Background
Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) were established on a statutory basis under Section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004). This provision came into force on 13 April 2011; responsibility for undertaking domestic homicide reviews lies with the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) within the victim’s area of residence.
The act states:
DHR means a review of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or
over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by:
- a person to whom he was related or with whom he was or had been in an intimate personal relationship, or
- a member of the same household as himself, held with a view to identifying the lessons to be learnt from the death.
Why are they completed?
The key purpose for undertaking domestic homicide reviews (DHR) is to enable lessons to be learned from homicides where a person is killed as a result of domestic violence, abuse or neglect.
In order for these lessons to be learned as widely and thoroughly as possible, professionals need to be able to understand fully what happened in each homicide, and most importantly, what needs to change in order to reduce the risk of such tragedies happening in the future.