On Friday, the annual report of the Safeguarding Partnership Board was published, which outlined the board’s priorities and upcoming strategies.
The report revealed that of the 1,106 domestic-abuse incidents reported last year, 468 of those involved a child who lived in the household.
Glenys Johnston, chairwoman of the Jersey Safeguarding Children and Safeguarding Adult Partnership Board, said that while these figures were very worrying, they also showed that health officials and the police were paying better attention.
Mrs Johnston said: ‘Years ago if a police officer went to a household because of a domestic-abuse case situation, they didn’t ask whether there were any children in the house; they just dealt with the adults.
‘So these figures, while worrying, could mean that we are drilling down and paying particular attention to children in these high-risk situations.’
Mrs Johnston added that she believed there have been undetected historical instances of domestic abuse perpetrated by people who were not thought capable of being abusers, including people under the age of 18.
However, she felt that as this has only recently been recognised, data on the number of instances has only recently started to be collated.
‘When I first became a social worker 50 years ago, the idea of a teenager abusing their mum was almost impossible to imagine but it is now quite obvious that it does and has always happened.
‘It’s so important to understand this type of abuse, because those teenagers who are beating up their mothers could one day become husbands and fathers, so the important question is: What kind of father or husband will they go on to be? And why are they behaving in that way? What stress are they under that led them to do this? These are questions that have to be explored.’
The SPB’s report comes just days after the board launched its new domestic-abuse strategy – in response to a worrying increase in high-risk and repeat cases in Jersey – which set out its aim to diminish instances of abuse across the Island.
Speaking about this, Mrs Johnston added that much of this could be affected by people being more socially attuned and better educated in what constituted domestic abuse.
She said: ‘Years ago people were too scared to go to the police and felt the police may be too heavy-handed and arrest their husband, who they love, in spite of the fact they are their abuser. Figures have shown that there is much greater confidence in the police these days.’
Mrs Johnston is leaving her role as chairwoman in July after serving on the board for more than six years.
