Understanding the scale of domestic abuse during the pandemic

The Office for National Statistics has brought together data sources to provide the best understanding of the scale of domestic abuse, sexual offences and violence against women and girls during the pandemic.

The impact of the pandemic on survey collection has meant a data gap in understanding the sheer prevalence of these crimes. The ONS has now published its first estimates of domestic abuse and sexual assault in two years.

Figures show that 5.7% of adults aged 16 to 59 years experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2022, no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020 (6.1%).

There has been little change in the prevalence of domestic abuse in recent years, where it has remained around 6%. These numbers are noteworthy because they are the first produced which give an insight into the scale of the crime during the pandemic.

In March 2020, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) was suspended as the COVID pandemic prevented face-to-face interviewing from taking place.

It was replaced by the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) which excluded questions on domestic abuse and sexual assault because of concerns around confidentiality and respondent safeguarding.

Quality concerns

As outlined in a letter to the Office for Statistics Regulation, the Office for National Statistics have suspended the Crime Survey’s National Statistics status due to quality concerns related to a shorter data collection period and lower response rate.

In contrast to the crime survey figures outlined above, police recorded domestic abuse-related crimes have been increasing and charities saw increased demand during the pandemic.

Rather than being indicative of an increase in the number of victims, this may reflect an increase in the severity of abuse being experienced, and a lack of available coping mechanisms due to government restrictions.

New data

The self-completion section of the CSEW was traditionally only asked of respondents aged 16 to 59 years as testing showed that self-completion acceptance declined as age increased.

As a result, this data release also includes first estimates for the 16 and over population, which shows 5.0% have experienced domestic abuse in the last year.

Estimates of the prevalence of stalking has also been included. More detail will be available on domestic abuse and stalking in the ONS November release.

Sexual offences

As well as domestic abuse, the ONS also included the first sexual assault figures from the CSEW since March 2020.

They show that 2.7% of adults aged 16 to 59 years had experienced sexual assault (including attempted offences) in the year ending March 2022, no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020 (2.2%).

The prevalence of sexual assault has remained between 2% and 3% since the year ending March 2016.

In contrast, police recorded sexual offences rose by 32% in the year ending March 22 to the highest annual figure recorded in England and Wales (194,683 offences).

This included the highest recorded annual number of rape offences to date (70,330 offences). Caution is needed when interpreting these figures as they may reflect several factors including the impact of high-profile cases and campaigns on victims’ willingness to report incidents.

You can read the full Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2022 bulletin here and you can find out more about what the ONS are doing at the Centre for Crime and Justice over the coming year in their progress update.