'Staggering' 40,000 disclosures of domestic abuse against women and children in 2023
Raped Women Who They Said Had Abused 520 300 Additional Revealed Been They Sexually Including Over An Had Been
Almost 3,350 more women suffered physical violence – from stabbings to strangulation – in 2023 compared to 2022, in record disclosures of domestic abuse to Women’s Aid.
An additional 520 women revealed they had been sexually abused - including over 300 who said they had been raped – in 2023, the charity said.
In total, Women’s Aid received more than 40,000 disclosures of abuse against women and children last year – the “highest ever” in the organisation’s 50-year history.
The charity the scale of abuse was “staggering”.
It further said that of the 2,600 women who said they were in contact with gardaí because of domestic abuse, only half said they found gardaí helpful, with the other half reporting they found gardaí unhelpful.
There was the same finding in relation to women’s experiences of the family law system.
Figures in the Women's Aid Annual Import Report 2023 reveal:
- 40,048 disclosures (of all types) last year, compared to 33,990 in 2022 – up 18%
- 21,974 disclosures of emotional abuse (20,851 in 2022) – up 5%
- 7,851 disclosures of physical abuse (4,509 in 2022) – up 74%
- 4,297 disclosures of economic abuse (2,290 in 2022) – up 88%
- 1,448 disclosures of sexual abuse (928 in 2022) – up 56%
“The number and nature of the disclosures of abuse to our frontline services is utterly appalling,” Women’s Aid ceo Sarah Benson said.
“However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. It is shocking that in our 50th year of service to women, we are still receiving record disclosures of domestic abuse.”
The report said emotional abuse can range from name calling and isolation, to threats of violence, to being forbidden to leave the home without the abuser.
Physical abuse involved assault, including cases where a hammer, golf club, hurl or gun was used. Women reported strangulation, cutting and stabbing and punching and slapping. Women have been left with broken bones, their hair pulled out and their teeth broken.
Economic abuse can include their abuser denying access to household income, pressuring the woman to giving them large sums of money and refusing to pay maintenance.
Sexual abuse includes rape and sexual assault, being spoken to, or about, in a sexually derogatory way or being forced to watch and re-enact pornography.
The report said that across the different types of abuse, there was 369 cases of abuse using digital technology and cyber stalking.
This could include sending explicit and violent images and videos, secretly recording them or threatening to share intimate images.
In relation to the almost 20,900 calls and messages to the 24hr national freephone helpline 1800 341 900, 399 people said their abuser was facing criminal proceedings, including: 130 cases of assault causing harm; 25 cases of coercive control, 12 threats to kill and 11 attempted murder.
The report also documents disclosures of abuse of children in a domestic abuse context, with a total of 4,478 disclosures (5,412 in 2022), including: 4,253 cases of emotional abuse (5,006 in 2022); 167 cases of physical abuse (315) and 58 incidents of sexual abuse (91).
The report said there were 845 cases where women said they were abused during access visits as well as 203 disclosures of children being abused.
The charity also published a separate report on 11 convictions in relation to coercive control, since the offence was introduced in 2019.
As well as physical and verbal abuse, coercive control could involve: damage to property in the home; monitoring the victim; controlling her mobile phone use; acts of humiliation; interfering with contact with family and friends; control over their daily life, including eating habits and clothes; interference with the victim’s medication or healthcare devices; physical harassment of victim’s friends or family and threats of self-harm or suicide by the perpetrator.