POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONERS – THE ISSUE OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Domestic Violence ruins adult lives. It also blights the children’s lives
who grow up with it.
It also ends lives. In 2010, 94 women and 21 men were murdered by a current or
former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend.
If elected, I will work with the Police and Partner Agencies to do two things:
1.
Introduce Clare’s Law into Dorset. Clares law is currently being trialled in some Forces
in the UK, and is a mirror image of Sarah’s Law, introduced into the UK by Sara Payne,
the mother of murdered 8 year old Sarah Payne, the case I worked on.
It means that a person can contact the police and ask for previous police
records/convictions of violence from a new partner. Before the relationship
takes on permanence, before children are integrated, before mortgage deeds
are signed.
Judging by the success of Sarah’s Law in Dorset (Read here)this will better inform
people about choices, and will reduce the chance of harm. It will also help prevent
some new victims.
2.
Repeat Victims deserve special treatment, repeat victims need support. Repeat
victims are more at risk of serious harm. There have been cases where repeat
victims have been “missed” by the Police.
I want to make sure that repeat victims are dealt with quickly and efficiently, with
interventions and arrest of offenders being a priority. I want more multi agency
information sharing to identify new victims, enabling agencies to intervene urgently
and provide quicker and better support for repeat victims.
