Dodging a national lockdown won’t stop domestic abuse victims suffering

Much of the UK is going to spend the next few months bouncing in and out of some form of lockdown to try to contain the spread of coronavirus. That doesn’t just mean that much of the country is going to struggle economically, but also that the people who were most at risk during the lockdown earlier this year are still in danger now. Domestic abuse victims are some of those who are suffering the most, and if you wanted proof that their plight isn’t getting any easier, just look at these figures from one police force.

At a meeting of the West Midlands Strategic Policing and Crime Board yesterday, Chief Constable of West Midlands Police Dave Thompson told those present that his force was now seeing considerably more domestic abuse reported than robbery and burglary combined (thanks to the BBC’s Rob Mayor who spotted the stats). He said:

‘The rise in domestic abuse that we’ve seen this year, we have seen domestic abuse rise by 35 per cent since April, which is an enormous challenge for the force to make sure we accurately assess risk, it is probably in its own right responsible for the rise in crime because of the numbers are enormous in that area, I think there is considerably more domestic abuse reported to the police than we have robbery and burglary combined, and so it is a very, very difficult area of work.