‘Boomerang generation’ caused by housing crisis could be fuelling domestic abuse
09-10-2014
Concerns: Commander Christine Jones
Martin Bentham
There are fears that London’s housing shortage and the growing number of “boomerang generation” children living with their parents could be fuelling domestic abuse.
Met figures have revealed a 13.2 per cent increase in “non-intimate” domestic abuse — defined as an incident involving people living together, but not in a relationship — with an extra 886 offences during the past year.
Commander Christine Jones said the cause was unclear, but one police theory was that tensions caused by the number of young adults still living at home could be behind it. “We are seeing an increase in offending by the brother, the father, the daughter, the sister or the son of the victim,” she said.
“There is a suggestion, I don’t know if this is true, that it relates to people spending longer living in family homes when they might have moved on to their own space, overcrowding issues, general issues related to people’s abilities to start their lives on their own and the kind of tensions that grow within families becoming offending.”
She added: “It could be related to the fact that people are earning less money. I don’t think anybody knows. But what we do know is that non-intimate family offending is increasing.”