Police are now responding to one family violence call every three minutes with calls for services up 47 percent on five years ago, but whether incidents are actually increasing or more are just being reported remains unclear
Police annual figures show reported family harm incidents continue to rise, with 175,573 callouts in the past year.
Two-thirds of serious assaults for the year ended June 2022 were family harm-related.
“Responding to family harm remains police’s single largest demand activity for frontline staff," the NZ Police annual report said.
“Policing services are increasingly being used to address antisocial issues, such as family harm ... and family harm calls for service are increasing at greater rates than others."
Police callouts overall were up on last year, with the report attributing the increase of not just family harm calls, but all calls, to growing trust in the system.
“Police continue to encourage reporting of family harm and considers the increase in reporting to be an example of an increase in public trust and confidence whereby victims, families and whānau trust they will receive an appropriate response and support.
"People are also calling for help prior to an escalation to violence, which is a positive trend.”
However, two things about this don’t sit quite right with Women’s Refuge chief executive Ang Jury.
The first is the use of the term family “harm” in the report, as opposed to “violence”.
“I loathe the term ... I think it sanitises what's happening and takes the focus away from the fact that it is actually violence that we're talking about.
“Family violence is a crime. The police are there to deal with crime. I'm a little disturbed by the apparent weakening of that notion of family violence as a crime.”
Second, she’s not sure about the trust and confidence argument.
“I mean, there's no way that they can actually prove one way or the other, whether that means more people calling in incidents, it's sort of a claim that people reach for when numbers go up. .. I don't know, it could be.”
She said the refuges weren’t “crazy busy” at the moment but people’s needs were becoming increasingly complex.
“There are issues that make it much harder, particularly housing, that just remains the bane of our existence, the inability to find places for women to go.
"We're also, of course, seeing the sorts of things that are mentioned in the police annual report. Things like extreme poverty, drug use, particularly methamphetamine, a real struggle around getting mental health services for our clients, and good rehab services.”
"Perpetrators of harm absolutely must be accountable and must restore the harm that they've caused, but that is not as simple as prison and we need to be really clear that prison in and of itself does not bring down further offending - it causes reoffending." - Marama Davidson.
Shine Social Services general manager Andrea McLeod said referrals did pick up in December last year but had since plateaued.
However, she said family support services more broadly were struggling to help everyone.
“What we are aware of is that many of the NGOs that support people who have experienced violence are finding it really tough to recruit and are holding vacancies.
“This results in delays in referrals being accepted or contact being made. Where there is immediate danger, agencies respond. It is the less urgent situations where there are delays.”
The data shows of the just over 175,000 family violence events, 62 percent did not involve an offence being recorded.
“This means that the criminal justice system is not always the right pathway for whānau experiencing family harm. Police is playing a critical role to connect victims, families and whānau to early crisis intervention and prevention support,” police say.
Jury thinks differently.
“The offences aren't being recorded is what I'm hearing time and time again from refuge ... We see people not being charged when there's clear evidence of an offence.
“I really don't like to critique police because I wouldn't want to do the job. But I'm frustrated. I am frustrated and we keep hearing the same sort of complaints.”
The most recent crime and victims survey found about 2.1 percent of New Zealand adults - 87,000 people - had experienced one or more offences by family members in the previous 12 months.
Almost three-quarters of offences were perpetrated by an intimate partner or ex-partner.
For every 10 offences, approximately four were physical violence, three were threats and harassment, two were sexual assaults, and one was property damage.
The data shows higher rates of harm for women, Māori, disabled people, those who did not identify as heterosexual, those not living in homes they owned and those with lower personal incomes.
The survey also found half of the perpetrators were under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.
Of all offences by family members that resulted in the victim being injured, about 86 percent involved bruises, a black eye, cuts, and/or grazes. About a quarter of injuries were caused by strangulation or other internal injuries.
The survey also noted only a third of family harm events were reported, with the most common reasons for non-reporting being because it was a private matter, was dealt with in-house, fear of retribution, shame, and not wanting to get the offender in trouble.
"I accept that there may be a place for alternative pathways but we've actually got good legislation, what we actually need to see is that legislation being applied properly before we start throwing it out... I think it’s a bit previous." - Ang Jury, Women's Refuge.
Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Minister Marama Davidson said she did believe the increasing reporting was a reflection on initiatives to improve family violence rates and build trust in the system.
“I've been really clear from the start, we need to see an increase in reporting because the majority of harm is not reported. So the increase in police reporting is following a trend that we've been seeing, showing that people are feeling more aware of putting their hand up to seek help and support.
"The only way that we're going to interrupt the intergenerational nature of violence is if there is more violence actually reported so that we can get people the help they need.”
Last year the Government launched Te Aorerekura - a 25-year national strategy to prevent family violence by fixing its root causes.
“So many women in particular have said to me, we don't want him to be taken away or put in jail, we want him to stop being violent, and we want real accountability.
“I want to be clear that real accountability is a broad term that needs to be led by survivors and victims and accountability does not necessarily equate with punitive responses.”
She said reporting and accountability needed to be done not just through police but through schools, churches and other places in communities that people trust.
“These are the sorts of things that Te Aorerekura sets in place, and commits to building up over years.
“So perpetrators of harm absolutely must be accountable and must restore the harm that they've caused, but that is not as simple as prison and we need to be really clear that prison in and of itself does not bring down further offending - it causes reoffending.
“We're building a far more effective system ... the infrastructure is in place, it's going to take time, we've given ourselves a generation to do that.”
Police also refer to Te Aorerekura in the report, adding callouts were often accompanied by wider dysfunction, including poverty and substance abuse.
“When we attend a call for service, we look holistically at what is going on within the home and work to connect the family with the appropriate services to address the wider issues underlying the harm.”
Jury said there were many wonderful initiatives, including Te Aorerekura, but she was worried the focus would shift too heavily towards preventing harm, when harm was still happening.
“I accept that there may be a place for alternative pathways but we've actually got good legislation, what we actually need to see is that legislation being applied properly, before we start throwing it out, throwing out the notions that we've been working with previously.
“We haven't done it properly. We haven't applied things properly. And now we're suddenly looking for a new way to do things. I think it’s a bit previous.”
