A bold new strategy outlines reforms to better protect survivors, challenge perpetrators, and prevent abuse before it begins.
Domestic abuse charity, SafeLives, launches a new strategy calling for urgent, coordinated action to tackle what it describes as a UK wide epidemic.
Domestic abuse is far more common than previously recognised. Since the age of 16, approximately 10.4 million people in England and Wales, which is over one in four adults, have experienced abuse from a partner or family member. In Scotland, 16.5 percent of adults report having experienced at least one incident of partner abuse since turning 16.
Each year, over 75,000 people in the UK are at high and imminent risk of being seriously injured or killed as a result of domestic abuse.
SafeLives says the current response is too often reactive, inconsistent, and inaccessible. The new strategy calls on policymakers, funders, commissioners and practitioners to adopt a whole-system approach that prevents abuse before it begins, rather than simply responding after harm is done.
SafeLives is also urging a shift in mindset, from seeing survivors only as people in crisis, to recognising their strength, expertise and leadership in designing effective solutions.
