Domestic Abuse: Responding to the Shadow Pandemic

Domestic violence is a severe problem in the UK, but the social isolation regulations imposed in March 2020 have exacerbated dangers ("a perfect storm for controlling, violent behaviour behind closed doors"). Media coverage has intimated the likely impact of the 'stay at home' directive on the nature and extent of domestic abuse. Evidence suggests that this has already taken its toll on the rates of intimate partner homicide, and that the number of assaults and murders will continue to rise considerably this year. In April, the 2020 Home Affairs Committee noted that the police are currently struggling to protect the vulnerable. Several forces have innovated, introduced digital reporting, and new types of emergency responses in order to protect victims. The courts are also struggling to hold trials and sentence domestic violence offenders, and the backlog in cases is likely to mean that victims will be dissuaded from taking cases to court. This project will evaluate the efficacy of policy and practice innovations by both the police and courts to deal with the immediate crisis and explore their viability for future practice in face of ongoing service demands and the fiscal impact of such as the longer-term consequences of the global pandemic take root. The research team, which consists of experienced experts in the field, will work together with CJS partners to produce fast-delivery reports in order to facilitate shared good practice in the social-isolation period and its immediate aftermath; and explore longer-term trends which emerge in the next eighteen months.