Friday 1 April 2011

2010 Family violence statistics – “good news but a long way to go”

Recorded family violence is still going up, but the rate at which it is increasing is slowing down the latest police crime statistics show - news that has been welcomed by the Families Commission.

Police statistics for the 2010 calendar year released today show that recorded family violence assaults increased by 1.2 per cent.

“Any increase in recorded family violence might seem to be bad news,” says Chief Families Commissioner Carl Davidson . “But what we know is that these offences tend to be significantly under reported. In recent years we have seen a very effective focus on family violence through such campaigns as It’s Not OK and White Ribbon; a huge increase in anti-violence action by many organisations throughout the country; and improved police procedures for dealing with and recording family violence. This has resulted in reported family violence offences going up, and we’ve welcomed that as evidence that not only are the campaigns working, but that public tolerance of family violence has decreased.”

Mr Davidson says that the latest statistics add a new dimension to that overall good news.

“While reported family violence continues to increase, the actual rate of increase is slowing down. Police statistics show that in the 2007/08 fiscal year, family violence offences went up by 28.1 per cent, in 2008/09 they went up by 13.1 per cent, and in 2009/10 by 8.5 per cent. The statistics released today indicate that slowing down is continuing.

The police statistics paint a similar picture to those contained in the New Zealand Crime and Safety Survey released by the Ministry of Justice in December 2010. This survey showed there had been a substantial drop in the incidence of confrontational offences by partners from 22 crimes per 100 adults in 2005, to 14 per 100 in 2008.

“Couple the Ministry of Justice’s research with today’s statistics and we are starting to see some evidence that not only are people more willing to report partner violence, the actual incidence of it is going down” Mr Davidson says.

However, with 25 of the 72 homicide victims in New Zealand in 2010 a result of family violence, Mr Davidson says now is not the time for anti-violence campaigners to sit back and say “job well done.”

“One murder, one assault, one abuse of a child is too much. As a society we must protect our families by continuing to take an active stand against family violence in any form and wherever it occurs.

“Now that we have some evidence that these campaigns are contributing to an actual downturn in the incidence of partner violence, we have to reaffirm our commitment, step up our efforts and do even more so the momentum for family wellbeing is not lost.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media