Women’s Aid’s Annual Impact Report 2023 details 40,048 disclosures of domestic abuse against women and children, during 28,638 contacts with its national and regional support services last year.
The new reports reveals an 18% increase in disclosures of domestic abuse compared to previous year and the highest ever received by the organisation in its 50-year history.
Abuse towards women included emotional abuse, physical violence, sexual abuse, and economic control, many combining to constitute coercive control, with an alarming increase in both physical violence (up 74%) and economic abuse (up 87%) compared to the previous year.
Also released today is a new Insights Report into 11 publicly reported cases of coercive control convictions through the courts reveals the devastating scale and harm of this offence and raises questions about maximum sentencing for this offence.
Last year, women told Women's Aid that their partners or ex-partners were subjecting them to a broad and brutal pattern of abuse.
Women reported assaults with weapons, constant surveillance, and monitoring, relentless put downs and humiliations, the taking and sharing of intimate images online, complete control over all family finances, sexual assault, rape and being threatened with theirs or their children’s lives.
In a statement released by the organistation, they say the impacts on these women were chilling and ranged from exhaustion, isolation, and hopelessness to serious injury, suffering miscarriages, poverty, feeling a loss of identity and suicide ideation, hypervigilance, and homelessness.
Sarah Benson, CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Women's Aid says: “The number and nature of the disclosures of abuse to our frontline services is utterly appalling. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. One in four women in Ireland is subjected to domestic abuse and there are also so many children, families and whole communities also impacted.
"Fear, stigma, and self-blame due to the impact of the abuse – but also persisting social attitudes to domestic violence prevent victims from coming forward. So many victims-survivors lack the information or confidence to contact specialist services, and about one third will suffer in total isolation, telling nobody what is happening to them.
"We still have so much work to do to break this silence to encourage those in need to get the support they deserve. What we hear in our national and regional services is replicated across Ireland in local domestic abuse refuges and organisations.”
Ms. Benson continues: “It is shocking that in our 50th year of service to women, we are still receiving record disclosures of domestic abuse. Especially as we noticed the rise in physical and economic abuse over the past year. Behind our harrowing statistics there are strong, resilient women who have taken a courageous step to share their story to our frontline services.
"We know that so many more women suffer alone, in silence and without specialist support. Most of the women contacting the Women’s Aid National Freephone Helpline and regional face-to-face services disclosed that they were being subjected to and threatened with multiple forms of abuse at the same time, which constitutes coercive control by a current or former male intimate partner.
"Coercive control is a persistent pattern of controlling, coercive and threatening behaviour including all or some forms of domestic abuse (emotional, physical, economic, sexual including threats) with the most devastating outcome being the loss of life.”
Support Information
- Women’s Aid 24-hour National Freephone helpline 1800 341 900 www.womensaid.ie
- National Male Advice Line 1800 816 588 https://mensnetwork.ie/mal/
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