Increased drinking at home as a result of the economic downturn could be behind a rise in domestic violence in some areas, it was claimed today.
New figures show police success in tackling domestic violence has increased.
And while the number of incidents across Northern Ireland is down, there are strong regional variations and in some areas the number of crimes has sharply increased.
The latest findings show the police clearance rate for domestic crime has risen by 2.6 per cent to 35.8 per cent, though in some parts of Northern Ireland it is as high as 53 per cent.
Ulster Unionist Policing Board member Basil McCrea welcomed the increased clearance rate, which he said was delivered through closer cooperation between police, health services and groups such as women's aid organisations.
"Where agencies work together, you can see significant improvements and I would pay tribute to those involved," he said.
Despite the overall decline in reported incidents, some areas have shown an increase in crimes brought to the attention of police.
In Strabane, reported figures are up by 51 per cent, in Limavady the numbers have increased by 28.8 per cent and in the Foyle area the figure is up by 22.8 per cent.
Mr McCrea said it was unclear what caused such spikes in the figures, but he said anecdotal evidence linked the incidents to an upsurge in drinking at home.
"One theory is that this relates to more people drinking at home due to the economic difficulties, but this is only anecdotal evidence at this stage," he said.
"The areas where these figures are appearing are places where the economic downturn has hit jobs and it may be that people are drinking more at home and this is linked to the increase."
He said it was also possible that the figures represented a rise in the reporting of crime as confidence in policing grows.
Mr McCrea will be among those discussing the figures with Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland and health service officials at an open meeting to be held later today at Policing Board headquarters.
The figures cover the period from April to November last year and show that recorded cases of domestic violence are down by 3.3 per cent (209 cases) when compared with the same period in the previous year, to show a total of 6,078 crimes.
But the figures show strong regional variations and while clearance rates are up by 8.1 per cent in west Belfast, they are down by 7.5 per cent in Newtownabbey.
In Omagh, 53 per cent of recorded cases of domestic violence were successfully dealt with by police, while the clearance rate in Magherafelt is 49.4 per cent, but in Craigavon it is 25.1 per cent.
PA