It comes as research out today suggests 15,000 UK children could be exposed to domestic abuse this Christmas, with police expected to make 70 referrals an hour. Around 400 domestic violence cases a day have been reported in London since the first lockdown. In the first lockdown, domestic violence accounted for half of the Crown Prosecution Service workload out of hours and was a factor in one in five crimes. This tragedy was brought into sharp focus when Office for National Statistics data revealed last month that one in five crimes reported during the spring lockdown was related to domestic abuse. There has thankfully been a shift in the understanding of domestic abuse in recent years.

Source: Daily Mail December 23, 2020 00:00 UTC