Who cares about Domestic Violence? As an industry focussed on the protection of people, security could consider what more it can do to assist organisations and charities who protect the victims of domestic violence, writes Heather Robertson, Development Manager for Attenti’s Social Impact Channel.
David Tombs, Regional Vice President – Australasia, Attenti.
Much is published about the increase in domestic violence, and the reasons – including the impact of COVID isolation. Analysed by clinical, research and academic organisations, these issues herald not only a rise in the number of incidents, but increasing severity, causes, and the consequential impact on the social services to whom victims and children turn in times of desperation.
In our role in offering justice and agencies the technology to better protect the victims and their children, Attenti is seeing increasing difficulties in two specific areas that sit behind the data, and these deserve highlighting. But first, let’s review recent statistics: • Shine tells us that every 3.5 minutes New Zealand Police attend a domestic abuse incident, and that in 2019 police investigated 172,727 domestic violence incidents. • Accelerated violence leading to homicide is equally on the increase with 50% of all homicides related to family violence, and that every 5 ½ weeks a child is killed by a family member in New Zealand. • Although we know 76% of family violence incidents in New Zealand are not reported, recent research 22
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from Australia applauds the fact that a greater number of incidents are being reported as it shows increased confidence in police and social support. Based on these, the first area that should be highlighted is the impact on those social agencies who are working with the increasing number of victims, and the severity of violence. Added to the sharp increase is the number of incidents during COVID isolation, an increase which isn’t decreasing as quickly as predicted. These statistics speak to the quality of care provided by police and social services which has increased victims’ confidence in reporting, but we need to recognise this in itself results on additional strain on their resources and on their people. The full impact of this was revealed to us recently as we have been working to assist social organisations by funding the provision of our equipment through New Zealand and Australia. Several have had to ‘put on hold’ our offer of help, which included bilateral proximity measuring equipment and panic alarms, and in recognition of the contribution of alcohol to incidents of domestic violence we included the alcohol monitoring equipment of our global partner AMS. We also included project coordinators to reduce the impact on their staff. June/July 2022
