Services should do more to stop domestic abuse killings, says Domestic Abuse Commissioner

Nicole Jacobs has written to ministers across government departments to ask how they are making the changes recommended by domestic homicide reviews.

It comes as research by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and Manchester Metropolitan University shows the vast majority of victims of domestic homicide were in touch with the police, health services and other public agencies before their death.

The four thematic reports published on Wednesday (December 6) are drawn from a sample of 302 reviews following domestic abuse-related deaths between 2012 and 2019, collated by Manchester Metropolitan University’s HALT project, led by Professor Khatidja Chantler, for the Domestic Abuse Commissioner.

These extensive reviews, known as Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs), are conducted after every domestic homicide and domestic abuse related suicide.

Ms Jacobs says these reviews are crucial in understanding what needs to be done to prevent a death in the future, but while changes can happen at a local level, often the recommendations are for wider regional or national change without any way of ensuring that will happen.

The four reports focused on recommendations for four types of agencies: criminal justice agencies like police and probation, physical and mental health services, children’s services, and adult social care.

Fifty two per cent of victims had already had contact with the police before they were killed, according to one of the reports which looked at 46 reviews that made recommendations for criminal justice agencies such as the police or probation.

Fifty seven per cent of perpetrators had criminal records for domestic abuse offences before killing their victim.

There were 19 reviews that identified children under 18 living in the home, and in five, children were also victims of homicide.

Reviews consistently highlighted the failure to seriously consider the voice and experiences of the child, according to the study, said Ms Jacobs.

Seventy eight per cent of victims and 69 per cent of perpetrators had been to physical health services such as GPs or hospitals prior to the homicide, among 58 DHRs that looked at recommendations for health services.

More than two-thirds of these reviews found that health services were not sharing information or working together with other agencies.

The study identified 12 deaths where the perpetrator was the main carer for the victim. The report also found that domestic homicide experienced by older people is poorly recognised.

Only a small number of victims had received support from a domestic abuse specialist organisation among all reviews in the study, said the Domestic Abuse Commissioner.

Ms Jacobs said: “Any life lost to domestic homicide is a tragic failure by systems that should be there to protect victims.

“That both victim and perpetrator were known to services in the vast majority of these homicides shows there is a life-saving opportunity to intervene earlier.

“DoHRs have been gathering vital learning to prevent future deaths since 2011. Until now, there has been no mechanism to ensure the changes these important reviews call for are happening at a regional and national level. Too often, this leads to stagnation and the vital changes to save lives are not made.

“That’s why I’m launching this domestic homicide oversight mechanism to hold public bodies and national government to account so that they take the important steps to preventing future deaths. I want to see cross-governmental leadership to ensure that all agencies – from health to children’s services – make ending domestic homicide a priority.”

Professor Chantler, Principal Investigator at the HALT study, says “This in-depth study of recommendations relating to the thematic areas of health, adult social care, criminal justice and children’s services illustrate specific gaps in each of these practice areas.

“A systems level change is required which has a robust response to domestic abuse and is attentive to the intersectional identities of victims and perpetrators, including ‘race’, gender, age, disability and sexuality.

“The Domestic Homicide Oversight Mechanism offers a new possibility for ensuring that lessons from these tragic deaths are acted upon to strengthen responses to domestic abuse.”