Figures show 42% of callers to Refuge identify former partner as abuser, but only 12% of adults recognise this possibility
The risk posed to women by ex-partners in cases of abuse is underestimated by large swathes of the British public, according to the charity Refuge.
Data from the charity’s helpline found that 42% of people who call Refuge for help identify a former partner as their abuser, a statistic which underlines how common it is for an ex to be a cause of harm after a relationship has ended.
Despite this, a survey of the wider national population found that many UK adults did not name a former partner as a probable culprit in ongoing abuse.
YouGov data commissioned by Refuge found that, while 71% of UK adults identified that a woman is most likely to be abused by somebody she knows, of this percentage, only 12% recognised an ex-partner as the most likely to be the abuser, while 78% identified a current partner.
