Local ~ Sheffield

• In 2003 South Yorkshire Police recorded 7,100 confirmed domestic violence incidents in the 3 policing districts of Sheffield resulting in 594 arrests. Children were present in 5,700 of these confirmed incidents.
• In the same year there were 4 homicides relating to domestic abuse in Sheffield .
• If 1 in 10 women are living with domestic abuse at any point in time (according to national research) then 20,000 women will be experiencing abuse in Sheffield .
• In the financial year 2004-5 190 women and 237 children were housed in Sheffield refuges and 583 women and their children met the criteria but were not housed because the refuges were full. In the same year 618 women received telephone support from the residential domestic abuse projects as did 323 women from the community projects. The community domestic abuse projects also provided face-to-face support to 256 women. 110 women with their 160 children were supported in rebuilding their lives following domestic abuse through the city-wide Domestic Abuse Floating Support Service. (1)

National

• One woman is killed by her partner or ex-partner every 3 days on average in England and Wales. (2)
• 1 in 4 women have been physically assaulted by their partner or ex-partner at some time in their lives. (2)
• On average a woman will be assaulted by her partner or ex-partner 35 times before reporting it to the police. (3)
• Under 6% of rape cases reported to the police result in a conviction. (4)
• Domestic Violence costs the country about £23 billion a year, of which £3 billion falls to public services. (5)
• Women's Aid has compiled details of 29 children in 13 families who were killed between 1994 and 2004 as a result of contact (and in one case residence) arrangements in England and Wales . Ten of these children were killed in the last two years. The Government has acknowledged that with regard to five of these families contact was ordered through the court. (6)
• In 2001 a survey involving 127 refuge organisations found that contact orders are even being granted to parents convicted of offences against children and to parents whose behaviour caused children to be placed on the Child Protection Register. (7)

International

• The Council of Europe has stated that domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for women aged 16-44 and accounts for more death and ill-health than cancer and traffic accidents. (8)
• More than 60 million women are missing from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide according to an estimate by Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Laureate for Economics. China 's last census in the year 2000 revealed that the ratio of new-born girls to boys was 100:119. The biological norm is 100:103. (8)
• Recent statistics from studies by UNAIDS have shown 'girls in sub-Saharan Africa between the ages of 15 and 19 are six times more likely to be HIV positive that boys of the same age, in large part due to rape, coercion and the inability to negotiate safer sex practices. (8)
• According to the World Health Organisation, 2 million girls each year are put through the terrifying and painful experience (of Female Genital Mutilation). The operation sometimes results in excessive bleeding, infection, trauma and even death and often leads to later difficulties in intercourse and childbirth. (8)

Sources

1. 2004-5 Data Survey of Sheffield Domestic Abuse Projects
2. The 1996 British Crime Survey, Home Office, Mayhew P, Mirlees-Black C, Percy A
3. Bewley S, Friend J & Mezey G (eds) 1996, Violence Against Women, Royal College Of Gynacologists
4. Truth About Rape website, December 2005
5. Home Office figures, 2005
6. Hilary Saunders, Women's Aid, 2004
7. WA website December 2005
8. Amnesty International, It's in our hands - Stop Violence Against Women, 2004