Archives

The Domestic Homicide Review Dataset: A new resource for policy, practice & research

The UKPRP VISION research consortium is pleased to develop and release the Domestic Homicide Review dataset (DHRD) for England and Wales. VISION Research Fellow Darren Cook and VISION Co-Investigator Lizzie Cook (both at City St George’s University of London) compiled structured data derived from publicly available reports from the UK Home Office Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) Library for England and Wales.

The dataset includes linked document-level, incident-level, victim-level, and perpetrator-level records. The release includes four CSV files, alongside a README, codebook, changelog, licence, citation metadata file, and a ZIP archive containing the full release. The dataset is intended to support research on domestic homicide, victimisation, perpetration, vulnerability, mental health, and related criminological and social policy topics.

The initial release includes information on 647 DHR documents made available by the Home Office between December 2022 and March 2026. The dataset is derived from Home Office data, including tagging and filtering categories exposed through the Home Office website. It is not based on manual coding of the full report texts, therefore, users should interpret missing values and untagged characteristics cautiously.

To download the dataset: The Domestic Homicide Review Dataset (DHRD) for England and Wales

To cite: Cook, D., & Cook, E. (2026). The Domestic Homicide Review Dataset (DHRD) for England and Wales (1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21648010

Photo by Robert Clark on Unsplash

Violence is a risk factor for adverse clinical outcomes in severe mental illness

A longitudinal study investigating the experiences of violence suffered by those with severe mental illness (SMI) was recently published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. VISION researchers Vishal Bhavsar, Angus Roberts, and Robert Stewart worked with lead author Ava Mason and others and found that people with SMI and who experienced violence are more likely to need future emergency and inpatient mental care.

The aim of their research was to understand whether violence recorded early in someone’s contact with mental health services could help predict these later outcomes. Anonymised electronic mental health records from approximately 6,000 adults who received care from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust between 2007 and 2022 were investigated.

By applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) to records of those diagnosed with schizophrenia or related disorders, or bipolar disorder or mania, the researchers were able to determine whether any current or previous physical, domestic or sexual violence had been recorded in the first three months after someone first came into contact with services.

Results showed that people living with SMI who had violence recorded in their mental health records early in their care were at increased risk of crisis service use, hospital admission and detention under the Mental Health Act in the years that followed. This highlights the importance of identifying and responding to experiences of violence as part of routine mental health care.

In conclusion, experiences of violence, to the extent to which patients report their experiences and these are recorded, are risk factors for worse outcomes in severe mental illness, only partly accounted for by clinical status around the time of presentation. More systematic ascertainment and recording of victimisation needs to be considered if interventions are to be appropriately targeted.

To download the article: An investigation of recorded physical, domestic and sexual victimisation as risk factors for adverse clinical outcomes in severe mental illness: longitudinal study

To cite: Mason AJC, Bhavsar V, Roberts A, et al. An investigation of recorded physical, domestic and sexual victimisation as risk factors for adverse clinical outcomes in severe mental illness: longitudinal study. The British Journal of Psychiatry. Published online 2026:1-8. doi:10.1192/bjp.2026.10648

Illustration from Adobe Photo Stock subscription

Using Natural Language Processing in Domestic Homicide Reviews

Since 2011, there has been a statutory requirement in England and Wales to conduct a Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) into any domestic abuse-related death: a multi-agency review into the death of a person aged 16 or over that appears to have resulted from violence, abuse or neglect from an intimate partner, family member or household member.

However, analyses of large numbers of DHRs are rare. One of the core challenges is the time and effort required to analyse narrative text within reports. Doing so manually is both time-consuming and resource-intensive and is a primary reason why researchers typically focus on only a portion of the available data. Natural Language Processing (NLP)—a sub-branch of artificial intelligence that enables computers to interpret and process natural language—provides a viable and scalable alternative by offsetting much of the heavy data processing to a computer.

In this study protocol, developed by VISION Research Fellow Dr Darren Cook and VISION Co-Investigator Dr Elizabeth Cook (both at City St George’s University of London) with Sumanta Roy and Rani Selvarajah of Imkaan, and VISION Co-Investigator Professor Ravi Thiara (University of Warwick), they outline a study to assess the feasibility of applying NLP to DHRs.

The VISION and Imkaan team outline a collaborative approach which balances the speed and scale of automation with the embedded knowledge and expertise of practitioners. This approach helps to ensure that outputs of NLP are sensitive and transparent about the biases common within datasets on violence and abuse.

Based on initial consultations, the team have identified a series of priority research questions for investigation. In addition, they outline details of an ongoing collaboration with one partner, Imkaan. The protocol describes the data access, and retrieval and analysis stages before summarising how feasibility will be evaluated. The protocol concludes by arguing that working with practitioners who hold deep contextual knowledge about the social realities of violence and abuse, including language, risks, and experiences, means that tools can be developed that are accountable to communities and appropriately applied to real-world problems.

To download the protocol: A collaborative approach to applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) to Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs): A study protocol

To cite: Cook D, Cook EA, Roy S, Thiara R, Selvarajah R (2026) A collaborative approach to applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) to Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs): A study protocol. PLoS One 21(5): e0348948. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0348948

For further information: Please contact Lizzie at elizabeth.cook@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Illustration from Unsplash website

Commissioning Pathways for Domestic Homicide / Abuse-Related Death Reviews: Are All Deaths Counted?

Domestic homicide reviews (being renamed domestic abuse-related death reviews) have been undertaken in England and Wales since 2011. However, relatively little is known about the commissioning process for these reviews, including where notifications come from, if the types of cases being referred are changing, and the outcomes. Knowledge is also limited about who is involved in these decisions and who is informed when a decision is made.

For this project, Dr James Rowlands (University of Durham), VISION Co-Investigator Dr Elizabeth Cook (City St George’s University of London) and research consultant Dr Althea Cribb, used data requested from the partnership bodies responsible for commissioning domestic homicide / abuse-related death reviews about notifications and decision-making between January 2017 and December 2024. Their findings highlight the changing profile of cases, variability in decision-making, and gaps in communication and oversight.

To download the paper: Commissioning Pathways for Domestic Homicide / Abuse-Related Death Reviews: Are All Deaths Counted?

To cite: Rowlands, J., Cook, E., & Cribb, A. (2026, May 11). Commissioning Pathways for Domestic Homicide / Abuse-Related Death Reviews: Are All Deaths Counted?. https://doi.org/10.15128/r1kp78gg500

Illustration from Adobe Photo Stock subscription

VISION Policy Briefing: The role of health services in identifying and responding to teenage relationship abuse

 

 

Introduction

Teenage relationship abuse (TRA) is a growing public health concern that the current statutory framework is ill-equipped to address. Under-16s fall outside the legal definition of domestic abuse entirely, creating significant gaps in identification, referral and intervention at precisely the age when abuse most commonly begins. A Youth Endowment Fund survey of 11,000 teenagers aged 13 to 17 found that 39% of those who had been in a relationship had experienced emotional or physical abuse, yet no coherent professional or legal framework exists to respond.

This VISION Policy Briefing draws on findings from three place-based practitioner roundtables exploring TRA and conducted in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Northumbria in 2025. As the first in a series of sector-specific policy briefs it sets out what the health sector is currently unable to do, where the opportunities lie, and what commissioners, NHS trusts and public health leads need to do differently. 

Key recommendations

  1. NHS commissioners to include TRA identification and referral in domestic abuse commissioning frameworks, explicitly covering under-16s
  2. Integration of TRA content into existing safeguarding and domestic abuse training frameworks for all health professionals working with young people, including GPs, school nurses, emergency services staff, sexual health clinicians and mental health practitioners – with outcome measurement built in
  3. Clear referral pathways from health settings into specialist TRA support to be established in every area, regardless of the young person’s age
  4. Health and Wellbeing Boards to include TRA as a public health priority in Joint Strategic Needs Assessments
  5. School health teams to be resourced and trained to deliver TRA/DA content as part of PSHE, building on the school nurse model in Oxford and aligned with the Mental Health Support Team roll out
  6. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to develop protocols for identifying TRA among young people presenting with mental health difficulties
  7. Extend operating hours for young people’s services

To download the VISION Policy Briefing: The role of health services in identifying and  responding to teenage relationship abuse

To cite: Weir, Ruth; Barrow-Grint, Katy (2026). VISION Policy Brief: Teenage Relationship Abuse and Health. City, University of London. Report. https://doi.org/10.25383/city.32292564.v1

For further information: Ruth at ruth.weir@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Intimate partner relationship abuse between men: An interdisciplinary seminar

 

Wednesday 17 June 2026, 13:00  – 16:45, in person only

This event is in the past.

This free, interdisciplinary seminar brings together leading voices from research, lived experience, performance, and specialist practice to examine intimate partner violence in relationships between men and consider implications for policy, research, professional practice, and wider system response.

Register here: Ticket Tailor

Despite increasing recognition that abuse within intimate male relationships is a significant public health, social justice, and service delivery issue, it remains under recognised across many systems and disciplines. Survivors frequently encounter barriers to recognition, disclosure, and support, while policy, professional training, and public discourse have historically paid limited attention to these experiences. 

This event will explore the dynamics, impacts, and structural challenges surrounding abuse in this context, and consider how research, policy, practice, and public understanding can evolve to better respond. 

The programme combines research presentations, creative performance, lived experience testimony, and expert commentary to offer a multi-dimensional exploration of the issue. The seminar will include catering and: 

  • A brief research presentation on prevalence, dynamics, barriers to recognition, and current evidence gaps from Dr Steven Maxwell 
  • A monologue from He Kept Me Safe, a research based verbatim play developed from survivor narratives exploring abuse within intimate male relationships by Dr Edgar Rodriguez-Doran 
  • A keynote contribution from broadcaster, comedian and survivor advocate James Barr, reflecting on his lived experience through comedy and the role of storytelling 
  • A talk from Tanaka Mhishi, writer and researcher in masculinity, trauma and sexual violence, exploring masculinity, trauma, violence, and engaging men in conversations about healing 
  • Brief facilitated interdisciplinary discussion on implications for research, policy, education, commissioning, service design, and practice 

This event aims to stimulate critical interdisciplinary dialogue and contribute to wider thinking on inclusive responses to domestic abuse and sexual violence. 

 

Intended Audience / Invitees 

The seminar is intended for a broad interdisciplinary audience including: 

  • Researchers and academics across social science, health, psychology, gender studies, criminology, law, public health, and related disciplines 
  • Policy makers and strategic leaders working in domestic abuse, sexual violence, health, justice, equalities, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and public policy 
  • Health and social care professionals 
  • Mental health practitioners and psychological therapists 
  • Domestic abuse and sexual violence services 
  • Policing, criminal justice, and legal professional 
  • LGBTQ+ and community sector organisations 
  • Sexual health and public health professionals 
  • Education and professional training providers 
  • Students and trainees with relevant academic or professional interests 
  • Wider stakeholders with interest in trauma, masculinity, violence prevention, and inclusive service/system design

 

Programme 

1.00 pm: Registration and Lunch 

1.30 pm: Welcome and Opening Remarks 

1.40 pm: Research Presentation: Understanding Intimate Partner Violence in Male Relationships: Prevalence, Dynamics and System Challenges 

2.00 pm: Monologue: He Kept Me Safe 

2.40 pm: Facilitated Discussion and Audience Reflection 

3.00 pm: Break 

3.15 pm: James Barr: Lived Experience, Comedy, and Public Discourse 

3.45 pm: Audience Q&A 

4.00 pm: Tanaka Mhishi: Masculinity, Trauma and Engaging Men in Conversations About Violence and Healing 

4.30 pm: Panel Discussion / Closing Audience Q&A 

4.45 pm: Close 

Join us at this free seminar, 17 June, Northampton Suite, City St George’s UoL, Clerkenwell, London, 1300 – 1645. To book your place please register here: Ticket Tailor 

Photograph provided via Adobe Stock subscription

VISION researcher receives funding for secondary data analysis

Dr Annie Bunce, Research Fellow at VISION, received funding from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy for her application, Exploring resilience, self-empowerment and wellbeing outcomes of women referred to specialist domestic abuse counselling services.

With the support of Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa, VISION co-Deputy Director, and in collaboration with Sarah Davidge, Head of Membership, Research and Evaluation at Women’s Aid, Annie will investigate whether and how receiving counselling from a specialist domestic abuse (DA) support service is associated with change in wellbeing.

She will analyse quantitative data from national DA charity, Women’s Aid, which includes information on various aspects of victim-survivors’ wellbeing at the start, during, and end of accessing services. Data analysis will reveal whether victim-survivors who receive counselling experience greater improvements in their wellbeing than those who receive other community-based services.

Annie will also examine whether counselling may be associated with greater wellbeing gains for some groups than others, and whether change in wellbeing is associated with the type/s of abuse experienced and other services received.

The analysis will show which factors influence the effect of counselling on changes in wellbeing the most, and which wellbeing indicators are most improved following counselling.

Findings will be shared via an academic report, blog, policy briefing, webinar and conference presentations.

The research will help to improve understanding of the relationship between counselling and wellbeing in the context of DA, feed into Women’s Aid’s ongoing work to ensure they are measuring the things most important to victim-survivors when it comes to their wellbeing and promote consistency in measuring wellbeing-related outcomes across DA services more widely.

Please contact Annie at annie.bunce@citystgeorges.ac.uk for further information.

Image from Adobe Stock subscription.

The establishment of the National Working Group on Teenage Relationship Abuse

Teenage relationship abuse remains one of the least understood forms of domestic abuse, particularly among those under 16 years of age, who fall outside the statutory definition within the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act.

To close the gap between research, policy, and frontline practice and ensure that young people are no longer overlooked, VISION researcher and co-Deputy Director of the Violence and Society Centre at City St George’s, Dr Ruth Weir, co-established the National Working Group on Teenage Relationship Abuse with Gloucestershire Deputy Chief Constable Katy Barrow-Grint in 2024. The group consists of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, third sector organisations, and young people with lived experience of teenage abuse from across the health and justice sectors for a holistic understanding of the problem.

Membership has grown over the two years and now includes the Home Office, Department for Education, the Cabinet Office, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s Office, College of Policing, local government (Islington Council), universities (City St George’s, Essex, Lancashire), NHS bodies, multiple police forces such as Thames Valley and the London Metropolitan Police, school trusts, and charities like SafeLives, Respect, Youth Realities, Changing Relations, and Victim Support just to name a few.

The group brings their expertise to shape ongoing national conversations on how teenage relationship abuse is defined, recognised, and responded to, particularly for those under 16.

Please contact Ruth at ruth.weir@citystgeorges.ac.uk for further information.

Service duration, determinants of case closure and case completion for victim-survivors accessing domestic abuse support services

Demand for specialist domestic abuse (DA) support services is high, in the United Kingdom (UK) and worldwide, and resource is scarce. The length of time victim-survivors spend in service depends on multiple factors, but what determines whether they successfully complete support, or their case is closed for another reason, is less well understood.

The purpose of the current study, Service duration and determinants of case closure and case completion for victim-survivors accessing specialist domestic abuse support services, was to improve understanding of the relationship between length in service, case completion and possible needs and vulnerabilities of specialist service users.

VISION researchers Dr Annie Bunce, Dr Elouise Davies and Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa analysed Women’s Aid Federation of England’s (WAFE) case management and outcomes management system, On Track, the largest national dataset on domestic abuse. 

To further examine the influence of reason for case closure, which the team explored as determinants of case completion, a series of multinomial logistic regressions were conducted, controlling for potentially confounding variables. Stakeholders from Women’s Aid and five other third sector organisations provided input into the study design and interpretation of results.

Most survivors accessing DA services needed community-based services (n = 210,599) and spent an average of just under three months in service. Those who needed more intensive support (e.g. accommodation, refuge) stayed in service for longer on average- 130 days and 115 days, respectively. The survival analysis revealed that cases were less likely to close for people with additional vulnerabilities. Results from the multinomial logistic regressions demonstrated that, for those whose case had been closed, additional vulnerabilities meant they were more likely to have disengaged, had a service-related closure or an unknown reason for case closure.

The limited supply of services impacts on the level of unmet needs for victim-survivors of domestic abuse. If services continue having to do more and more with less, they will be forced into a position of having to trade-off between spending time supporting people to cater to multiple needs and vulnerabilities, and getting people in and out of the door to ensure the slot is available for the next victim-survivor who needs it. 

Recommendation

  1. It is critical that DA services are resourced adequately to support those with multiple needs and additional vulnerabilities to complete a period of time in service. This is something that should be considered by commissioners of DA services.

To download the publication: Service duration and determinants of case closure and case completion for victim-survivors accessing specialist domestic abuse support services

To cite: Bunce, A., Davies, E. & Barbosa, E.C. Service Duration and Determinants of Case Closure and Case Completion for Victim-Survivors Accessing Specialist Domestic Abuse Support Services. J Fam Viol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-026-01052-x

For further information: Please contact Annie at annie.bunce@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Illustration from Adobe Photo Stock subscription

Improving police recorded crime data with natural language processing

Understanding and preventing Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) is compounded by long-standing data quality issues in police records. Accurate police-recorded crime data is vital for responding to DVA, yet it often contains missing values and inaccuracies.

Across all crime types, the quality of police data in England and Wales has been a concern. While there have been improvements in overall crime data recording since 2014, individual police forces still encounter difficulties adequately recording instances of DVA in police-recorded crime datasets. 

Correcting poorly recorded or missing data at this scale is non-trivial and beyond the capabilities of manual intervention alone. Fortunately, the increasing availability of computational solutions and machine learning algorithms such as text mining and natural language processing (NLP) can augment, and to a degree, offset much of this processing. NLP is supported by a growing body of interdisciplinary research, which shows that valuable information can be automatically extracted from unstructured data such as crime reports and case summaries through technology.

However, automated prediction systems are not without risk, particularly when applied in sensitive domains such as policing. Data inherently reflects societal biases that poorly designed AI solutions can amplify, and in the context of DVA, these biases may stem from underreporting of marginalized demographic groups or inconsistencies in police recording practices.

In their recent study, Improving police recorded crime data for domestic violence and abuse through natural language processing, VISION researchers Dr Darren Cook and Dr Ruth Weir (City St George’s University of London) and Dr Leslie Humphries (University of Lancashire), evaluated the capability of supervised machine learning models to automatically extract victim–offender relationship information from free-text crime notes in DVA cases.

Both models demonstrated that such tools could serve as cost-effective and efficient alternatives to manual coding, accurately classifying relationship type in around four out of five cases. The incorporation of a selective classification function improved precision for the most challenging cases by abstaining from low-confidence predictions, though at the cost of reduced coverage. This research represents a meaningful step toward addressing concerns about the completeness and reliability of police-recorded crime data.

Recommendation

Given that police-recorded crime lost its status as an accredited official statistic in 2014 due in part to weaknesses in data collection and processing, the application of data science methods to reliably impute missing values offers a promising route to restoring confidence in these records. Police constabularies are encouraged to use the available technology and implement text mining and NLP solutions to extract valuable information from unstructured data such as crime reports and case summaries.

For further information: Please contact Darren at darren.cook@citystgeorges.ac.uk

To cite: Cook D, Weir R, Humphries, L. Improving police recorded crime data for domestic violence and abuse through natural language processing. Front. Sociol., 24 November 2025, Sec. Medical Sociology Volume 10 – 2025 https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2025.1686632

Photograph from Adobe Photo Stock subscription