Domestic violence ‘costing city £82m each year’

A charity estimates the annual cost of domestic abuse to be £30m, including £10m in lost economic output, £9m in physical and mental health costs, and a £6.5m burden on the criminal justice system.

But is also says additional human and emotional costs total £52m a year, which means the overall individual cost, when divided by the 147,000 people in Hull aged between 16 and 59, is £558 per person.

A domestic violence review, which will go before the city council’s health and wellbeing board later this month, estimates that about 25,000 victims and 18,500 children live with the scourge of domestic abuse in Hull.

But it is also thought more than 75 per cent of cases are not reported, meaning that in an average class of 30 pupils, three or four children have had their lives blighted by such abuse.

Levels of violence in the home have also not been affected by city-wide success in cutting violent crime as a whole.

The review says: “Although recorded figures show that violent crime in the city is falling, instances of domestic violence have not followed this trend.

“Domestic violence has a huge impact on many aspects of people’s lives; affecting outcomes such as health, ability to earn a living or study and, of course, personal safety.

“Sadly, on average two women a week are killed by current or former partners in England.”

Most victims in Hull are women (93 per cent) and most perpetrators are men (95 per cent).

Raw data from the police also reveals Hull has a disproportionately high level of domestic violence when compared with neighbouring communities across the Humber region.

Police in Hull receive an average of 550 calls a month relating to domestic violence.

Between April 2012 and March this year, D Division (Hull) received nearly 6,000 domestic violence calls – more than double the volumes in the East Riding, North East Lincolnshire, and North Lincolnshire.

But Vicki Paddison, strategic domestic violence services manager at Hull Council, said the city did not appear to have such a big problem when seen in a national context.

“We do know we have high levels in Hull compared to the other three areas, but it’s not massively high when compared nationally.

“Hull has 10 of the most deprived wards in the country and the demographic is very different if you compare it to the East Riding, which is very rural, whereas Hull is a city.”

The city’s main service for assisting victims is the multi-agency Domestic Abuse Partnership, which received 2,388 referrals between April 2012 and March this year – a rise of 11.2 per cent on the preceding year.

The report described the increase as a “positive trend” as the partnership welcomes referrals and wants to see them rise each year.

The review also found that services in the city provided value for money, achieving savings of between £232,250 and £1.3m depending on the model used.

A pioneering project which is having success in Hull is Strength to Change, a voluntary male perpetrator programme run by the partnership. There is an 80 per cent reduction in re-offending rates for those who complete the programme.

It has just won the Maxie Richards Award from the Centre for Social Justice, presented in London last Thursday by Victoria Cross hero Johnson Beharry.