Victims reluctant to speak out as gardaí fail to record incidents

GARDAÍ are ignoring calls to help lift the veil of secrecy surrounding domestic violence by no longer keeping comprehensive records on the issue.

This is while increasing numbers of victims are deciding to suffer in silence rather than make reports to the authorities.

Since 2002 calls to the national Women’s Aid helpline have risen by 72% yet police reports on domestic violence have fallen from 10,400 to 5,449 per annum.

For the past two years the gardaí have broken with standard practice and no longer compile a breakdown on the number of incidents, convictions and victims.

Women’s Aid policy and research manager Rachel Mullen says it is alarmed by the trend.

“Women’s Aid would be very concerned about this apparent drop in recorded incidents as we certainly do not believe that it’s due to there being less domestic violence.”

The situation is the complete opposite of what the National Crime Council hoped would come from the introduction of the garda PULSE computer system.

“In future years the official figures are likely to be subject to more stringent validation and hence present more comprehensive figures of domestic violence reports to the gardaí.

“It will be possible to establish details of all incidents of a domestic nature reported to gardaí, regardless of the offences classifications,” the NCC said in July 2005.

Since then no statistics on domestic violence incidents have been collected.

“It would be a specific exercise at the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit to retrieve those type of statistics and they would not be readily available,” a spokesman for the garda press office said.

In 1997 the Report of the Task Force on Violence Against women outlined exactly how the gardaí should present their figures.

“The gardaí should publish statistics which outline the number of calls received in relation to violence against women, the action taken and the reasons for not pursuing charges.

“Statistics for each district should be published annually in the Garda Annual Report.”

The section of its annual report that deals with domestic violence now only has figures for breaches of barring orders.

Sixteen months ago the chairman of the NCC Padraic White asked garda authorities to improve their recording systems.

Its research found that only 20% of severely abused victims contacted gardaí because of shame, embarrassment, fear of reprisals or a desire to deal with the situation themselves.

The NCC also recommended the Department of Justice collect official data from criminal justice records every year to assess the response of the legal system to this area of crime.

In the Dáil last month the Justice Minister Michael McDowell could not gather details on the number of incidents in 2005 or 2004 when Deputy David Stanton requested them.

Gardaí received a series of questions last month and have said they are preparing a statement that will be released in time.