Domestic abuse prevalence and trends, England and Wales

The police recorded a total of 1,459,663 domestic abuse-related incidents and crimes1 in England and Wales in the year ending March 2021. This was an increase of 79,407 from the previous year2.

Of the total number of domestic abuse-related incidents and crimes, 613,929 (42%) were incidents not subsequently recorded as a crime3. The remaining 845,734 (58%) were recorded as domestic abuse-related crimes. This was a 6% increase from the previous year and represents 18% of all offences recorded by the police.

Some of this increase may be, in part, driven by general police improvements in offence-recording practices, as well as an increase in domestic abuse-related incidents coming to the attention of the police. The increase could also indicate an increased willingness and confidence of victims to come forward to report domestic abuse.

All offence types apart from “other offence types” saw an increase compared with the numbers published in the year ending March 2020. Violence against the person had the highest proportion of offences identified as domestic abuse-related at 38% (Figure 2). This was a 7% increase in the number of domestic abuse-related offences compared with the previous year.

The police recorded 215,173 domestic abuse-related stalking and harassment offences in the year ending March 2021, accounting for a quarter of all domestic abuse-related crimes. Of these, similar proportions of offences were identified as being domestic abuse-related within the stalking subgroup category (39%) and the malicious communication’s subgroup category (37%; Figure 3).

Following a change to the Home Office Counting rules (PDF, 1.02MB) in April 2020, offences within the stalking sub-group category increased. The change means cases where a course of conduct is reported between a victim and their former partner must be recorded as “stalking” unless the police are satisfied that the matter amounts to harassment in law only. Therefore, data for year ending March 2021 are not comparable with previous years.

Over one-third of all stalking and harassment offences recorded by the police in England and Wales were domestic abuse-related in the year ending March 2021 (36%).

There were 33,954 offences of coercive control recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2021. This is compared with 24,856 in the year ending March 2020 and 17,616 in the year ending March 2019. The rise of coercive control offences over recent years may be attributed to improvements made by the police in recognising incidents of coercive control and using the new law accordingly.

There were 362 domestic homicides recorded by the police in the three-year period between year ending March 2018 and year ending March 2020. This represents 19% of all homicides where the victim was aged 16 years and over during this period.

Of the 362 homicides, 214 (59%) were female victims who were killed by a partner or ex-partner. In contrast 33 (9%) were male victims who were killed by a partner or ex-partner. The remaining 115 (32%) were victims killed by a suspect in a family category.

Domestic abuse-related incidents cover reports where, after initial investigation, the police have concluded that no notifiable crime was committed. Incidents of domestic abuse that result in a crime being recorded by the police are included in the data on domestic abuse-related crimes. The number of domestic abuse-related incidents and crimes gives a better picture of the demand that domestic abuse puts on the police.

There may be some cases where an incident is recorded and then a crime subsequently recorded in a different time period, for example, an incident recorded on 31 March, a crime recorded on 1 April.

An example of a domestic abuse-related incident that does not amount to a crime would be two family members having a loud argument, a third party calls the police, the police attend and calm the situation down, but no notifiable crime has taken place.