Surge in cases of family violence

Stuff co.nz 3 March 2015
Women in relationships with men in white-collar jobs are flooding into Women’s Refuge in Timaru for help as the reporting of family violence surges.

“While most of our clients are from across the board, we are now seeing a flood of women coming to us who are in relationships, or married, to men with white-collar jobs,” Mid South Island Women’s Refuge and Family Safety Service manager Dawn Rangi-Smith said.

Rangi-Smith said that, in the past, women’s refuge case workers helped a lot of clients in relationships with “freezing workers”.

“Now we are dealing with a lot of women with partners who are working in supervisory and professional type roles. It’s interesting, and we don’t know why there has been a change all of a sudden. Maybe it’s something we need to research.”

Ministry of Social Development statistics released to The Timaru Herald showed the number of family violence referrals from police to Child, Youth and Family (CYF) in Timaru last year was nearly double that in 2011-12. A total of 475 family violence notifications were made by police in 2013-14, compared with 244 in 2011-12. The overall number of notifications received by CYF was 1408, against 1189 in 2011-12.

Another area where referrals had increased was the education sector, with CYF receiving 116 in 2013-14, compared with 90 in 2011-12.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/66865722/Surge-in-cases-of-family-violence