Policing Domestic Abuse during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Assessing the Prevalence and Characteristics of Incidents

Abstract

Lockdown measures in England have caused concern to both national and international organisations
due to the perceived increased risk of, and exposure to, violence in the home; dubbed the “shadow
pandemic” by the UN (Snowdon et al., 2020). In terms of prevalence, in April 2020 Refuge reported a
25% increase in calls since lockdown measures began in the UK. There was also a reported 150%
increase in visits to the UK-wide National Domestic Abuse helpline website in the first week of April
2020, compared to the last week of February 2020 (Morgan and Kelly, 2020). Furthermore, individual
forces have also reported increases in calls. For example, the Metropolitan police reported an increase
of 11.4% in calls during the 11 week period after 23 March, compared to the same period in 2019 –
mainly coming from third parties, such as neighbours (Grierson, 2020).

However, what is less clear is the impact this has had on the demand for the force to respond to
domestic abuse incidents. This is because notable work by Hohl and Johnson (2020) found no
statistically significant increase in domestic abuse crime when examining a total of 490,340 cases
across numerous police forces. Instead, they highlight that their analysis illustrates how seasonal
trends and long-term increases in domestic abuse is a more effective explanation for the slight rise in
cases following lockdown restrictions. Overall, they indicated that domestic abuse cases handled by
the police stayed relatively consistent following lockdown, but that was worrying considering the large
drop in the volume of other crimes.

This study reports overall findings that are consistent with Hohl and Johnson (2020), indicating that
DA incidents have remained consistent and DA crimes have dropped when comparing a sample of
cases during lockdown (2020) to the same timeframe from 2019. It also analysed the profile of cases
between 2019-20 and found:
- Greater use of the ‘101’ and ‘online reporting’ systems to report domestic abuse crime in
2020, with less use of ‘999 calls’ and ‘reporting to a desk at a police station’;
- An increase in ‘witness’ reports of domestic abuse in 2020, with no reports occurring from
‘ANPR’;
- An increase in the proportion of ‘medium’ risk cases in 2020, with a decrease in ‘standard’ risk
cases;
- An increase of ‘domestic abuse’ and ‘non-crime’ as recorded primary offence in 2020, with
less theft, public order and sexual offences;
- An increase in the use of ‘caution/penalty notices’ as an outcome in 2020, with a decrease in
‘NFA (public interest)’;
- In 2020 there were more ‘ASB/PVP-filed partner agency system’ and ‘charge/summonsed’ and
less ‘no prosecutions’ and ‘resolved through other means’;
- Increase of incidents in ‘South’ in 2020, with a decrease in ‘West’;
- Increase in ‘Colne’ in 2020, with a decrease in ‘Blackpool’ and ‘Fleetwood’.

Overall, the decrease in DA crime could be linked to force specific changes, such as changes to
recording practices (Home Office, 2020c; Stripe, 2020) and the piloting of numerous enhanced DA
responses. The latter explanation is somewhat supported by the fact that there were a lower than
expects counts of DA in ‘West’ (specifically in Blackpool and Fleetwood), as this is where several of the
DA pilots were taking place. As such, the overall decrease in DA crime and the lower than expected
counts of DA in West BCU could be attributed to positive effects stemming from these interventions.

Furthermore, the profile of cases suggests a more prominent low-level demand in 2020 than in 2019,
involving more non-emergency reports and a greater use of police cautions. There was an increase in
the number of medium DASH risk assessments, which perhaps reflected greater risks to victims due
to the lockdown restrictions. The restrictions could have prevented victims from escaping abusive
situations as they were ‘locked down’ with an abusive partner with no accessible travel or places of
safety. Further analysis of the qualitative DASH risk assessments during lockdown could be conducted
to confirm whether there is evidence of this in the risk assessment responses, or in the officers’
decision-making. A finding that was consistent across previous research (Hohl & Johnson, 2020; ONS,
2020c) and this report was the association of crime reporting by third party witnesses. Given that
previous research by Birdsall et al. (2020) demonstrated that witness presence and cooperation
increased charging likelihood of a suspect by 2.4 times in comparison to when they were not present,
further research could examine the outcomes of these cases to determine whether the rates of
charging following a third party report remain consistent during lockdown. Such research could
determine the proportion of witnesses who were neighbours, family member or friends of the victim,
and how their cooperation may have practically impacted upon the progression and outcomes of the
case during lockdown.