Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse

IGBVA occurs when one person in an intimate personal or family relationship uses violence and/or abuse to maintain power and control over another person. Devon, in line with the UK more broadly, works with the UK Home Office (2021) definition: 

“Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, or threatening behaviour, violence, or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality”.

Abusive behaviours include physical abuse, sexual abuse, threatening behaviour, controlling or coercive behaviour, and psychological abuse. Within the law, people are considered connected if they are or have been married, civil partners, in an intimate relationship, or are relatives. This may include sibling abuse or abuse by a child to a parent. 

This change in definition reflects a shift in the understanding of domestic abuse. However, the law states that domestic abuse can only occur between people aged 16 and over, which leaves challenges with defining victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse. The term ‘teen domestic dating violence’ is used to describe when abuse is perpetrated and experience by adolescents in relationships (peer to peer). For the first time, children and young people are recognised as victims of domestic abuse in their own right if they see, hear, or experience the effects of abuse, and are related to or fall under ‘parental responsibility’ of the victim or perpetrator.

Every 30 seconds, a call is made to police in England about domestic abuse and on average, 1 in 5 children are subjected to domestic abuse – that’s 6 children in every classroom. Devon’s Operation Encompass notifies a school when police have visited a home for a domestic abuse incident with a school-aged child present. Data shows an upward trend in notifications, with around 200-300 notifications each month (2024).