£100K to Stop Domestic Violence

15 June 2011, 05:00 | Updated: 15 June 2011, 06:26

An extra £100,000 is being used to stop people in part of the Thames Valley becoming victims of domestic violence.

Bracknell Forest's Community Safety Partnership has told Heart it is part of their three year plan to bring down crime.

Although overall crime has fallen by a quarter in the last year, cases of serious violence, sexual assault and domestic violence have gone up.

Ian Boswell is head of the CSP - which is made up of the council, emergency and health services and probation.

He says "In many of these cases, in over 500, a crime has been committed and in almost all of those cases the person who committed the crime is known to that victim, and yet the detection rate last year was just over 31 percent."

One of their targets then is to get more cases into court.

Mr Boswell's told Heart that's very difficult because people are afraid to follow through with the legal process over fears about where they'll get money from, whether they'll be able to see their children or they might still be living with their abuser.

There's also concern that domestic abuse is under-reported, as people are often victims more than 30 times before they report it.

The three year plan is also focusing on serious sexual assault. There were 93 such offences last year, which is a slight rise on the year before.

Mr Boswell says one of their projects is to challenge young men's unhealthy attitudes towards women through work with youth groups.

Other priorities include bringing down violent crime, anti-social behaviour and people's fear of crime.