5.5% increase in domestic abuse across Redcar & Cleveland over last year
Stats show there's been an increase between August 2022-July 2023.
Last updated 30th Oct 2023
According to new statistics given to councillors across Redcar and Cleveland, there's been a 5.5% increase in incidents of domestic abuse between August 2022 to July 2023, compared to the same period a year before.
There were 3,850 incidents of domestic abuse reported to police between August 2022 and July- 3,175 of these (82.5%) were logged as a crime with more than 36% resulting in an arrest.
Domestic abuse-related crime accounted for 18.1% of total reported crime in the borough and 1,851 domestic abuse incidents involved repeat victims with women (71%) accounting for the majority.
Richinda Taylor, CEO of the Redcar-based charity EVA Women's Aid, said: "Women seeking support have never been higher than they are now and we have been working with a 20% increase in women every year, for about the last 3 or 4 years.
"We are definitely seeing an increase. There needs to be work delivered to reduce that root cause of the issue. If there are fewer perpetrators perpetrating this behaviour, there will be fewer victims."
In 2023/24 Redcar and Cleveland will receive £322,714 in funding from the Government to act on plans to battle domestic abuse in the are with £328,893 also being allocated in for the year after.
This funding has been used to employ a strategic lead on domestic abuse, a link worker to sit within the council’s housing advice, and information team and a domestic abuse practitioner based in the multi-agency children’s hub.
Richinda Taylor went on to say, "What we need to see is that there's a reduction in offending, there's a reduction in those behaviours.
"We know that many women aren't aware that what they're experiencing is domestic abuse. We know that many women feel that what they are experiencing is not important enough to be seeking support.
"Pick up that phone, contact us through email or social media- we're always there to be able to give that support and advice."
You can find out more about EVA Women's Aid here: https://evawomensaid.org.uk/