Reported family harm incidents in Southland are on the rise, figures show, and a women’s refuge boss says a major cause is methamphetamine use in households. Police figures provided to Stuff show officers attended and investigated 2255 family harm episodes in Southland in 2020 - the most of any year in the past decade. The second highest number of family harm episodes in the Southland police area (which includes Tapanui) in the past decade was in 2019, with 2242. There were 272 family harm investigations in Gore in 2020, a record for the last decade and 45 more than the second highest number in 2019. Neighbouring Mataura also had a decade-high figure of 100 family harm investigations in 2020, five more than in each of the previous two years.

Source: Stuff May 09, 2021 03:56 UTC