Frontline police responses to domestic abuse incidents involving children

Product Description

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 acknowledged the devastating impact domestic abuse can have on children and young people. The Act recognised children who see, hear or experience the effects of domestic abuse as victims of domestic abuse in their own right. Identifying children experiencing domestic abuse is therefore crucial, and police called to a domestic abuse incident can play a critical role in this.

The Home Office commissioned Ipsos UK in partnership with the Connect Centre, University of Lancashire to carry out research. The research reviewed frontline police officer responses to domestic abuse incidents involving children. It aimed to better understand current practice, processes, attitudes and behaviours among responding officers when attending these incidents.

Ipsos and the University of Lancashire conducted the research in 2022 using the following methods:

• a survey of police officers and staff in England and Wales (772 responses across 33 of the 43 territorial forces)
• deep dive research in 5 police forces: research focused on those who directly responded to or were involved in the response to domestic abuse incidents involving children; across the forces, 60 interviews were conducted with police officers and 31 with partner agencies or charities the forces collaborated with or referred cases to; 12 frontline officers completed written diaries and 178 case files recording frontline responses were reviewed
• interviews with 9 young people who had experienced the police response to domestic abuse; in this research, the term ‘young people’ refers to those who were aged 17 and under when they experienced domestic abuse