This annual report - Taranaki District Health Board

Data Source and MethodsDefinition1. Number of Police family violence investigationsFamily violence investigations are jobs Police deal with as family violence. A given family violence investigationmay relate to one or more offences and/or non-offence incidents. Only one of these (usually the most severe)is used to categorise the investigation.Data SourceNumerator: Family violence investigations as recorded in the police’s operational databaseNotes on InterpretationNote 1: Police policy defines family violence as “violence which is physical, emotional, psychological andsexual and includes intimidation or threats of violence”. The term “family” includes parents, children, extendedfamily members, whānau , or any other person involved in a relationship (e.g. partners, caregivers, boardersand flatmates), but does not include neighbours.Note 2: It is likely that family violence-related offending is significantly under-reported to Police, and that recentpublicity campaigns, combined with an increased Police focus on family violence, have driven increases inpolice statistics for family violence. Therefore, inferences about trends in the prevalence of family violenceshould not be made from these statistics.Note 3: Changes in the way in which the Police produce statistics mean that some of the data presented herediffers from that provided to DHBs in 2009. For example, the Police now do not routinely produce statistics onrole types for those involved in family violence investigations and thus information on the ethnicity of thevictims of family violence incidents is no longer available. In addition, in July 2010 the Police adapted theAustralia New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC) to align with wider Justice Sector reporting.The offence groupings used in this report are thus based on the ANZSOC Group Description, rather than theold TPOC Offence Types reported previously. Finally, Police in recent months have made changes to thePolice Area boundaries resulting in the aggregation of Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt into the Hutt Valley Area; theaggregation of Hastings and Napier into the Hawke's Bay Area; and the renaming of Wanganui and Gisborneas the Whanganui and Tairawhiti Areas, respectively.Note 4: All of the data in this section were extracted from the Police’s dynamic operational database on 29June 2012. Data in this database are subject to change as new information is continually recorded. The lack ofa clearly defined denominator for the reported Police Areas however precluded the calculation of rates.New Zealand DistributionFamily Violence Investigations Where Children Were PresentOf the 86,704 Police family violence investigations which occurred in New Zealand during2011, children were reported as being present or usually residing with the victim in 54.0%of cases (Table 85).Table 85. Number and Proportion of Police Family Violence Investigations where Childrenwere Present or Usually Residing with the Victim, New Zealand 2009–2011YearNumber of Family Violence InvestigationsChildren Present*Total% Family ViolenceInvestigations whereChildren were Present*2009 40,852 77,863 52.5%2010 45,588 84,618 53.9%2011 46,860 86,704 54.0%Source: NZ Police; Note: *Children were present or usually residing with the victimRelationship Between the Offender and the VictimIn New Zealand during 2011, there were 35,536 Police family violence investigationswhere an offence occurred, and where the relationship between the offender and thevictim or complainant was recorded. In 40.6% of cases the victim/complainant was thespouse or partner of the offender, with a further 24.4% having been either previouslymarried or in a relationship. In 20.3% of cases there was a parent/child relationshipbetween the offender and the victim or complainant (Table 86, Figure 127).Family Violence - 340