Domestic and sexual abuse statistics and funding (FOI)

​Request

I would like to request the following information:

A

The number of reports of sexual offences in Jersey over the past five years broken down by age (aged under 18 or over) and gender of victims. (Broken down by year).

B

The number of recorded sexual offences in Jersey over the past five years broken down by age (aged under 18 or over) and gender of victims. (Broken down by year).

C

The number of police call outs for domestic abuse incidents over the past five years, broken down by year.

D

The number of recorded domestic abuse incidents over the past five years, broken down by year.

E

The total number of domestic abuse related offences recorded that resulted in arrests, charges of summons. (Broken down by year).

F

How much funding went to domestic abuse and sexual assault charities - Jersey Women's Refuge and Jersey Action Against Rape (JAAR) in over the past five years? (Broken down by year).

Response

A

"Reports", as opposed to "recorded" sexual offences do not provide an accurate picture. For example, officers may initially be called to a domestic incident, only for one of the parties to later disclose a sexual assault. Such initial reporting would likely to be categorised as a "domestic incident". To provide an accurate number of "reports" would require a manual search of almost 100,000 incident logs, and the time required to undertake this task would exceed the 12½ hours maximum time limit as provided by Article 16(1) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. A response to this question is declined.

B

¹Home Office counting rules dictate that for the age of a victim to be recorded, the victim or victims need to be identified. Examples of sexual offences where no victim is recorded include incidents of indecent exposure in a crowded space (where no one individual is targeted by the offender), and indecent images of children where the unidentified victims may be in an unknown foreign jurisdiction.

C, D and E

² Not all recorded incidents of domestic abuse follow from a police call out. For example, officers may be called to an apparently non-domestic related incident, and only later, through enquiries, would a domestic element become apparent. Likewise, a patrolling officer may come across a domestic incident on the street.

³ This is the number of arrests linked to a case file which includes both a crime file and a domestic incident.

F

Articles Applied

Article 16(1) - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations [Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014].

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1)     Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2)     A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.