Ethnicity, victimisation and worry about crime

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Domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking
Findings from the British Crime Survey
Research, Development and Statistics (CRCSG)
Jonathan Allen Crime Surveys Section Strategic
Data Flows
BUILDING A SAFE, JUST AND TOLERANT SOCIETY
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THE BRITISH CRIME SURVEY

• The British Crime Survey (BCS)
• Household survey of peoples experiences and
  perceptions of crime in England and Wales
• First conducted in 1981
• Continuous since 2001
• Sample size
• Alternative to police recorded crime

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SURVEY STRUCTURE
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2001 BRITISH CRIME SURVEY

• IPV module
• (n-s domestic violence, sexual victimisation,
  stalking)
• AIMS
• most accurate estimates of extent and nature
• national level male sexual assault
• most detailed distinctions between forms of
  sexual assault
• overlaps between domestic violence, sexual
  victimisation, stalking

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2001 IPV

• DESIGN
• previous BCS studies
• disclosure and self-completion
• 16-59 year olds
• question design
• nationally-representative
• piloting

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Extent of domestic violence, sexual assault and
stalking

• Inter-personal violence is both widely dispersed
  and it is concentrated
• some experience of domestic abuse, sexual
  victimisation or stalking for 36 of people
• a minority, largely women, suffer multiple
  attacks, severe injuries, experience more than
  one form of IPV and serious disruption
• Overall, 45 of women and 26 of men aged 16-59
  could recall being subject to domestic abuse,
  sexual victimisation or stalking at least once in
  their lifetime

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Experience since age 16

• 21 - women and 10 - men experienced ns domestic
  violence (threat or force)
• 17 - women and 2 - men had been sexually
  victimised in some way
• 5 - women had suffered a serious sexual assault,
  4 had been raped
• Overall, 0.5 of men had suffered a ssa, with
  0.4 reporting rape
• 19 - women and 12 - men experienced stalking or
  harassment at some point

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Prevalence of domestic violence (non-sexual
since age 16)
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Experience in the 12 months prior to interview

• 13 - women and 9 - men had been subject to IPV
• 4 - women and 2 - men were subject to dv
• Among women subject to dv in the last year, mean
  - 20, 28 experienced one incident only. For
  men, the mean - 7, one incident - 47
• 190,000 incidents of ssa and an estimated 47,000
  female victims of rape
• 0.2 - men were subject to any form of sexual
  assault
• 8 - women and 6 - men were stalked

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The most heavily abused

• Women were the overwhelming majority of the most
  heavily abused group
• Among people subject to four or more incidents of
  dv from the perpetrator of the worst incident
  (since age 16), 89 were women.
• 32 of women had experienced dv from this person
  four or more times compared with only 11 of men
• 3.3 - women and 0.3 - men were subject to all
  3 forms of IPV (by one or more perpetrators) at
  some point

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Experience of IPV impact and meaning

• The following findings refer to
  the worst incident
• Last year dv, 46 - women sustained a minor
  physical injury, 20 moderate, 6 severe. For
  31 it resulted in mental/emotional problems.
  Among men, the figures were 41, 14 ,1 and 9
• Female ssa, for 52 - depression, attempted
  suicide - 5 and pregnancy - 4
• Among employed women who suffered dv in the last
  year, 21 took time off work and 2 lost their
  jobs. For men, 6 took time off, 2 lost jobs
• 64 - women and 94 - men subject to last year dv
  did not think it was a crime. Two-thirds of
  women who had been victimised many times did
  think it was

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Relationship of offender to victim for rape and
serious sexual assault
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Seeking help

• 31 - women and 63 - men had not told anyone
  about the worst incident of dv suffered during
  the last year
• 40 - women told no one about their worst
  experience of rape
• 25 of those women that were raped in their worst
  incident and classified it as such, told no one
• Among victims of stalking last year, 9 women
  and 17 men told no one
• In less than one in four (23 women 8 men) of
  the worst cases of dv in the last year did the
  police come to know
• In cases of sexual assault the police came to
  know in less than one in seven of the worst cases

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Developments

• The 2004/05 BCS IPV module - redesign
• Repetition of format
• Broadening of domestic violence definition
• Restrictions
• Level of detail and timing
• Analytical streamlining core victimisation
  module
• Change in nature of follow-up information, shift
  from worst incident focus
• Focus on partner abuse in last 12 months
• Comparability to 2001 prevalence information
• Piloting

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Developments conti

• First results from 2004/05 BCS
• 2005/06 core module nature of sexual assault
  follow up
• 2006/07 core module only
• Future directions

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CONTACT DETAILS

• Home Office
• 5th Floor
• Peel Building
• 2 Marsham Street
• London, UK
• E-mail bcsadhoc_at_homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
• Website www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/bcs1.html