Progress on domestic violence targets

Report: 10
Date: 09 January 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report informs Members of the MPS current progress against the judicial disposal targets and also advises Members of the limited comparisons that can be made between the MPS and its family members

A. Recommendations

Members are asked to note the contents of the report

B. Supporting information

1. The current Judicial Disposal (JD) target for crimes recorded and flagged as Domestic Violence (dv) is 16%. These are crimes resulting in a suspect being charged or cautioned for an offence.

2. In the last financial year (Apr 01 - Mar 02), the MPS recorded 56,253 offences and obtained a JD rate of 14.88%. In the current year to October, 36,603 offences have been recorded in the MPS with a judicial disposal rate of 16.14%.

3. At this point in the last financial year (Apr 01 - Oct 01) 33,043 offences had been reported, a rise of 3,560 recorded offences. This is an average increase of 169 offences recorded per month from last year.

Borough Breakdown of Judicial Disposal for Domestic Violence

4. Appendix 1 shows the borough breakdown for JD both for the last policing year (April - March) and the current year (April - October). As such, the figure’s are not directly comparable but do provide an indicator for the rate of increase seen in the current year.

Victim satisfaction levels in domestic violence

5. At present there is no MPS wide policy in force to record victim satisfaction levels throughout the MPD for victims of dv. Victims of dv sometimes report to the police in confidence without the suspect knowing, to send a police satisfaction survey to these victims was not considered appropriate and could put them at risk of further attack by the suspect. Research is currently being undertaken into this area by the Community Safety Unit team at the Racial and Violent Crime Task Force with a view to the possibility of implementing a system for customer satisfaction survey in cases of dv across the MPS.

Comparison of MPS domestic violence performance to date with other forces in the MPS police family

6. An examination of the MPS’ family group, ie. Merseyside, West Midlands, Greater Manchester Police and West Yorkshire, domestic violence performance has been studied to establish a comparison.. However, it is not currently possible to compare the MPS’ outcomes compared with its other family members as only one other force, Merseyside Police, currently records statistics relating to judicial disposals. Their current jd rate for the current policing year is 15.74%.

7. PIB (Performance Information Bureau) produces statistics for repeat victims of domestic violence. These figures relate to cases of dv where the victim has reported being the victim of a similar offence within the last 12 months. The record percentage for the financial year 2001 / 2002 across the MPS is 23.20%. This figure is, of course, assuming the officer reporting has asked the question and entered the correct repeat code on CRIS (Crime Reporting Information System).

Other diversity issues for consideration

8. Monitoring of same-sex dv has proved difficult and time consuming due to the constraints of the CRIS system and the non-existence of a specific flag which can be used to identify a same sex relationship.

9. The Understanding and Responding to Hate Crime Team within the Diversity Directorate have also identified consistent input errors in relation to the gender variations in same sex dv cases on CRIS. Up to two thirds of these cases are inaccurately coded.

10. A new CRIS system is being introduced towards the end of 2003. The system has a much improved searching facility, and new codes will include same sex relationship.

11. A separate report by Susan Patterson of URHC on this issue is available to members on request.

Other internal arrangements for progressing the work of Domestic Violence in the Diversity Directorate.

Murder reviews for domestic violence cases

12. At present 25% off all murders in the MPS are dv related. It became apparent from the work being conducted at DCC4, by the Understanding and Responding to Hate Crime Team, researching and analysing hate crime, that there may be intervention strategies put in place to prevent some of these murders and as a result a murder review process has been developed to identify gaps in services.

13. The Detective Inspector for each Community Safety Unit in the MPS takes details of each case’s investigation and conducts a review into the lead up to the murder. This takes into account such factors as the history of incidents, any gaps in service delivery to the victims and other factors such as whether the victim was in a high-risk group etc. The DIs also gather together various partnership agencies as the Social Services and the local council who are tasked to do their own research into this area and feed the results back to the DI who then compiles a report. This report is passed to the Domestic Violence Murder Review Panel chaired by Commander Baker of the Serious Crime Group.

14. The Commander as well as representatives for each authority such as Social Services, the Greater London Authority, health authorities and the Probation Service have a co-ordinated murder review panel to examine and address the issues raised in the review process.

Risk Assessment project

15. Domestic violence is a volume crime and through the work undertaken by the URHC, researching the dynamics of reported cases, it was apparent that various risk factors for victims were emerging. Risk assessment for hate crime was already part of the minimum standards for investigation. However, few boroughs had any structured or scientific based model in place, resulting in inconsistencies in prioritising work-loads and putting suitable intervention strategies in place in an effort to minimise future risk to the victim. A project team was set up to design a suitable tool to facilitate this process.

16. This tool was recently piloted at Kingston, Hammersmith & Fulham, Lambeth and Ealing Boroughs for a period of three months. Laura Richards of the Understanding Hate Crime Unit, at NSY, together with an external consultancy, are currently evaluating the results from the pilot, which will be released in the early part of 2003. The tool is used in conjunction with the murder review project.

17. A copy of the intervention strategies for dv victims and offenders (Appendix 2). A copy of the risk assessment tool is available to members on request.

Pathfinders

18. A scheme has funded and set up by the probation service to track perpetrators convicted of dv crimes for a period of 18-months. Offenders are put through various programmes as part of their sentence, this can be either part of the terms of their probation or as part of their custodial sentence to address their behaviour. The programme can be tailored to the individual depending on the behaviour they display and the causes behind it, such as offenders who abuse alcohol or drugs. The Probation Service monitor their process and track their movements alongside the police looking for any reports of breach of the order or re-offending. This would also occur where the offender has moved to a different borough and has a new partner.

19. Currently there are discussions as to whether this should be conducted by the Community Safety Units or the Borough intelligence and Public Protection Units who are better equipped to undertake this work. This scheme is currently being piloted on seven boroughs in the south of London.

Forced Marriage

20. Funded by the FCO, the MPS set up a project team to look into the issues for the Service in relation to forced marriage. Whilst it is recognised that arranged marriage is welcomed in some cultures, any marriage where there is an element of duress is not. Measures have been put in place to identify and monitor recorded cases and guidelines for dealing with cases have been published and issued to all staff. Cases are dealt with in line with current dv strategies.

Review of minimum standards for investigating hate crime

21. The current police minimum standards were originally published in 1999 and updated in 2000. A review is currently underway to see if the minimum standards for dv investigation are in need of revising, bearing in mind the length of time they have been in circulation and the changes in police practices since their publication.

Review of minimum standards for investigation of domestic violence where a police officer is involved

22. The current policy in relation to dv where police officers are involved, either as victims or suspects, were published in 1997 and have not been updated since. This policy is at present under review to bring it in line with minimums standards of investigation and current dv strategies.

Other Domestic Violence issues

23. Members of the MPA have requested more detailed information on domestic violence in regard to gender and sexuality. There are no statistics currently available in regard to sexuality, as currently there is no flag on the CRIS for sexuality or lifestyle and it is not possible to search under these headings.

24. However, this system is due to be updated at the end of 2003 with one that can search under these details. Relationship codes would also be more accurate with the introduction of this system as referred to above, making it easier to record same sex dv incidents. Speaking with the other forces in the MPS family group they also have the same situation where it is possible to monitor the gender and relationship of suspect and victim in each case but not their lifestyle. As has already been said elsewhere in this report the overall view in regards to same sex dv is that the figures are currently inaccurate due to incorrect reporting by officers.

25. In regard to gender generally a recent ‘snapshot’ study showed that 81% of victims of dv were female. The figure for men was generally around 8%. However, this is probably inaccurate as men are far less likely to report dv where they are the victims.

C. Equality and diversity implications

The aim of the Diversity Directorate is to ensure that the rights of all the minority communities of London are policed correctly and according to the MPS’ Mission, Vision and Values. As reported above, the Diversity Directorate is working extremely hard, in conjunction with its partners, to ensure that these aims are met.

D. Financial implications

The Home Office funded the development of the Risk Assessment Project. However, the implementation of the project has been met equally by both the Diversity Directorate and the boroughs implementing it. It has not been possible, due to time constraints to calculate the cost for the individual boroughs.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Crispin Ryan, Diversity Directorate, MPS.

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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