Women on the move: administrative data as a safe way to research hidden domestic violence journeys

Abstract

Domestic violence against women is a significant social issue within the United Kingdom, across Europe and globally. However, it is often difficult to research given the hidden nature of the violence, and the need for many women to continue to keep their experiences secret. This article presents research on women’s relocation journeys, using administrative data from a funding programme which required England-wide monitoring from 2003 to 2011 on housing-related support services. This provided a sample of approximately 18,000 relocation cases per year ‐ a total of over 140,000 journeys to access services ‐ until the data became unavailable due to the end of the funding programme. The article presents some of the substantive findings on domestic violence journeys: the numerical scale and gendered nature of the journeys, the pattern of spatial churn across the country, the geographical scale and administrative boundary issues, and the evidence that women are often on the move both before and after accessing services. The article concludes that administrative data from services could and should be de-identified and used as a safe way to research women on the move due to domestic violence, and enable services and authorities to make better decisions on meeting their needs.