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Home | Other projects | Domestic Violence | Education | Interim Findings

Cost of domestic violence: interim findings

Research conducted by Sylvia Walby, University of Leeds

Key finding

Two women each week are killed by a partner or former partner, a total of over 100 deaths each year. The cost of the domestic homicide of adult women is an estimated £112 million each year.

Aim of the research

Domestic violence is a complex social problem with devastating consequences. It drains the resources of public and voluntary services and of employers and causes pain and distress to women and their families. The purpose of providing a figure for the 'cost' of domestic violence is to more clearly show its importance, by finding a way to translating these hardships into a common unit of account. Thus, while it is recognised that domestic violence is more than an issue of money, this project will translate the impact of domestic violence into a monetary cost.

Providing support to women

This research is based on the methodology developed by the Home Office for costing crime because this is the best and most established way of making this translation (see Brand and Price 2000), which itself draws on the methods developed by the Department for Transport for valuing life (DETR, 1999). This methodology is being applied to domestic violence with some modifications in order to better engage with the specific nature of domestic violence.

Because many forms of domestic violence are under-reported to the police the research will usually use information on the extent of domestic violence from the new 2001 British Crime Survey Inter-Personal Violence module. This innovative new section of the survey was devised following a rigorous scrutiny of previous methods of gathering data on domestic violence published by Sylvia Walby and Andrew Myhill in the British Journal of Criminology in 2001.

However, one form of domestic violence is not found in surveys of victims, that is when women are killed. This is the focus of the figures provided in these interim findings.

Female domestic homicide

There were 102 adult female victims of domestic homicide during 2000/1.

Homicide is murder, manslaughter and infanticide. There were 818 homicides recorded in England and Wales during the year 2000/1 (Criminal Statistics 2000: p. 75). There were 242 female victims, that is 30% of the total. However, this figure includes the killing of 38 girls under 16. When we narrow the focus to adult women, then we find that 204 adult women were killed. Of these, 50% were believed to have been killed by their current or former husband, partner or lover. This means that 12% of all homicides are domestic homicides of women, by current or former husbands, partners or lovers.

Costs of homicide

According to the Home Office methodology (Brand and Price 2000), the cost of the impact of each homicide in England and Wales is on average £1,100,000. This is composed of several different kinds of elements, some of which are more tangible and direct than others. Lost economic output (e.g. lost earnings) is estimated at: £370,000. The use of victim services by victim's family: £4,700. The use of health services: £630. The cost of the criminal justice system, such as, the police and the courts: £22,000. The value for the human impact, the emotional suffering and grief, is estimated to be: £700,000. There are therefore three kinds of costs here: lost economic output, £370,000; the use of public services, £27,330; and the human and emotional impact, £700,000.

So, just focusing on the economic costs of lost output and cost to the public purse, each domestic homicide costs around £400,000; when added to an estimate for the great emotional distress and grief caused by this crime, the total is £1.1 million.

Hence, the cost of the 102 domestic homicides of adult women, each estimated at £1.1 million, is £112 million each year. This is composed of: £37.4 million for lost economic output; £2.8 million for public services; £71.4 million for human and emotional impact.

References

Brand, Sam and Richard Price (2000) The Economic and Social Costs of Crime. Home Office Research Study 217. (London: Home Office). (Available on the Home Office web-site)

Criminal Statistics, England and Wales 2000 (2001) Cm 5312. (London: HMSO).

Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1999) Highways Economics Note No. 1 1998. (London: DETR).

Walby, Sylvia and Andrew Myhill (2001) 'Comparing the methodology of the new national surveys of violence against women', British Journal of Criminology, 41, 3, 502-522.

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