Professor Jane Monckton Smith, in a life-saving book, explains why there are patterns of escalating male violence that too often end in tragedy — Read on www.sundaypost.com/fp/male-violence-myths ..read more

We have been researching Domestic Abuse related suicides this month and I’ve found it the most difficult piece of work I’ve done in a long time. We have been applying the method we used to construct the Homicide Timeline to understand what happens in the weeks and months before a suicide. The work is not yet complete, but the early findings suggest there is a strong and predictable chronology in a domestic abuse related suicide. We have been privileged to speak with bereaved families and professionals working in this area, to dig really deeply into our cases and the events preceding a sudden d ..read more

We’ve had the online training available now for a couple of months and feedback has been so so positive. Thank you to those who have taken the time to get in touch with us, its always nice to connect, especially as we’re connecting with people who have been victimised by coercive control and homicide, as well as professionals in many different roles including some passionate investigative journalists. We know that Social Workers, IDVAs, Police Officers, Lawyers, Detectives, Local Authority employees and many others are taking the training. We are definitely starting an important conversation a ..read more

It is our case work here at the Centre for Learning and Innovation in Public Protection (CLIPP) at the University of Gloucestershire that has inspired some of our research. Working on individual cases reveals the way some issues have such a significant impact and also reveals issues that are often seemingly invisible. The Hidden Homicide project grew from this case work and it was fantastic to see investigative journalist Louise Tickle develop the ideas and issues raised by our project. Keep an eye out for a report from her on her investigations in the future. https://www.theguardian.com/profi ..read more

Version 1.1 of the training is now available. It has been designed to replace the face to face training that is so difficult now due to the Covid-19 restrictions. An online course also allows professionals to access the information at a time convenient to themselves and from anywhere in the world. It means that large numbers of professionals are not taken from their work all at the same time, and allows us to use different forms of content. Questions and interactivity with the trainers can still be achieved via the weekly webchats on Zoom for those who wish to attend. We would like to th ..read more

The online training is about to go live very soon! It has been difficult putting things together in lockdown conditions and aspects have taken longer than we hoped. We have had to do some things in ways we hadn’t planned, but its just about ready to go now and we hope you are all as keen to do the training as you were two months ago! Intimate Partner Homicide has risen during the Covid-19 restrictions and it is more important than ever to recognise how risk can escalate in a controlling relationship. We have been lucky to have the support of AAFDA, The Alice Ruggles Trust, The Hollie Gazzard ..read more

There are no places left for this event This webinar takes place: 10th June 1100 – 1300 UK time Zoom platform There is no charge Those of you who have sent your email address will receive information via email next week. Susan Haile will be the host for the event. Sue is an experienced advocate for bereaved families, and a doctoral candidate researching victim voices in Domestic Homicide Reviews. As this is a webinar rather than a Zoom meeting questions can be sent to Sue via webinar messaging on the day, alternatively questions can be sent in advance to criminologist@outlook.com. The speakers ..read more

The Homicide Timeline Webinar will be happening on the 10th June between 1100 and 1300. Everyone who has expressed interest in the online training and sent me their email address will receive an invitation to the webinar. If you are interested please make sure I have your email. Those of you who gave me Twitter handles – I need your email to provide a link for the webinar. You can DM me your email, you can use this blog or you can email me at criminologist@outlook.com ..read more

There have been some really great webinars and debates taking place during this lockdown that have kept intimate partner homicide high on the agenda. I have been lucky enough to be part of some of those discussions and it has inspired me to try and give answers to some of the questions that have arisen around the eight stage Homicide Timeline. I am very happy for anyone to pose more questions and to open debate around this very complex issue. The Timeline talks about controlling and stalking patterns and behaviours. Stalking is not formally defined and when we talk about stalking patterns we a ..read more

It is a fact that even before the Covid-19 lockdown there was an increase in domestic homicides. There has been another increase during the lockdown and sadly I predict this will continue. It’s important to recognise that the lockdown is not creating abusers, it is however bringing them out of the shadows. These homicides are not happening out of the blue, there is always a history. It may not be the history we expect, but it’s a history of patterns that we can learn about and understand so that we have a better chance of saving lives. Domestic abuse, coercive control, stalking and domestic ho ..read more