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HMIC Report highlights Police response to domestic violence 'failing'

Today's report from Her Majesties Inspectorate of Constabulary has attracted much commentary from  organisations associated with victims, understandably and correctly talking about the need for consequences and boundaries with 'violent criminals' and emphasising that the victims are female and at high risk of physical harm.

This is absolutely right, but also misleading in a way, as these incidents represent a very serious, but extreme end of these abusive behaviours, and while we need to be absolutely certain that victims are protected, and the police do this, it isn't the case that all 'domestic violence' fits this pattern. Research strongly suggests that the majority of intimate partner violence doesn't fit this pattern; it's more complex, more nuanced, more fluid.

This matters, because treating other incidents as though they were all those extreme end incidents, means we spread precious resources too thin, and we risk not actually dealing with the source of the problem effectively. We have to accept that for the majority of victims, they want the abuse to stop, not necessarily to leave the abuser. Victims who need protection must be protected, but we need to be working to help abusers change, or we simply address symptoms not causes.