The policing of domestic abuse (DA), currently one of the biggest generators of demand for law enforcement agencies around the world, has been transformed in recent years.
DA has gone from an issue often not considered police business by many in law enforcement, to one which in some jurisdictions has become the single largest area of demand from emergency calls.
Now a new thematic report published by Policing Insight explores how DA and family violence is being tackled across the world, how this has changed, and how it continues to evolve.
The report examines the innovations, legal reforms and persistent challenges around the responses to these issues, as agencies strive to protect victims, reduce demand and prevent further tragedy.
It is based on a wealth of research including dozens of published police organisation and government reports, academic papers, and interviews with 13 experts on DA from the policing, research, and NGO spheres.
The change over recent years is stark. In little more than a generation, DA has gone from an issue that was not often considered police business by many serving in law enforcement organisations, to one which in some jurisdictions has become the single largest area of demand from emergency calls.
The report highlights that transformation, how it has improved the service provided to victims/survivors, and how intervention is fraught with difficulty.
Innovative responses
The changes in processes and focus has caused some jurisdictions to consider how to reduce the DA-caused demand on police, which itself has generated some concern about a return to old attitudes towards the police involvement in preventing family violence.
The report also shows that the policing and societal response to DA and family violence will continue to evolve due to innovative approaches, the pressures on agencies, and the rapid pace of technological advances.
This report highlights innovations and trends within the law enforcement approach to tackling DA and supporting survivors – including initiatives that help reduce the time spent on the issue – and examines the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Among those explored are sophisticated methods of data analysis, targeting offenders as if they were organised crime gangs, issuing conditional cautions and implementing diversionary programmes, using non-police organisations to help with tasks, and video-led responses to reports from victims.
Recent decades have also seen legal changes that have sought to give police more powers and better serve those at risk of DA, with coercive control laws, disclosure schemes, and the use of mandatory assessment tools all examined in this report.
The report also shows that the policing and societal response to DA and family violence will continue to evolve due to innovative approaches, the pressures on agencies, and the rapid pace of technological development.
‘A pivotal moment’
Despite the advances, DA remains a huge problem affecting millions of people and is the cause of far too many murders across the world. Victims and their relatives are at the heart of much of the transformation that appears in this report.
It is often their efforts that have driven change. One leading example is Nour Norris, who became a campaigner in England and Wales to ensure DA experts are embedded within police control rooms following the murder of her niece and sister, Raneem Oudeh and Khaola Saleem, in 2018.
We have seen so much significant progress in how policing responds to domestic abuse through our years of service, but we also believe that we are at a pivotal moment.”
AC Louisa Rolfe and
DAC Helen Millichap
As she is quoted in the report: “Change only happens when we refuse to accept failure. We cannot wait for another tragedy. We must build the safeguards that should have been there all along. And while nothing will bring Khaola and Raneem back, their voices, struggles, and sacrifices have led to a law that will save lives. Their legacy will live forever.”
In their foreword to the report, AC Louisa Rolfe, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Domestic Abuse, and DAC Helen Millichap, Director of the National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection, highlight the commitment of those in policing to address the challenges.
They state: “We must evolve, which is why the title of this report runs deep with us. We have seen so much significant progress in how policing responds to domestic abuse through our years of service, but we also believe that we are at a pivotal moment and must not squander the chance we have to reset and adapt based on the evidence. And crucially, when we say ‘we’, this means more than just policing.”
Download and read the ‘Evolving police responses to domestic abuse‘ report
The report is available for subscribers with access to an organisation-wide subscription or a premium individual subscription.
Most police forces and key police and criminal justice organisations, as well as many academic and commercial organisations in the sector, have organisation-wide subscriptions providing free access to their officers and staff.
Please register a free account on Policing Insight using your organisation email address – if your organisation has a subscription, your account will be automatically upgraded to subscriber access allowing you to download and view the report.
If your organisation does not have a subscription, please contact [email protected] to enquire about gaining access to the report.
