Much needs to be done to protect victims of domestic violence and members of the public from people who are serial violent offenders. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has just presented the UK Government with the results of a six month review which has looked at potential new measures that could be taken to tackle serial perpetrators of violence against women. The review which was lead by Chief Constable Brian Moore (who is the ACPO lead on domestic abuse) was made at the request of the then former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.
Proposals which have come under consideration in the ACPO review include:
• Persons at risk of violence have the ‘right to know’ about relevant information;
• consideration of a new criminal offence whereby a prosecution may be brought on the basis of evidence of repeated violent behaviour (known as a ‘Course of Conduct’) against different victims of violence; and
• that the law should be changed to enable the police to issue a Domestic Violence Protection Order of up to 14 days duration, to prevent a suspected perpetrator of this form of violence from entering the address of the victim and/or to prevent contact with the victim.
ACPO says that it wants ‘to go after those serial perpetrators who go from relationship to relationship, growing in confidence and menace’. This review should be warmly welcomed and hopefully will be a first step towards a fresh approach which will actively deal with domestic violence and its perpetrators.
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