Domestic Abuse

(asked on 20th February 2019) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether incidents of (a) adolescent-to-parent violence and abuse and (b) child-on-parent violence are recorded as domestic abuse.


Answered by
Nick Hurd Portrait
Nick Hurd
This question was answered on 25th February 2019

The Home Office collect data from police forces in England and Wales on the number of offences recorded by the police related to domestic abuse. This collection is based on the government definition of domestic violence and abuse, which is:

“any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexual orientation. The abuse can encompass, but is not limited to: psychological, physical, sexual, economic and emotional forms of abuse. Controlling behaviour is a range of acts designed to make a person subordinate and/or dependent by isolating them from sources of support, exploiting their resources and capacities for personal gain, depriving them of the means needed for independence, resistance and escape, and regulating their everyday behaviour. Coercive behaviour is an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten a person”.

Therefore, offences in which an adolescent is violent or abusive to a parent would be recorded only for those adolescents aged 16 and over.

It is not possible to separately identify incidents where an adolescent is violent or abusive to a parent within the domestic abuse data held centrally.

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