Domestic abuse related deaths
The Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004) places a duty on Community Safety Partnerships to carry out a domestic abuse related death review when a person who is aged 16 or over is killed by a relative, household member or an intimate partner (or former partner). The duty also applies in cases of suicide where domestic abuse may have been a cause.
If a domestic abuse related death review takes place in Kent or Medway, Kent Police will make sure that the right people in the Community Safety Partnership are told as quickly as possible. After this initial notification, a decision will be made about whether a domestic abuse related death review will need to take place using the Home Office guidance.
What's the purpose of a domestic abuse related death review?
The purpose is to:
- establish what lessons can be learned from the circumstances of the death and the way in which local professionals and organisations worked individually and together to safeguard victims (the victims also include bereaved children, parents and other kin);
- identify clearly what those lessons are, both within and between agencies, how and within what timescales they will be acted on, and what is expected to change as a result;
- apply these lessons to service responses, including changes to policies and procedures as appropriate; and
- help prevent deaths in domestic settings and improve service responses for all domestic abuse victims and their children through improved intra- and inter-agency working.
Domestic abuse related death reviews are not inquiries into how the victim died or who is to blame, that is a matter for coroners and criminal courts to determine.
Family members, friends and colleagues of the victim are central to the process, if they wish to be.
The report must be approved by a quality assurance panel established by the before it is published. The aim in publishing the reports is to restore public confidence and improve transparency of the processes in place across all agencies to protect victims. In cases where publishing the report might create a risk to the welfare of anyone directly concerned in the review, a decision may be made not to publish it or to publish instead a summary version.