Across California, the number of reported domestic violence incidents has decreased since 2001. But this positive statewide trend masks emerging differences in the types of incidents and where they occur. While domestic violence incidents in suburban and rural counties have declined dramatically, urban counties have seen an uptick. In addition, the statewide shares of incidents involving aggravated assault and objects such as household items have risen markedly in the last few years, even as the share involving firearms has fallen after peaking in 2021.
In 2023, the most recent year of data, California law enforcement agencies fielded more than 160,000 calls related to domestic violence, or 18 calls per hour. This represents a considerable decline from 2001, when police fielded more than 198,000 domestic violence calls, or nearly 23 calls per hour. Since 2017, the number of reported domestic violence incidents has ranged between 18 and 19 calls per hour.
Unsurprisingly, most calls originate in populous urban counties. In 2023, police fielded 128,100 domestic violence calls in urban counties, 24,600 in suburban counties, and 7,600 in rural counties. Accordingly, statewide trends in the annual number of domestic violence incidents have historically mirrored those in the urban counties. However, between 2021 and 2023, the statewide trendline dropped 2.6% due to stark declines in suburban and rural counties (18.6% and 12.0%, respectively), even as urban counties saw an uptick of 1.9%.
While the statewide number of reported domestic violence incidents has trended downward, they are now more likely to involve weapons, which can include physical objects like knives and firearms as well as assailants’ fists or other body parts (in alignment with how the California Department of Justice counts these incidents, we refer to assaults that weaponize body parts as “aggravated domestic assaults”).
Eight in ten domestic violence incidents involving weapons are aggravated domestic assaults, which are driving the overall rise in weapon use. Aggravated domestic assaults have been increasing for more than a decade and, by 2023, rebounded to levels common in the early 2000s. In 2023, more than half of domestic violence incidents involved aggravated domestic assaults, compared to 35% in 2019.
The increase in aggravated domestic assaults may reflect the escalation of an ongoing trend, rising violence amid the pandemic, recent changes in the way aggravated assaults are defined and counted, or some combination thereof. The levels seen today have historical precedent, and the share of aggravated domestic assaults was trending upward in nearly all counties before 2021. Yet about 60% of counties’ data indicate an exceptionally large increase in the number of aggravated domestic assaults in 2022, followed by slightly smaller—but still notable—increases the following year.
The share of domestic violence incidents involving objects has also increased from a low of 6% of all incidents in 2013 to 12.5% in 2023, primarily due to calls involving objects other than a knife or a gun. Prior to the pandemic, about 7% of incidents involved “other objects,” which commonly include belts, tools, pots, doors, and motor vehicles. By 2023, the share of these incidents had risen to 9.5%.
Meanwhile, gun use has oscillated. The share of incidents involving firearms rose from a low of 0.5% in 2013 to 1.5% in 2021, dropping slightly to 1.1% in 2023. Though comparatively rare, incidents involving guns carry increased homicide risk. Firearms were a factor in 42% of the 155 domestic violence–related homicides in California in 2021.
Differences in the number and types of domestic violence incidents across California reinforce the need to develop and implement localized solutions to prevent violence and support survivors. Funding for such programs is currently at risk of being eliminated from the state budget, perhaps in part because demonstrating the effectiveness of similar programs has proven challenging.
Additional data could lead to more impactful programs. Past expansions of reporting requirements to include weapon use (2002) and whether people are strangled or suffocated (2017) have shed light on the increasing severity of domestic violence incidents. Yet other factors affect whether incidents occur—and how serious they become. Chief among them is alcohol and substance abuse, and its capacity to escalate violence. Requiring agencies to routinely report whether people involved in domestic violence incidents are under the influence of alcohol or drugs could further aid efforts to understand and address the growing severity of these incidents.
