Spike in domestic abuse reports in South Yorkshire during World Cup is ‘concerning’, says Women's Aid boss
Reports of domestic abuse to South Yorkshire Police jumped by 13% during the World Cup
Regional and national governments must make sure support services have sufficient capacity to assist survivors of domestic abuse when they reach out for help, a South Yorkshire charity boss has said.
Hollie Venn, CEO of Women’s Aid Sheffield, believes more survivors will contact the authorities if they’re confident they’ll be supported.
“It’s a lot of bravery for a survivor to make that call, so what they rightly expect is an immediate, safe response,” she said in an interview.
The charity boss’ comments come after data obtained from South Yorkshire Police revealed there was a 13 per cent hike in domestic abuse reported to the force during the five weeks England were playing in the World Cup this summer.
“Seeing those statistics is quite concerning. Any spike in domestic abuse, considering we know the numbers are already high, is quite the concern,” Ms Venn said.
Incidents of domestic abuse rise significantly across the country during international football tournaments, such as the World Cup and Euros.
These spikes peak on matchdays, but research shows that the number of incidents remain high the following day, though Ms Venn said it’s important not to “conflate” football with domestic abuse and to remember “each one of those statistics is a very live human being”.
She said: “We need to be really clear that actually whilst there’s heightened emotions, while there’s an increase in drinking, there’s more games, that actually that might exacerbate abuse but that is not the reason for domestic abuse.
The increase in reported incidents varied across South Yorkshire, with Sheffield seeing a dramatically higher spike (33 per cent) than the rest of the region.
Ms Venn said: “I think that will be to do with the size of the city compared to the other areas, but in some ways I look at it positively that survivors, victims have been able to call through to the police.
“Where the numbers are smaller, it makes me wonder did people feel that they weren’t able to call the police? Were they too frightened? Did they feel they wouldn’t get an appropriate response?
“Victims don’t need to feel ashamed. Only the perpetrators should be the ones that actually are ashamed of their behaviour. It’s really good to see that there are people coming forward to report abuse.”
Alongside its promise to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG), the Government’s VAWG strategy sets out an “important” framework for how the UK can respond to the issue, Ms Venn said.
She added that it is crucial that police, specialist services like Women’s Aid, and abuse helplines have capacity to support survivors
“All of those things work together because what we don’t want is survivors building up the courage to make a phone call and report to police and actually there not being the services underneath that to be able to respond,” she said.
“It’s about having the will and seeing this as a long-term issue that isn’t going to be resolved in just one parliament or one party’s lifetime. This requires will over a significant period of time and resources.
“All of us play a role in society around challenging domestic abuse. Being an ally to survivors, holding perpetrators accountable. We’ve all got a role.”