Home is where the hurt is

The article ‘Home is where the hurt is’ reports on the 67 people across Northern Ireland that were killed by their partner, ex-partner or a family member, according to police records covering the last 10 years. 

This story highlights the serious issue of domestic violence in Northern Ireland while the Northern Ireland Executive continues to stall on publication of the long-awaited new Domestic and Sexual Abuse strategy.  

Along with the homicides, 28,287 incidents of domestic abuse were reported to the police during the 2014/15 financial year. This equates to 77 incidents reported every day, or three every hour.

Key findings:

• The victims of the domestic abuse crimes committed over 12 months were women, men and young children and the crimes include murder, rape, sexual assault, child abduction, kidnapping, physical assaults and criminal damage.
• Sixty-seven domestic homicides were recorded by the PSNI between 2005/06 and 2014/15. Thirty-six females and 31 males lost their lives to current or former partners or family members.
• Domestic abuse continues to take place on a daily basis with a total of 28,287 incidents reported to the police in Northern Ireland during the latest 2014/15 financial year.
• Over a quarter (28%) of the victims of domestic abuse crimes were male.

Insight from one Women’s Aid refuge was gathered as part of this story. The organisation granted access to a women’s refugee and some of the service users told of their personal experience of domestic violence. Jane, not her real name, agreed to tell her story to Detail Data using photography. The featured objects all come from her home and represent her journey from victim to survivor of abuse. To view the full article and video click here. The name and location of the women’s refugee has not been disclosed to protect the families living there.

The data for this story was sourced from the PSNI using Freedom of Information legislation. The data details the breakdown of domestic homicides in the decade between 2005/06 and 2014/15 (link) and domestic abuse incidents and crimes in 2014/15 (link).