NON-INTIMATE DOMESTIC ABUSE IN HAMPSHIRE
Pink, Fiona THE OFFICE OF THE POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER, MARCH 2019
Executive summary Hampshire Constabulary was the first police force in the country to be granted dispensation by the Director of Prosecution (DPP) to use Conditional Cautions for cases of intimate partner domestic abuse. It has recently been confirmed that Hampshire’s exemption can extend to include non-intimate (family members) domestic abuse. This research is in focus of what new interventions could be formed for eligible offenders over the age of 18, however current literature on non-intimate domestic abuse primarily relates to under 18 years. This is also the case for current interventions which are also predominantly restricted to adolescents offending against their parents.
The cases analysed for this research have been provided by Hampshire Constabulary’s Data Management Team. This totalled 267 incidents over a 12 month period, however of these 41 were out of scope due to the intimate element of the incidents. Therefore, the analysis of this research was completed from 227 non-intimate domestic abuse cases.
It was found that the most common type of non-intimate domestic abuse was committed by adults under 30 years who had offended against their parent(s). Parents offending against their children was the least common. Of all cases analysed, males committed three quarters of the offences with females accounting for over half of all victims. When breaking down the data into each relationship category, this trend is seen throughout where males committed the highest number of offences in each and females are a high volume of the victims. Of the offences committed, there was a high level of substance consumption, particularly alcohol, where the younger age groups had much higher rates of drugs/alcohol. As expected, the districts with the highest number of offences committed was Portsmouth and Southampton. Finally, a small proportion of the cases involved a person with a mental health issue. Unfortunately, the information available did not specify whether the person involved was the offender or victim.
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The type of non-intimate domestic abuse which was most prominent among the offences analysed in this research involved physical abuse. Despite this, when looking at abuse committed by adults under the age of 30 against their parents property damage was the most prominent offence.
From the data analysed, seven recommendations have been made for consideration when designing interventions for those who are eligible for a Conditional Caution after committing a non-intimate domestic abuse offence.
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1. Recommendations -
Future interventions should be designed for adults of any age to attend.
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Projects should provide offenders with strategies on how to cope with stressful situations at home.
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Conflict resolution/managing emotions should feature in any intervention.
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Any intervention needs to recognise and respond to the emotional wellbeing of offenders and be able to signpost for further support.
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Those who have a family member with a mental health issue need greater support to know how to effectively communicate with them.
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An intervention should be suitable for all relationship categories analysed through this research, while understanding the majority of referrals are likely to be males under the age of 30 who have offended against their parents.
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Any intervention should address the likelihood that alcohol/substances were a contributing factor to the offending behaviour.
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2. Introduction Hampshire Constabulary was the first police force in the country to receive dispensation from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to use Conditional Cautioning for domestic abuse in cases of intimate partner violence. Those individuals eligible for a Conditional Caution (as determined by the preconditions set down by the DPP) are referred to ‘Project CARA.’
Project CARA was the first domestic abuse policing strategy in the United Kingdom to be trialled under experimental conditions. The programme consists of small group discussion workshops for individuals who receive Conditional Cautions for first arrests for low-harm domestic abuse. The two workshops which they attend are four weeks apart. For offenders to be eligible for this intervention they must have no previous convictions or cautions for violence in the previous two years and they must be a past or present intimate partner with the victim. For the crime to be eligible for the intervention it must be either a minor assault categorised by law as common assault and battery, criminal damage, harassment, threatening behaviour, or a domestic theft related offences. Researchers at Cambridge University’s Institute of Criminology worked with Hampshire Constabulary and The Hampton Trust to conduct the study. Project CARA was a randomised control trial led by researchers to test the hypothesis that domestic abuse offenders subject to offending workshops are less likely to commit further domestic abuse offences than those who do not receive this intervention. The trial consisted of 293 eligible offenders between August 2012 and November 2015 and around half were randomly assigned to attend CARA workshops run by The Hampton Trust. The results of this trial showed that 35% fewer men reoffended against their partner. Project CARA is available for both male and female offenders. The DPP has now confirmed that Hampshire Constabulary’s dispensation can extend to non-intimate (family members) domestic abuse providing that preconditions are met. This paper provides an overview of low level non-intimate domestic abuse committed by over 18s across Hampshire Police Force area
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during a 12 month period in order to assess the types of interventions which would be best suited for those who fit the criteria. This report outlines the relationship between the victims and offenders along with relevant information which will provide an indication of who is committing non-intimate domestic abuse and what influencing factors are causing this.
The cases analysed are those which have been provided by Hampshire Constabulary’s Data Management Team. This totalled 267 incidents, however of these 41 were out of scope due to the intimate element of the incidents. Therefore, the analysis of this research was completed from 227 non-intimate domestic abuse cases.
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3. Literature review It is important to acknowledge that the literature referred to is related to young people aged under 18 years, unless stated otherwise, and the service to be commissioned will be for those over 18 years.
Child to parent abuse Cornell and Gelles, along with other researchers, suggest that adolescent to parent violence might be another pathway to adult intimate violence1. Numerous studies state that males are more prominent for violence against their parents and that mothers are most likely to be their victims2. Adfam’s research3 has found that violence and abuse from a child disproportionally occurs in a single parent household. This is often because parenting energies are eroded by the lack of partner to share the burden with, as well as circumstantial factors such as poverty, moving home, children changing schools, losing social stability and friends.
Sibling abuse There are few studies which have researched abuse between siblings and, as stated by Dr Newman, it is not often shared or spoken about4. The most common form of sibling abuse is by an older brother against a younger sister5.
Parent to child abuse There is limited research on abuse by parents towards their children aged 18 and over, however there is lots available on parent abuse towards their young children. Around one in five children have been exposed to domestic abuse within their families6 whilst a large amount of children have experienced abuse at home themselves7.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10926771.2011.537595?needAccess=true https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10926771.2011.537595?needAccess=true https://adfam.org.uk/files/docs/CPV_background_and_consultation.pdf https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/singletons/200910/the-dark-side-siblings http://www.ksacc.ca/docs/sibling_sexual_abuse.pdf?LanguageID=EN-US https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/domestic-abuse/ https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/pre-2013/child-abuse-neglect-uk-today/
Interventions across England and Wales aimed at supporting victims and offenders of non-intimate domestic abuse There are limited numbers of intervention schemes for offenders who have committed non-intimate domestic abuse, compared to interventions for intimate partner abuse. Respect8 hold an early intervention programme which targets young people up until the age of 25 years old. Their programme includes work on relationship abuse, adolescent to parent violence or abusive behaviour within the family such as sibling abuse or young parent abuse. Break 4 Change9 is an intervention which targets abuse by young people aged 10-17 years old against their parents/carers. They aim to reduce parental stress, anxiety, guilt and shame, to rebuild family relationships including between siblings, and to improve family functionality by helping to build responsibility in children and parents. Restore: Families10 is a project by Restorative Solutions CIC which supports families experiencing adolescent to parent violence in Portsmouth and Southampton. It works with those abusing their parents helping them to recognise the effects of their actions on others. Learning Links11 holds a non-violent resistance intervention which supports families experiencing child to parent violence. They support parents with children aged 5-18 years old with a model which includes the utilisation of previously difficult relationships within the wider family and fractured parent and child relationships. Stop Domestic Abuse deliver interventions developed by the ‘Who’s in Charge.’12 Who’s in Charge empowers parents as a group whose child is
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http://respect.uk.net/information-support/young-people-using-violence-and-abuse-in-closerelationships/ 9 https://yjresourcehub.uk/effective-practice/practice-examples/item/228-break-4-change.html 10 https://www.restorativesolutions.org.uk/management-services-and-consultancy/pathfinderprogrammes-and-pilots 11 http://learninglinks.co.uk/families/ 12 https://southerndas.org/get-help/group-work-for-adultsfamilies/
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being violent towards them and helps them to reduce stress and guilt. They also provide strategies to use with their children. Adfam13 currently holds seven different projects related to abuse. The key project is the ‘Child to Parent Abuse Project’ which is funded by Comic Relief where they work with adults affected by child to parent abuse perpetrated by a substance misusing child. For this project it does not matter how old the child is, they can be over 18 years old.
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https://adfam.org.uk/our-work/supporting-families/child-to-parent-abuse
4. The overall picture From the data provided for this piece of research, the incidents have been put into four categories: -
Adults under 30 years old offending against their parent (relationship 1)
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Adults 30+ years old offending against their parent (relationship 2)
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Offence committed against their sibling (relationship 3)
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Parents offending against their children (relationship 4)
These categories have been determined by the relationship between the victim and the offender in order to gain a deeper level of analysis on nonintimate domestic abuse. For the simplicity of this research, the small amount of incidents involving a grandparent and grandchild or a step-parent and stepchild have been included in relationships one, two and four. Also, incidents involving cousins have been included in relationship three. As figure 1 shows, the most prominent type of abuse is between an adult under the age of 30 offending against their parent. The category with the lowest offence rate is when a parent has abused their child. Of all 227 offences, three quarters were
Percentage of relationships 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00%
40.53% 20.26%
22.91%
16.30%
committed by males and one quarter were committed by females. Females accounted for 138 of the victims (61%) whilst males accounted for 78
Relationship 1
Relationship 2
Relationship 3
Relationship 4
(34%). For the remaining 10% the victim’s gender is unknown. This
Figure 1- The percentage of each relationship in the overall population
suggests that in the majority of cases, males are abusing their female family members.
Non-intimate domestic abuse was most likely to be committed during the month of April where there were 40 recorded incidents. This was followed by the months August and July. The month with the lowest recorded incidents was November with 6 incidents. Research shows that during the football
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World Cup domestic abuse rises. July was the month of the final rounds within the 2018 World Cup which could be an explanation as to why July has high rates. Age group
Table 1 shows that the most prominent age group to commit non-intimate domestic abuse are those aged 20 – 29 where just under half of the offenders were in this age group (42%). As the age groups get older less offences are committed. From the age of 55, all offences were committed by parents against their children with the exception of two.
Number of offenders
18 – 19
32
20 – 29
94
30 – 39
45
40 – 49
29
50 – 59
16
60 +
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Table 1 - Age groups of offenders
Number of offenders Age group
Substance consumption 60
54
40 20
11
14
Drugs
Drugs and Alcohol
0 Alcohol Alcohol
Drugs
Drugs and Alcohol
Figure 2 - What substance offenders had consumed
under substance influence
18 – 19
9
20 – 29
33
30 – 39
15
40 – 49
12
50 – 59
6
60 – 69
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Table 2 - Number of offenders under substance influence
A third of low level non-intimate domestic abuse over the 12 month period was committed whilst the offender was under the influence of a substance (35%). Figure 2 shows the breakdown of what substances are consumed by these people. In nearly a quarter of offences (22%) the offender was not under any influence of any substance type. For almost half of the incidents it was either unknown whether the offender was under any influence of alcohol or drugs or it was not stated on the data provided. As table 2 shows, there is a negative correlation between the age groups of the offenders and those who 10
were affected by alcohol or drugs. Excluding the age group 18 – 19, due to only consisting of two ages whilst the others consist of 10, the younger the age group the more likely they are to consume a substance.
Table 3 shows the prevalence of low level non-intimate domestic abuse committed by adults in each district. Portsmouth and Southampton have the highest rates across Hampshire. When comparing these statistics to the overall crime rates in Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton are also the top two where 20% of overall crime was committed in Southampton and 17% was committed in Portsmouth in the year 2018. Hart, having the lowest levels of non-intimate domestic abuse, also has the lowest levels of overall crime in Hampshire in 2018 where it accounted for 3% of all crime. Despite Southampton, Portsmouth and Hart mirroring the levels of non-intimate domestic abuse to the levels of overall crime committed in Hampshire, the remaining districts do not do this. For example, Basingstoke has the sixth highest volume of non-intimate domestic abuse, as shown in Table 3, however when looking at overall crime they have the third highest volume. District
Number of offenders
District
Number of offenders
Portsmouth
32
New Forest
14
Southampton
28
Rushmoor
13
Isle of Wight
22
Gosport
12
Eastleigh
19
Test Valley
12
Havant
17
Fareham
10
Basingstoke
16
Winchester
10
East Hampshire
15
Hart
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Table 3 - Location of incidents
The majority of offenders were recorded as having a White European ethnicity (82%). Nine incidents (4%) were recorded to be committed by someone with an Asian, Chinese or Japanese ethnicity. Finally, three were committed by someone with a black ethnicity. These statistics are similar to those when looking at all crime types committed in Hampshire. In 2018, of all crimes with the ethnicity of the offender stated, 90% of had a White European ethnicity. 11
37 of the 227 cases (16%) involved a person with a mental health issue. Unfortunately, the information available did not specify whether the person involved was the offender or victim.
The nature of half of the cases involved physical abuse. This is followed by more than a third of offences involving damage against the victim’s property. There were also incidents which involved verbal, emotional and financial abuse, theft and a breach of current order. There were three incidents where the nature of the offence is unknown. The relationship with the highest rates of physical abuse is relationship 3 followed by relationship 1.
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5. Adults under 30 years old offending against their parents Focusing on young adults abusing their parents, there were 92 incidents committed. This equates to 41%, being the largest relationship category. Of these, males committed 80%. 58 of the victims from this group were mothers (63%) and 30 were fathers (33%). For the remaining victims the gender is unknown. These statistics support what was found in the literature review which states that mothers are most likely to be victims of child to parent abuse.
Those aged 18 to 21 are most likely to abuse their parents (54 offences) with those aged 20 and 21 having the highest in the age group. Of those aged 20 and 21, almost half were affected by either alcohol, drugs or both at the time of committing the offence. When looking at the full age range for this relationship category, 37% were affected by either alcohol, drugs or both. The age group of the parents, who were abused by their children aged 18 – 29, which has the highest rates are those aged 50 – 59 where there were 41 offences against parents of these ages. This is nearly half of all the victims in this relationship category. A third of the victims in this relationship category were aged between 40 and 49.
Southampton has the largest volume of abuse by adults under the age of 30 against their parents. Almost half of all the non-intimate domestic abuse offences were committed in that district (12 offences). The Isle of Wight and Portsmouth were the two districts with the second and third largest volume. Fareham had the lowest levels of abuse by adults under 30 towards their parents followed by the New Forest and Hart.
A quarter of these cases involved a person with a mental health issue. Unfortunately, the information available does not specify whether the person involved was the offender or victim therefore no further analysis can be conducted for this or future relationship categories.
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The most common type of abuse committed by young adults against their parents is property damage which accounted for 57% of offences committed by relationship 1. This is followed by physical abuse which accounted for 34% of relationship 1 cases. Abuse also occured against their parent after the offender has had an argument or separated with their either their friend, girlfriend or boyfriend. In a number of other cases the offence has also happened after an argument with the victim. This suggests that the offenders are abusing their parents due to their emotional state at the time of the event.
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6. Adults 30+ years old offending against their parents Focusing on adults over the age of 30 abusing their parents there were 46 offences committed. Of these, males committed 70%. Mothers accounted for 72% of this relationship group’s victims whilst fathers accounted for 20%. The remaining victims the gender is unknown. The most prominent age group are those aged 30 – 39 where over half of offenders in this category were in this age group (25 offences). There is a negative correlation between the age groups and the level of incidents of nonintimate domestic abuse. As the offenders get older, the rate of abuse decreases. The age group of parents being abused which has the highest rates were those aged 50 – 59 and 70 – 79. There were 14 offences against parents in each of these age groups. Together, these age groups account for 61% of all the victims in this relationship category.
Over a third of the offences were committed whilst under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or both. In 13 incidents the offender was affected by alcohol, in two incidents the offender was affected by drugs, and in two incidents the offender was affected by alcohol and drugs. 15% of offenders in this relationship category were not under any influence of any substance type. In almost half of cases (48%) it was either unknown whether the offender was under any influence of alcohol or drugs or it was not stated on the police report. The younger the offender the more likely they are to be under the influence of a substance at the time of the offence.
The district with the largest volume of non-intimate domestic abuse committed by over 30s against their parents is Portsmouth. An anomaly compared to other relationships, and the overall picture of non-intimate domestic abuse in Hampshire during this time period, is Southampton where it has a significant lower amount of cases. Southampton is often located as one of the districts which has the highest volume of crime however this is not the case for this relationship.
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Of the data available, 15% of the cases in this relationship category involved a person with a mental health issue. Half of the incidents involved damage to the victim’s property, as seen in the previous category where adults aged under 30 abused their parents. This is also followed by physical abuse which was apparent in 15% of incidents and theft from parents in 9% of incidents. Some cases took place after the parent refused something from their child such as letting them into their home. Also, some cases took place after an argument with their parent, similar to relationship 1.
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7. Offence committed against their sibling There were 52 incidents where an individual abused their sibling in the data provided for this piece of research. A large proportion of these individuals were males (87%) which is what would be expected from the information found in the Literature Review which states this form of abuse is mainly committed by brothers. Sisters accounted for 28 of this relationship group’s victims (54%) whilst brothers accounted for 21 (40%). For the remaining victims the gender is unknown. This also supports the information found in the literature review stating that sisters are most likely to be the victim of sibling abuse. Nevertheless, research from the Literature Review found that this form of non-intimate domestic abuse is mainly committed by older brothers against their younger sisters which is not supported by the information for this study. Only 25% of offences committed in this relationship category were committed by an older brother towards their younger sister. The largest form of sibling abuse (54%) is a younger brother abusing their older sister. However, despite the difference between what is found in current literature and this data, it is important to understand that the information found in current literature is generally focused to those who are under 18 years old.
The majority of offenders were aged between 20 and 29 (26 offences). Studies have shown that nearly a million more young adults are living at home with their parents compared to two decades ago14. This could be an influencing factor as to why there are higher rates of abuse between siblings at a younger age. Due to still living at home with their siblings there is a greater opportunity to commit these acts because they are in close proximity of each other. The age group of the siblings being abused which has the highest rates are those aged 20 – 29 where there were 18 victims. This is over a third of all the victims in this relationship category.
Statistics show that over one quarter of these offences were recorded to be committed whilst under the influence of a substance. Nine were under the influence of alcohol, two were under the influence of drugs, and four were 14
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/08/million-more-young-adults-live-parents-uk-housing
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under the influence of drugs and alcohol. 27% were not affected by any substance. However, in almost half of the incidents (44%) it is either unknown or not stated as to whether the perpetrator was affected by the use of a substance. Like other relationship categories, the younger age groups are more likely to be under the influence of a substance.
Southampton had the highest rates of abuse between siblings. Portsmouth is also in the highest three districts which is common between all the relationship categories, along with Eastleigh.
Of the data available, 19% of this relationship category involved a person with a mental health issue.
Nearly three quarters of the incidents which took place (73%) between siblings were physical abuse, mainly pushing or hitting. Due to the information provided, a detailed analysis of the nature of the events is not possible. However a number of abuse between siblings has occurred whilst they are at conflict with one another.
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8. Parents offending against their children There were 37 incidents of non-intimate domestic abuse where parents were abusing their children. This equates to 16% of all non-intimate domestic abuse incidents. Just over half of the offences (54%) were committed by males. Daughters accounted for 19 of this relationship group’s victims (51%) whilst sons accounted for 16 (43%). For the remaining victims the gender is unknown. Those aged 40 – 49 are most likely to abuse their children (12 offences). Of this group, a third of them (35%) were recorded to be affected by a substance at the time of the offence. In the other categories the younger age groups are more likely to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. However, for this relationship category, those aged 30 – 39 do not have the highest rates of being affected by a substance. The age group 40 – 49 have the highest rates. This is followed by the age group 50 – 59.
The age group of children being abused which had the highest rates are those aged 20 – 29 where there were 13 offences committed. This is over a third of all the victims in this relationship category. A quarter of the victims in this relationship category were aged under 18. There was victims aged 18 – 19, 30 – 39, 41,46, 51 and 55.
Portsmouth, like in the other categories, is in the three districts with the highest volume of offences. The New Forest has the second largest volume of this type of crime in Hampshire. This is unusual when comparing against the other relationship categories where the New Forest is placed between the midpoint and the bottom of table. This is the only category where there are districts with no offences taking place (Winchester and Rushmoor).
Of the data available, 5% of this relationship category involved a person with a mental health issue.
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The majority of offenders in this category physically abused their children (84%). The threat of violence, typically with a weapon, was also seen among four of the incidents. A third of these offences were committed whilst the offender and the victim were at conflict with one another.
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9. Conclusion and recommendations It is clear that from the current literature available there are limited interventions available for perpetrators of non-intimate domestic abuse. The interventions currently available are predominantly restricted to adolescents (under 18) offending against their parents. The literature provides evidence that interventions are predominantly projects which work with families to rebuild relationships and to help manage stress. In these projects it was also demonstrated that a lot of the work was with the victims rather than the perpetrators. For example, Stop Domestic Abuse works with parents who are victims of abuse from their children. It works to empower the parents and provides them with strategies to use with their children.
The analysis of the data provided for this research shows that child to parent abuse with property damage was the most common form of abuse. As stated in the analysis, a large volume of these offences were committed following conflict arising between the child and parents. From this it could be recommended that these offenders undertake a conflict resolution/managing emotions intervention. This could help them to deal with their anger and frustrations and learn how to manage stressful situations at home, in order to avoid responding to conflict by committing harm against another person. This would go for any type of relationship, not solely child to parent abuse. It should also be understood that this may not be an isolated incident and the offender may also have been the victim.
Taking into account that a proportion of the offences involved an individual with a mental health issue, it should be recognised that offenders referred by Hampshire Constabulary, may need greater support that cannot be addressed through an out-of-court intervention. Any intervention should consider the emotional wellbeing of the offender and be able to make onward referrals for support in the event of any disclosures.
The data from this research shows that a large number of offences were committed whilst under the influence of a substance. The breakdown of these
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substance users shows that the offenders were mostly likely to consume alcohol prior to committing the offence. Any intervention should consider and potentially address the link between the offence and substance misuse and be able to make onward referrals for specialist support if it is needed.
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