Daily blog (audio): Domestic abuse goes up by 38% [Football again, innit?]

<p>Domestic abuse goes up by 38% [Football again, innit?]</p> <p><br> <br> We're on a mission to help one million people RISE by 2030 - join the movement at <a href="http://www.myrise.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.myrise.co.uk</a></p> <p><br></p> <p>I mentioned the the recent football European Championships in yesterday’s blog.</p> <p>At the time, I saw a certain stat shared on social media several times.</p> <p>About domestic abuse going up by 38% when England lost at football.</p> <p>A quick Google shows the following:</p> <p>“Research found the number of domestic abuse cases reported to Lancashire police force in the 2002, 2006 and 2010 World Cups surged by 38 per cent on the days when England lost. While incidents increased by 26 per cent when the team either won or drew a match.”</p> <p>On the face of it, this sounds terrible.</p> <p>And, I want to make it really clear that any domestic abuse is terrible and is never OK.</p> <p>Please don’t feel the need to reply and say I’m in anyway condoning or minimising it, because I’m not.</p> <p>But all numbers vary.</p> <p>For a variety of reasons.</p> <p>The majority of domestic abuse calls are received between 4pm and midnight.</p> <p>More at the weekend, less in the week.</p> <p>Peaks around other events in the year.</p> <p>These variations are, of course, something to be aware of.</p> <p>But the overall direction of the numbers over time is the most important consideration.</p> <p>The stats show that 2.3 million people were on the receiving end of domestic abuse last year.</p> <p>If we got that down to one person a day for a total of 365 a year………</p> <p>But that increased by 100% to 2 people on a day England played football……..</p> <p>I’m sure most would agree that huge progress had been made.</p> <p>Total annual domestic abuse has been, on average (excluding the last year or so) been falling for the last 15 years.</p> <p>Still not OK and not where we want to be (zero), sure.</p> <p>But progress.</p> <p>Successes to build on rather than the constant