'You will be listened to' - how we are tackling domestic abuse

“We’re innovating to protect victims of domestic abuse” – that’s from one of our senior detectives.

Detective Superintendent Matt Cornish is the force’s lead for tackling domestic abuse. He said:

“Tackling violence of all kinds, but particularly domestic violence is one of the forces key objectives.
“We want people to feel safe in their homes and in their communities, and we’re doing things differently to achieve that.
“It’s not enough just to respond to incidents and investigate offences, we want to prevent them from happening.
“Our award-winning #Reflect campaign puts the focus on the perpetrator. It says to them ‘recognise your behaviour and seek help’.
“And we’ve worked with the Change Project who then help those people to change that behaviour.
“There are not many, if any, other domestic abuse campaigns which take this approach and we’ve seen that it works.
“Since it started, we’ve seen 700 people make contact with the Change Project. That’s incredible and it really could save lives.”

Changing approach to stop serious offenders

Det Supt Cornish added that the force has changed the way it assesses the most high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators. He explains:

“Most forces use a model called ‘Recency, Frequency, Gravity’.
“Essentially, this rates the risk someone poses based on how recently they’ve offended, how often, and the seriousness of that offending.
“But we’re taking a different approach, and using one which is backed up by academic research.
“We now look at the behaviours most prevalent in the most serious cases of domestic abuse – things like coercion and control, stalking, and a history of violence.
“Each of those behaviours is weighted and we rate the risk someone poses based on that calculation.
“It means we’re better placed to identify the most high-risk cases and be able to step in.
“And we’re using technology to get better evidence to improve the chance of a successful conviction.
“Last year we created our Rapid Video Response Team, who sit in our control room.
“When take evidence when a domestic abuse case is called in, on video, to ensure we’re capturing the best evidence as quickly as possible.
“Within its first six months, the team had taken more than 1,000 reports and we’ve had positive feedback from victims about this new way of working.”

A dedicated team for Clare's Law disclosures

It’s not just creating new systems and processes to improve how we tackle this issue. Det Supt Cornish says we’ve been reviewing what we’d been previously doing too. He said:

“In January 2023 we looked at how we were doing this like Clare’s Law and we recognised our work here wasn’t good enough and we weren’t providing enough disclosures.
“So we’ve rectified that.
“We now have a dedicated team looking at the requests we get for information about someone, and making decisions on whether we can release information.
“And that’s led to a big increase in the disclosures we’ve made. Since August we’ve made nearly 400 disclosures which works out as nearly two out of every three requests made.
“It’s not just Clare’s Law. We’ve really improved our work around Stalking Prevention Orders.
“A couple of years ago we were one of the lowest performing forces for successfully obtaining these, now we’re the best performing.
“We’ve also invested in specialist teams who investigate domestic abuse cases and support victims, manage the highest harm offenders and prevent the from re-offending, and target high risk perpetrators or potential perpetrators to break their cycle of behaviour, as well as identifying opportunities to safeguard victims.”

Det Supt Cornish says this work is making a difference:

“In the last year we’ve seen around 4,500 fewer reports of domestic abuse and around 140 fewer repeat victims.
“One victim of domestic abuse is one too many but I believe our work to protect people and stopping offences in the first place is having a real, tangible impact.
“We won’t stop this work. It’s really important that people feel safe.
“My ask to the public is – if you’re a victim of domestic abuse, come forward and tell us. You’ll be listened to and you will be supported.”

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If you enter a relationship with someone new and start to feel a little unsure about the situation, there are steps you can take.

Clare's Law gives any member of the public the right to ask the police if their partner may pose a risk to them.

For more information about Clare's Law and how to make an application please visit our domestic violence disclosure scheme page.

At Essex Police we put victims at the heart of everything we do. The Victims’ Code explains the rights that everyone can expect to receive as a victim of crime, and helps us define what we must do for all victims from their initial contact with our force until the conclusion of their case.

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Synergy Essex provides support and guidance for survivors of sexual and sexual abuse across Essex.

The Essex Rape Crisis Partnership is formed of three organisations:

• CARA (Centre for Action on Rape and Abuse) who cover mid and north Essex.
• SERICC (Rape and Sexual Abuse Specialist Service) who cover South and West Essex.
• SOS Rape Crisis who cover Southend, Castle Point and Rochford.

Survivors can self-refer and receive emotional support, specialist sexual violence and abuse counselling and or specialist advocacy services, no matter when the sexual violence or abuse occurred. In addition to this, they also offer support to survivor’s loved ones.

For more information about how to get support, visit the Synergy Essex website.