In 2020, the VKPP’s Domestic Homicide (DH) Project was established by the police and government in England and Wales to collect, analyse and share learning from all police-recorded domestic homicides, unexplained deaths and suspected suicides of victims of domestic abuse. Whilst this work was spurred by concern about the potential impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Project has been embedded and expanded to support a domestic abuse-informed approach to policing and help prevent future deaths. The Project’s three-year dataset demonstrates the scale of the problem, with a total of 723 recorded deaths. From this, 216 are suspected victim suicides following domestic abuse. This paper will present the main themes discussed on consultation work with bereaved family members of victims of fatal domestic abuse whose voices have traditionally been hidden.

In 2022, the DH Project team and Home Office representatives hosted a consultation event with the charity Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA), alongside the bereaved family members they support. The event aimed to capture families’ experiences and insights for enhancing the multi-agency response to victims/survivors of domestic abuse and improving agencies’ responses after a death occurred, particularly in cases of suicide. In 2023, the team carried out a follow up consultation with AAFDA, which included the original bereaved family members and additional participants, to assess progress and broaden the spectrum of voices advocating for change.

Across both consultations, family members highlighted the need to improve work in different areas. First, they called for police to standardise practice across forces, enhance support for standard to medium risk victim/survivors, addressing victim-blaming language, and improving oversight and training. Second, families emphasised the importance of partnership working, which require more coordinated multi-agency work and funding for services. A list of proposed reforms to Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference procedures was also provided, highlighting important areas for future work by the government, police and their partners. Finally, the families called for the recognition of bereaved family members as victims to inform the victim’s bill. Developments that have been made in line with points raised in the first consultation include updates to the National College of Policing guidance around the oversight of unexpected deaths.

These findings improve understanding of the impact of suicide following domestic abuse on bereaved families, considers actions that may help improve future practice, and amplifies the voices of the victims in these cases. This work highlights the importance of identifying and responding to coercive control, providing necessary supervision and resource, and early engagement with family members.

Abstract: This paper draws upon qualitative data from several research projects in relation to alcohol, drugs and gambling and discusses the addiction-related-harms that people experience, including the harm of stigma and involvement with the criminal justice system. Participatory action research has been applied to the research projects, with lived experience experts being involved at varying levels from research design, data collection and through to analysis. Participatory action research is reflected upon, including considerations for influencing policy and practice change. Data has been collected using surveys, interviews, focus groups and online world cafes. Findings include gender differences regarding treatment need and a lack of consistent treatment pathways within the criminal justice system and wider community. Stigma can impact upon how professionals work with people experiencing addiction harms, and the term addiction and associated language can be problematic. Professionals that create barriers to accessing services aggravate harms and exacerbate addiction. Whilst associated crimes can be acquisitive in nature, violence victimisation and preparation can also occur. This paper outlines the challenges for HMPPS and community services and provides a series of recommendations for reducing addiction related harms and establishing appropriate treatment pathways based on service user feedback and professional observations.

This paper will outline a large-scale research project exploring how police forces in England and Wales collect the voices of victim-survivors with a view to shape service design, particularly focusing on barriers such as risk aversion, which inadvertently leads to exclusion of certain voices.

Incorporating the voices of victim-survivors in the design of police services has the potential to benefit victims and improve policing responses: victim-survivors appreciate being able to voice their opinions and contribute to change, whilst police are enabled to provide services that meet victim-survivor needs and help protect vulnerable people. Previous research has explored how to engage victim-survivors in the criminal justice system; however, little is known about how this engagement leads to change within police service design and delivery.

This project was conducted in three phases using desk-based and primary research methods. A documentary review of open-source information was followed by an in-depth analysis of feedback practices in five police forces. This included semi-structured interviews with a variety of police personnel and partners (N=91). Finally, national initiatives to collect voices of victim-survivors were identified through semi-structured interviews conducted with representatives from national working groups, national organisations representing victim-survivors and people with lived experience (N=18).

Findings confirmed victim-survivor engagement as a key component of rebuilding trust and confidence in policing. However, reactive and transactional approaches to collecting victim feedback were more common than participatory or collaborative approaches, and there was limited evidence of police forces regularly including victim-survivors of vulnerability-related crimes in their engagement practices. Necessary steps to ensure the inclusion of some of the most vulnerable victim-survivors were not always taken, thus inadvertently or actively excluding them.

Working safely with victim-survivors and diverse groups requires effective trauma-informed training repeated regularly to sustain impact. In order to improve service design, police forces may require further support to carry out engagement safely and effectively, learning from and working with other sectors and partners, which may help strengthen their engagement with victim-survivors.

This paper forms part of a proposed pre-arranged panel from the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme (VKPP) convened by Dr Debra Allnock, entitled ‘Amplifying Victim Survivor Voices in Policing: Findings from the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme’. The panel will shine a light on the forgotten and neglected voices of victim-survivors within policing with a focus on victim vulnerability, and the impact capturing such voices can have on policing.

Within recent years, policing has seen a significant increase in demand to respond to vulnerability-related risk, and a growing policy imperative to prioritise the voice of the victim/child within the criminal justice sector. Despite this, previous research has identified practice gaps and missed opportunities within policing to effectively engage with victim-survivors. This can result in victims feeling disappointed, re-traumatised, and impact on their future propensity to engage with the criminal justice system.

Previous research has gone some way to shine a light on the experiences of victims when engaging with the police; however, a significant gap still exists within our understanding of police practices and approaches to capturing the voice of the victim. It is critical to bridge this gap and understand the perspectives of those within policing if we are to design practice improvements and enhance the experiences of victim-survivors.

This paper will outline a mixed-methods study conducted by the VKPP that explored the attitudes and experiences of police personnel in capturing the voice of the victim. The study was conducted in two parts: first, a survey was disseminated to police forces across England and Wales, receiving representation from 1342 officers and staff and 42 police forces; second, the research team conducted a number of interviews and focus groups with police personnel, receiving representation from 30 individuals across 13 forces. The panel will outline our findings in relation to perceived victim credibility, the links with victim vulnerability, and explore how these factors interact with the perceived importance of victims’ voices. As this paper will identify, there are concerns that these factors can lead to the exclusion of certain voices within the criminal justice system.