Violence against children falls by 18% in a year, hospital admissions show
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Version 0 of 1. Violence against children plummeted 18 per cent last year in England and Wales, hospital admissions show. Experts believe the encouraging development could be explained by the improving detection and reporting of abuse in the wake of scandals such as Baby P. The situation for adults also showed dramatic signs of improvement, with 10 per cent fewer falling victim to physical attacks last year than in 2013. The Cardiff University study gathered data from a scientific sample of 117 emergency departments, minor injury units and walk-in centres in England and Wales. An estimated 211,514 people sought treatment for injuries following violence in 2014 – 22,995 fewer than in 2013. The analysis of admissions is thought to be a more accurate way of charting violence than police records or surveys, since crimes are not always given to police and people are not always honest in a survey. The fall in medical evidence of violence contrast police records for the year ending September 2014, which showed a 16 per cent rise in reports of violence against the person. Statisticians believe the introduction of revised National Crime Recording Standards as well as a renewed focus on the accuracy of police records and increased willingness to report such crimes is likely to be behind the rise. Lead author of the study and director of the Violence Research Group at Cardiff University, Jonathan Shepherd, said: “Our study demonstrates a substantial decrease in violence-related injuries for both men and women in 2014 compared to 2013. Since 2010, we have identified a decline of over 30 per cent in people needing treatment in Emergency Departments after violence. Professor Shepherd added: “Most encouraging is that attacks against children and adolescents are down by nearly a fifth. This trend could be attributed to a number of things from improved child safeguarding policies in the wake of the ‘Baby P’ tragedy to increased information sharing on community violence between the NHS, police and local government.” Peter Connelly, known as Baby P, died in 2007 An NSPCC spokesman said: “The fall in children attending A&E due to violence related injuries is encouraging and in line with a longer term decline in violence towards children causing injury or death. These improvements are most welcome and in stark contrast to other forms of abuse – such as neglect or emotional abuse – which do not appear to have declined in recent years. Many children are still subjected to the most terrifying violence every year - there were more than 9,000 contacts about physical abuse to the NSPCC helpline last year alone. With research showing one in 20 children suffering sexual abuse and one in 14 children being physically abused, there’s still a long way to go to ensure that children are protected from harm.” |