DOMESTIC violence has risen by a massive 68 per cent in the last year - according to new crime figures.

There were 384 domestic common assaults between April 1 2006 and March 31 2007, according to the statistics released by Thames Valley Police on Tuesday. Non-domestic common assaults are also up by 35 per cent.

Angie West, who chairs the Wycombe Domestic Violence Forum, said the increase was mainly down to victims having more resources to report crimes.

She said: "We do as much as we can across the county and it has helped to increase the number of people reporting so we would expect an increase."

However, she said many domestic violence cases still went unreported. Wycombe's LPA Commander, Rob Angell said the increase of common assaults overall was down to new national crime recording standards.

"It is about reclassification of offences that wouldn't usually have been crimed are now being crimed. Low level offending is now featuring on our crime stats - things like a boy pushing another boy in a playground is a common assault and it has to be crimed."

Meanwhile crime has gone down by 12.5 per cent in the Wycombe district overall in the past three years.

Other areas causing concern are robberies which are up eight per cent and criminal damage which is up nine per cent. Serious assaults, such as woundings, have gone down by 37 per cent since last year.

The drop also sees thefts from vehicles down by 14 per cent, theft of vehicles down by four per cent, and theft against the person down by 16 per cent.

Burglary figures stay relatively the same from last year with a one per cent increase. However, between 2004 and 2005 burglaries went down by 26 per cent, meaning there has been a 25 per cent reduction in the past three years.

The figures cover the whole of the Wycombe Local Police Area (LPA) , including Marlow, Princes Risborough, and surrounding villages.

Supt Angell said criminal damage incidents were constantly being monitored and were usually down to small incidents such as cars being damaged while drinkers returned from the pub.

As for robberies, he said: "It is not where we would like it to be but it is not an enormous concern. All of these crimes feature in my weekly assessment and each are given priority, but we can be grateful in a community the size of High Wycombe that the offences of burglary, robbery, and violent crime are all at significantly low levels."

Supt Angell said the reduction of serious assaults was partly down to a "robust" town centre operation last year which saw an increased police presence.

He said vehicle crime had been reduced as a result of joint operations with neigh-bouring police areas. He said the main challenges to the area remained criminal damage and youth issues. But he said the partner-ship the police had built with councils was helping to resolve these.