CONCERN has been raised about the number of repeat victims of domestic violence in North East Lincolnshire.
Figures show that the amount of repeat victims, as a percentage of overall cases, after the first five months of the financial year was 24 per cent – up on last year's overall figure of 22 per cent and above this year's target of 20 per cent.
Councillor Iain Colquhoun (Con, Waltham) described the increase as "very disappointing".
Speaking at a meeting of the council's safer and stronger communities scrutiny panel, he said: "I suppose one could argue that there's a limited amount of things we can do about a first time offender, but these figures record the repeat victims and to find that on the increase is very disappointing."
Spencer Hunt, the council's safer and stronger communities service manager, said the rise was not totally unexpected.
He explained that a number of victims had been unwilling to take up the support offered to them, and that 16-18 year-olds were now included in the figures.
Mr Hunt, who was presenting statistics from the Safer And Stronger Communities performance report, said that overall, the partnership was on target to meet its target of reducing crime by 4 per cent.
Up to August 31, the number of reported crimes in the borough was 6,099 – 23 more (0.4 per cent) than the target.
Mr Hunt said: "We had a good performance year last year and we wonder how long we can maintain that positive performance, particularly in the current economic climate.
"We are 0.4 per cent behind target at the end of August, but that's not statistically significant. It is not something we are concerned about."
Mr Hunt said two areas of concern were violent crime and shop theft, adding: "We are taking this very seriously and what we are trying to do now is to try to combat these two crime areas."
Chairman of the panel, Councillor Jon-Paul Howarth (Lab, East Marsh) said that more emphasis should be placed on encouraging victims of violent crime to press charges to prevent attackers "getting away with it".
Mr Hunt replied: "That's one of the things the violent crime team is going to be looking at specifically."
Mr Hunt revealed that two PCSOs would be added to the Grimsby Town Centre team at the end of the month in a bid to clamp down on shop thefts.
He added that a Youth Cafe would be set up in Freshney Place in the run-up to Christmas to reduce thefts during Thursday-night shopping, which he described as a "magnet" for young people.
"They come no matter what we do, so this year we are going to try a different approach in terms of engaging them."
Meanwhile criminal damage, and household and non-dwelling burglaries are all on the decrease.
Mr Hunt said the reduction in burglaries was down to the "integrated offender management" which had enabled police to keep track of the most prolific burglars.