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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.

Upcoming webinar on the DHRD

VISION has organised a webinar on 29 July introducing the dataset and how to access and use this new resource. For further information on the event, please see: Upcoming webinar – The Domestic Homicide Review Dataset for England and Wales: A new resource

 

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.21108268

Photo by Robert Clark on Unsplash

Upcoming webinar – The Domestic Homicide Review Dataset for England and Wales: A new resource

 

A new data resource for policy, practice and research

 

Wednesday 29 July 2026, 11:00  – 12:00, online

Register here: Ticket Tailor for DHRD webinar

Teams link will be emailed on 28 July to those registered

We are pleased to invite you to the launch of The Domestic Homicide Review Dataset (DHRD) for England and Wales: a new resource bringing together information from 647 Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) of domestic abuse-related deaths in England and Wales.

Developed using DHRs published in the UK Home Office’s national repository, the database will enable those that engage with DHRs to do so at scale – supporting insights for policy, practice, and research.

In this webinar, we will introduce the dataset and show how to access and use this new resource. The session will:

  • Provide an overview of how the dataset was constructed
  • Show how to access and use this freely available resource
  • Highlight potential for analysis
  • Explore how the resource can complement existing qualitative work on DHRs

This event will be of particular interest to those working in voluntary and community sector organisations, local authorities, commissioning, policy, and research.

The dataset will be presented by Dr Lizzie Cook and Dr Darren Cook (City St George’s, University of London / VISION) with contributions from Sumanta Roy and Rani Selvarajah (Imkaan). The session will be Chaired by Dr James Rowlands (Durham University).

Photo by Robert Clark on Unsplash

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

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Webinar: Exploring Domestic Homicide Review commissioning

 

Exploring Domestic Homicide Review commissioning

This event is in the past.

Tuesday 24 March 2026, 13:00  – 14:30, online

Durham University’s Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse invites you to an online webinar looking at Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) commissioning.

The project team, Dr Elizabeth Cook (VISION Co-Investigator, City St George’s UoL), Dr James Rowlands (Durham University), and Dr Althea Cribb (Durham University) will share findings from a British Academy / Leverhulme Small Grant funded research project into review notification and commissioning decision-making and identify implications for practice and policy. 

The event will include:

This webinar will be of interest to stakeholders involved in reviews, including practitioners, commissioners, senior managers, policy makers, and researchers. Those affected by domestic homicides and abuse-related deaths, including family, are also welcome to join, as are family advocates. 

Join us at this free online webinar on the 24th March between 1300 and 1430 to hear about the findings findings from this project. 

To book your place, click here.