Domestic violence assaults up 13.5% in New South Wales over five years

Of recorded domestic violence offences, 10% included a reference to threats of harm and 6% included a threat to kill, researchers found. Photograph: Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/Getty Images

Domestic violence assaults have risen 13.5% over the past five years, according to the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar), which also found coercive control behaviours were present in more than half of police domestic violence reports.

Using an artificial intelligence model to analyse more than half a million domestic violence police reports made from Janurary 2009 to March 2020, Bocsar researchers found 57% of domestic violence events included at least one coercive control behaviour.