Domestic abuse in the Covid-19 pandemic: measures designed to overcome common limitations of trend measurement
Abstract Research on pandemic domestic abuse trends has produced inconsistent findings reflecting differences in definitions, data and method. This study analyses 43,488 domestic abuse crimes recorded by a UK police force. Metrics and analytic approaches are tailored to address key methodological is...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Crime Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-023-00190-7 |
| _version_ | 1797801510945423360 |
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| author | Sarah Hodgkinson Anthony Dixon Eric Halford Graham Farrell |
| author_facet | Sarah Hodgkinson Anthony Dixon Eric Halford Graham Farrell |
| author_sort | Sarah Hodgkinson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Research on pandemic domestic abuse trends has produced inconsistent findings reflecting differences in definitions, data and method. This study analyses 43,488 domestic abuse crimes recorded by a UK police force. Metrics and analytic approaches are tailored to address key methodological issues in three key ways. First, it was hypothesised that reporting rates changed during lockdown, so natural language processing was used to interrogate untapped free-text information in police records to develop a novel indicator of change in reporting. Second, it was hypothesised that abuse would change differentially for those cohabiting (due to physical proximity) compared to non-cohabitees, which was assessed via a proxy measure. Third, the analytic approaches used were change-point analysis and anomaly detection: these are more independent than regression analysis for present purposes in gauging the timing and duration of significant change. However, the main findings were largely contrary to expectation: (1) domestic abuse did not increase during the first national lockdown in early 2020 but increased across a prolonged post-lockdown period, (2) the post-lockdown increase did not reflect change in reporting by victims, and; (3) the proportion of abuse between cohabiting partners, at around 40 percent of the total, did not increase significantly during or after the lockdown. The implications of these unanticipated findings are discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:51:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7ce6300972b54324b93f96be4fa12766 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2193-7680 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:51:35Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Crime Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-7ce6300972b54324b93f96be4fa127662023-06-18T11:08:52ZengBMCCrime Science2193-76802023-06-0112111110.1186/s40163-023-00190-7Domestic abuse in the Covid-19 pandemic: measures designed to overcome common limitations of trend measurementSarah Hodgkinson0Anthony Dixon1Eric Halford2Graham Farrell3School of Criminology, University of LeicesterSchool of Law, University of LeedsRabdan AcademySchool of Law, University of LeedsAbstract Research on pandemic domestic abuse trends has produced inconsistent findings reflecting differences in definitions, data and method. This study analyses 43,488 domestic abuse crimes recorded by a UK police force. Metrics and analytic approaches are tailored to address key methodological issues in three key ways. First, it was hypothesised that reporting rates changed during lockdown, so natural language processing was used to interrogate untapped free-text information in police records to develop a novel indicator of change in reporting. Second, it was hypothesised that abuse would change differentially for those cohabiting (due to physical proximity) compared to non-cohabitees, which was assessed via a proxy measure. Third, the analytic approaches used were change-point analysis and anomaly detection: these are more independent than regression analysis for present purposes in gauging the timing and duration of significant change. However, the main findings were largely contrary to expectation: (1) domestic abuse did not increase during the first national lockdown in early 2020 but increased across a prolonged post-lockdown period, (2) the post-lockdown increase did not reflect change in reporting by victims, and; (3) the proportion of abuse between cohabiting partners, at around 40 percent of the total, did not increase significantly during or after the lockdown. The implications of these unanticipated findings are discussed.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-023-00190-7Domestic abuseIntimate partner violenceCoronavirusChange-point analysisAnomaly detectionNLP |
| spellingShingle | Sarah Hodgkinson Anthony Dixon Eric Halford Graham Farrell Domestic abuse in the Covid-19 pandemic: measures designed to overcome common limitations of trend measurement Crime Science Domestic abuse Intimate partner violence Coronavirus Change-point analysis Anomaly detection NLP |
| title | Domestic abuse in the Covid-19 pandemic: measures designed to overcome common limitations of trend measurement |
| title_full | Domestic abuse in the Covid-19 pandemic: measures designed to overcome common limitations of trend measurement |
| title_fullStr | Domestic abuse in the Covid-19 pandemic: measures designed to overcome common limitations of trend measurement |
| title_full_unstemmed | Domestic abuse in the Covid-19 pandemic: measures designed to overcome common limitations of trend measurement |
| title_short | Domestic abuse in the Covid-19 pandemic: measures designed to overcome common limitations of trend measurement |
| title_sort | domestic abuse in the covid 19 pandemic measures designed to overcome common limitations of trend measurement |
| topic | Domestic abuse Intimate partner violence Coronavirus Change-point analysis Anomaly detection NLP |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-023-00190-7 |
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