Some pretty sobering stats here that were able to be collected because they added a field into the PULSE system to note the relationship between victims and perpetrators. Now we just have to get the guards to answer the damn phones when we call for help.

* On average gardaí respond to between 120 and 150 domestic abuse incidents EVERY DAY with 37,435 incidents reported so far this year, a 9% increase on 2020.
* In 2021 there were 817 sex crimes with a domestic abuse motivation reported, compared to 205 offences the previous year, a 399% increase.
* Women are more likely to be targeted in a residential setting while for males this is more likely to occur in a non-residential setting.
* Last year there were 25 murders recorded in Ireland, of which 13 (52pc) were linked to domestic abuse.
* In 84pc of such crimes female victims knew the perpetrator, compared to 61pc of male victims.
* When a male is the victim of a domestic abuse killing, they were more likely to be a child under the age of 18 at the time.

Numbers are up because reporting is up. This is a positive. But these are still underreported crimes, even though these numbers are shocking. It might not be your household, but there is no denying this problem is widespread.

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/crime/domestic-abuse-now-behind-majority-of-murders-in-ireland-for-first-time-garda-figures-show-42012132.html

13 comments

  2. And yet we still don’t have a domestic homicide review system in place. UK and other countries have had these reviews in place for years. Looking at what services in place, how the crime happened etc. Aside from the actual trial and conviction.

  5. Don’t forget that getting someone to pick up the phone to hear abuse all say is hard to do. 40 hours of your week hearing people get abused, screaming, panicking, crying. Isn’t a very a selling point. People just say oh pick up thr phone it’s easy, give it a month.

  6. Concur with the assessment of under-reporting. Folks need to be cognizant of this rather than living a life of denial. You cannot affect change when you pretend everything is satisfactory.

  8. I grew up in a house in suburban Dublin, in a relatively nice area too – just boring suburbs, and we had neighbours who had massive domestic abuse problems and nothing was done.

    This was quite a few years ago, back in the 1990s, but it still leaves me wondering about attitudes here in officialdom. There’s a lot of talking and hand wringing and no action.

    My mam on multiple occasions had to drive the woman, who was the victim of this, to hospital. My parents were constantly on the phone to the Gardai and even had to physically intervene on a few occasions, yet nothing was done.

    We used to hear her screaming and being thrown around and slammed against the walls. Endless shouting, things being thrown against walls. It was absolutely awful and the authorities were beyond useless. They showed up when called but I don’t remember them ever actually arresting anyone or heavily intervening.

    Always seemed to be more like a warning at the door and she clearly wouldn’t or wasn’t capable of pressing charges.

    I remember as a kid of about 8 or 9 being aware of all of this – semi detached house and my bedroom wall was passing all the sound through. I also remember encountering her in the driveway bruised and bleeding.

    The other thing I distinctly remember was looking out my bedroom window and seeing him kick their dog around the garden, when it was tied up on a chain. He was an absolute violent psycho.

    It was abysmal. Really, really bad when I think back on it and honestly between the social services, Gardai and judiciary nothing was done. It was allowed to drift and drift.

    It got so bad that me and my brother both stopped sleeping and had to move to my grandparents house for months, as we were getting very upset about it.

    That couple moved but we also moved. I remember my parents making extremely careful decisions about where to and really sussing things out. I definitely remember the move was very much about just making sure that we wouldn’t ever be exposed to that kind of thing again.

    I know my parents did their absolute best to try and intervene. I remember my mam even tracking down and contacting the victim’s family and trying to get them to be at least aware of it and she was constantly trying to get social services, Gardai and any agencies she could get to help but it was like they were all either powerless or unwilling to seriously intervene.

    I just often wonder what happened that woman.

    I can’t really remember the full details because I was too young, but it still haunts me decades later.

  9. I live in a small town where the Gardai famously don’t respond to any calls if they don’t feel like it, I live down the street from a big station, any day you walk in to get any bit of paper signed and there’s easily 5-10 big fat fucks standing around chatting and laughing, you ring the bell and conversation continues they don’t even acknowledge anyone is there until they run out of things to talk about.

    The shop below my apartment (about 300 meters from the station) had a lad walk in and threaten the lady working the shop alone, he had a broken bottle, she had to hide in the back room while this lunatic walked around the shop screaming, they showed up **AFTER 6 HOURS**.

    They are so bad in this town that one of the higher ranking Gardai has brought in a system whereby he told people not to ring the station, but to use a special text system he set up, a number on stickers all over town, why? Because he gets a copy of every text so he can check to see if they actually bothered responding to them.

    The only time I see the fat fucks outside the station is when they are loading up at a local deli or out trying to make viral TikTok videos(I’m not joking)

  10. Damn I wonder if immigrants are skewing stats ? We are getting alot of people from countries where hitting your wife is not necessairly frowned on or even outright encouraged. Not saying they are all of it , but id imagine its made a somewhat of an impact.

  11. Its a mental health crisis. Alot of very unhappy couples putting on a show for the world. Facebook families. Its so sad.

  12. Domestic abuse is a very very delicate issue. Life is complicated man. Women need to be better and be more discerning. And don’t take me down. This is the reality. Too many bullies and cuts are rewarded. You have to own up for your life. If you want to get bet around by some alpha guy, good. Don’t bring kids into it. Zero sympathy. Well I do have sympathy but when I think about it more I think its a reflection of their character. They can be good people for sure but their lack of self respect and boundaries bites them in the ass.

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