SERICC for DataAid

A project presented to The Ministry of Justice

Published: 31 May 2022

Synergy Essex is a partnership of r. and s. abuse centres in Essex.

SYNERGY Essex provides specialist services to anyone in Essex who has experienced, any form of s. violence or s. abuse at any time in their life. It provides a confidential service that is independent from social services, the police and other official agencies. Synergy Essex is a partnership of r. and s. abuse centres in Essex.

DataAid worked with SYNERGY Essex to extract insights from data. I was chosen as a team leader for the project which lasted 6 months. I ended up leading the group of 12-16 data scientists during the final Hackathon Event, and had the honour to present our insights to The Ministry of Justice.

We conducted analyses to address the following questions:

  1. Why do people withdraw from the criminal justice process when they have reported a s. crime?
  2. What do victims think of the judicial process?
  3. Does the relationship between the victim and perpetrator affect their willingness to continue through the justice system?
  4. Can we identify any violence hotspots in Essex? Can they be divided into crime types, e.g. CSA?
  5. How has the number of referrals to the charity changed after 2019? Which of those referrals are from agencies which do not fund Synergy Essex?
  6. What is the cost of s. violence in Essex?
  7. Are victims that use Synergy Essex services more likely to stay engaged with the criminal justice process? This means that they do not withdraw from pursuing the case.

Results

Given the sensitivity of the topic, we are presenting only a brief overview of our analysis and focusing on findings that are already well established in the research literature.

In the dataset, over 70% of survivors knew the perpetrator, and around 50% of all survivors identified the perpetrator as a friend or family member. The cost to the UK economy of this type of violence, in the areas of the UK we investigated, was estimated at up to £250,000 per affected individual, including costs to the criminal justice system, healthcare and social services, loss of productivity, loss of quality of life, and the costs of incarceration.

On average, if victims engaged with Synergy Essex services they were 2.2 times more likely to stay engaged with their interaction with the police.

On a positive note, receiving support from the participating charities was associated with more than a twofold increase in retaining engagement with the police in our sample, suggesting clear benefits for survivors.