Since its introduction in January 2014, the Jersey Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) has become the established multi-agency process for safeguarding domestic abuse victims. A MARAC meeting brings together different statutory and voluntary sector agencies to share information on a high risk case of domestic abuse and agree collaborative action to prevent further harm to the victim and their children. This indicator tracks the number of these high risk MARAC cases where one or both parties have children.

It is always difficult to quantify the true scale of domestic abuse in any community so data can reflect reporting behaviours as much as the prevalence of the the problem. The indicator therefore focuses on high risk cases as these are the most likely to come to the attention of agencies over time (even so, high risk victims live with domestic abuse for an estimated 2.3 years on average before getting help). As such, it should only be seen as a guide to the wider issue of children being exposed to domestic abuse. In 2018, for example, the Police attended a total of 509 domestic abuse incidents where children were present.