Family Violence incidents in New Zealand are increasing year by year – although the Bay of Plenty is not following this trend.

Statistics on Police Data New Zealand show incidences of family violence in the Bay of Plenty have decreased from 12,759 to 12,503, meaning 256 less victims from 2015 to 2016.

This goes against the national statistics, which show that family violence incidents in New Zealand have increased from 118,910 last year- more than 8000 from the year before.

'We don't know whether this is due to an increase in violence or an increase in people coming forward. However, it is clear that demand on services continues to increase,” says New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse doctor Pauline Gulliver.

In the Western Bay of Plenty offences have decreased from 4,550 to 4,460, whereas in the Eastern Bay it has increased from 1,962 to 2,005.

Family Violence Acting Inspector Morgan Gray says this datacan help paint a picture of serious physical and sexual assault, but cannot provide a complete picture alone.

There is a large increase in the amount of reports that have non-identifiable offenders because of a number of reasons, such as: police have not been made aware of the offender or incident, and investigations into serious offending can take many months to conclude.

'Police are continually seeking ways to improve what we do and we have a significant programme of change to improve our service delivery when we are called to a Family Harm Investigation.

'We cannot do this alone and it is imperative that we work actively with other government and non-government agencies in tackling family harm to achieve the best outcomes for families.”

A Backbone Collective that was launched four months ago has seen a big influx of women needing further support after experiencing violence and abuse.

There are currently nearly 900 women needing help and over 100 supporters of the independent, unfunded organisation.

Co-founder Deborah Mackenzie says they have learnt a lot about what the women dealing with violence and abuse are lacking in terms of support.

'Hundreds of New Zealand women ask for help when they experience violence and abuse, but the system does not respond safely and they are often put in more danger due to that response.”

'They expect protection, but instead they and their children are put in more danger. Women tell us that their experiences of violence are not believed, are minimised and they are accused of lying about it. ”

Backbone ran a survey on the Family Court, where nearly 500 women took part, with many the Family Court made them feel like they were being punished for talking about their experiences.

One woman spoke to Backbone about her experience with the Family Court.

'My partner was so violent he beat me while I was pregnant and punched me in the head while I was breastfeeding our newborn. When I cut all contact with him he took me to court and has access to our child. I tried to stop it and the judge said if I continue not making my child available to his father my child could become a ward of the state.”

Deborah Mackenzie says she is not surprised by the increase in family violence in New Zealand when she hears stories like this.

'New Zealanders need to ask questions about whether government is aware of these system failures and what it plans to do about them. No amount of summits, background papers or data workshops are going to fix this broken system.”

For more information on local family violence statistics go to policedata.nz