HUNDREDS of reports of parents and carers being attacked by their teenage or young adult children are received by the Metropolitan police every year, a ground-breaking report revealed Tuesday.
The analysis of child-to-parent violence and abuse – primarily young adult men attacking their mother – unearthed 846 allegations in 2018, 653 in 2019 and 577 in 2020, including a spike when lockdown started.
But it admitted it was “difficult to accurately assess the scale” of threats and violence across the capital as about 40 per cent of victims did not report the incidents due to distrust of police, fear of criminalising their children or suffering retribution.
The report, for City Hall’s violence reduction unit, investigated the extent of so-called CAPVA incidents (Child/Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse) recorded in Met police data.
It aimed to “shine a light” on a little-known problem to direct resources into the area.
Experts said incidents involved “spitting, hitting, name calling, destroying property and threats of violence” against parents and siblings.
More than 80 per cent of perpetrators were male, and almost two-third were aged 19-25. More than 70 per cent of victims were female.
Many professionals said victims were “highly reluctant” to report incidents to police. Social services were also mistrusted by some families, and parents or carers feared that children may be removed from their care.