Controlling/coercive behaviour in family relationship aged 11-24 years old from April 2016 to February 2023

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.028822

I note you seek access to the following information:

I’m looking into cases of coercive control amongst young people.

1. The number of coercive control offences recorded by your police force where the alleged victim was in the following age ranges:
a) 11-15
b) 16-24
Please provide breakdown by year – 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, with year starting in April, ending in March the following year. For 2023, please provide figures to date.

2. The number of coercive control offences recorded by your police force where the alleged suspect was in the following age ranges:
a) 11-15
b) 16-24
Please provide breakdown by year – 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, with year starting in April, ending in March the following year. For 2023, please provide figures to date.

3. Of these offences from Q2, please provide a breakdown of outcomes (charged, cautioned, no further action etc) for the following years - 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, with year starting in April, ending in March the following year. For 2023, please provide figures to date.

4. The Home Office “Domestic Abuse -Statutory Guidance” July 2022 (p23), states:
“In responding to cases of abuse involving those under 18, child safeguarding procedures should be followed.”

Of cases of coercive control where both the victim and perpetrator are under 18:
a) how many referrals were made by the police to children’s social services or a multi-agency forum? Please provide a breakdown for the following years - 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, with year starting in April, ending in March the following year. For 2023, please provide figures to date.

Clarification - Re-def received:
Thanks for the response. In terms of Q2, can we please get suspect data?
And in terms of answers to Q4 – we are happy for you to exclude this and focus on Q's 1-3.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

In line with your request I have prioritised questions 1-3. To answer question 4 would exceed the cost threshold as to determine the amount of referrals that were made by the police to children’s social services or a multi-agency forum would require all cases to be manually read as this information is not held in an easily retrievable format.