By Thelma Etim BBC News Online, Southampton

Domestic violence in Hampshire has risen by 28%

This year's national crime statistics show a 28% increase in domestic violent attacks in Hampshire, with women and children suffering the most.

However, Inspector Clive Ayling, the county's domestic violence co-ordinator, is not alarmed by the findings.

"Society is no more violent than it has ever been," says Inspector Ayling.

"But what we do have is an increase in the reporting rate because the victims trust the new style that police have adopted.

"It could appear to be a 'cop-out' but bearing in mind there is a 'dark figure' of unreported crime - somewhere between 65% and 75% - so about three quarters of domestic violence goes unreported."

Unreported crime

He adds: "We are eating into that dark figure so the 28% increase is a good, tasty morsel of it."

Research shows domestic violence accounts for 25% of all violent crime, a higher percentage than any other type of violent crime.

Some victims arrive with just the clothes they are standing in A Southampton Women's Aid worker

Yet the average survivor of domestic violence will suffer 35 or more assaults over a period of seven years before approaching the police or other agencies, the figures show.

"The kind of physical and sexual abuse we are talking about can be where a woman is thrown down the stairs, scolded with boiling substances, burned, stabbed, beaten and raped on a regular basis," says Inspector Ayling.

Psychological and emotional abuse will demoralise a woman to the extent she almost becomes a "slave".

While "financial abuse" convinces her she will not survive in the world on her own.

Refuge support

Southampton Women's Aid works with domestic violence victims. Some are going through with legal action against their partners. Others just look for support.

"It is very sad but rewarding working here," says one worker.

"You see these women coming in, sometimes crying with their children all huddled together, carrying little black overnight bags.

CYCLE OF VIOLENCE Domestic violence accounts for 25% of all violent crime There were 12 domestic violence killings in Hampshire last year Most victims are aged between 20 and 40 Up to 90% of children in an abusive home will have witnessed a violent incident 10% of children in an abusive home will have witnessed rape

"Some victims arrive with just the clothes they are standing in."

Most victims who use the crisis centre are aged between 20 and 40, pregnant or with young children and are drawn from every strata of society ranging from professionals to prostitutes.

"Fear is the principal factor in these relationships," says another women's aid worker.

"He will say : 'If you leave me I will kill you.'"

Last year there were 12 domestic violence killings in Hampshire.

Children are often a casualty of abusive relationships. Up to 90% will witness a violent incident in the home and 10% will have witnessed a rape.

With education now seen as the key to altering attitudes, a new "Perpetrators Programme", targeting men, is being used as one way of breaking the cycle of violence.

It is designed to "re-programme" the way offenders think.

Success rate

The 30-week anger-management course is offered as an alternative to prison for men on probation. The success rate is 86%, according to Inspector Ayling.

Hampshire's Domestic violence co-ordinator Clive Ayling

It was introduced in Britain last year, but is widely used in other countries.

There are now four across the county based in Winchester, Petersfield, Havant and Southampton.

And, with the government now acknowledging the impact domestic violence has on children there has been a "significant" shift in how it is handled by the legal system.

The way forward

Specialist courts are being seen as the way forward because all those involved, including judges and solicitors are trained to understand the complexities of the issue.

They are also deemed "more effective" because of the quick turnover of cases, according to one women's aid worker.

"The time lapse allows a vulnerable woman to be intimidated by her violent partner while the case passes through the system."

Inspector Ayling is now hoping to establish one in Hampshire by setting up a trial in the next two years.

"I cannot imagine domestic violence will ever being stamped out but it is something to aspire to," adds a worker.