A person is counted once per offence type per calendar year.
Offence totals should not be added together as this may over count the number of people convicted of these offences.
Definitions
The Domestic Violence Act 1995 defines family (domestic) violence as violence (physical, sexual or psychological abuse) against a person by any other person with whom they have a domestic relationship. In this context, it is represented by the following offences:
- breach of protection order
- common assault (domestic)
- male assaults female
- assault on a family member (from 3 Dec 2018)
- coercion into marriage/civil union (from 3 Dec 2018)
- strangulation/suffocation (from 3 Dec 2018).
Breach of protection order: contravening a protection order under s49(1)a Domestic Violence Act 1995. A Protection Order protects a person (and any children who regularly live with them) from a violent person who they are, or have been, in a relationship with.
Common assault (domestic): offences under s196 Crimes Act 1961 and s9 Summary Offences Act 1981. This is an assault against a person with whom the person is in a domestic relationship.
Male assaults female: offences under s194 Crimes Act 1961. This is an assault by a male on a female (and is usually used for people in a domestic relationship).
Limitations of the data
Charges for 'assault on a family member', 'coercion into marriage/civil union', and 'strangulation/suffocation' do not cover a full 12-month period.
Exclusions
These statistics do not include family violence offending which is charged under different offence types, including more serious offences such as homicide.
Changes to data collection/processing
From 3 December 2018, three additional offences have been introduced: 'assault on a family member', 'coercion into marriage/civil union', and 'strangulation/suffocation'.
From 29 April 2016, the Ministry of Justice sources courts data from the new Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), rather than the justice sector data warehouse (ISIS) used over recent years. Changes in data processing may cause small differences if compared current output with similar results produced before 29 April 2016.