Clare's Law & Domestic Violence Disclosure: Victim-Survivor Perspectives & Recommendations, Study notes of Law

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Clare’s Law

& Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes:

Victim-Survivor Perspectives

Charlotte Barlow, Nicole Renehan and Sandra Walklate

Project Report 10/1/

Clare’s Law & Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes: Victim-Survivor Perspectives (^) | 3 Headline Findings

1. The women in our sample demonstrated a lack of awareness of DVDS and how it can be accessed.
2. Their experience in accessing a DVDS was variable, as was whether a disclosure was made, and the kind of information disclosed.
3. Failing to provide some of these women with disclosures because the relationship was perceived to have ‘ended’ meant that some of them returned to abusive relationships. Where information was provided irrespective of the relationship having ended, they reported feeling validated.
4. Positive experiences were reported by some women in our study when information was provided swiftly, with sensitivity and when accompanied with additional support. Negative experiences were reported when information was not disclosed based on the relationship having ‘ended’, or when that information was provided in haste with no follow-on support.
5. In the experiences of the women interviewed, wrap around support was rarely forthcoming following an application or disclosure and in some cases was contingent upon whether women engaged with the criminal justice process.
6. ‘Nothing to disclose’ does not mean there is nothing to know, a point that is not conveyed to women clearly and thus potentially leading to a false sense of security amongst the DVDS applicants here.
7. In some victim’s experiences, there were many missed opportunities to inform women of a partner’s violent past via a right to know. This included multiple occasions where police were called out to a domestic incident, yet information about the DVDS was not provided, despite their partner having a history of abuse.
8. Minoritized ethnic and disabled women did not feature well in our sample. The majority of women who had accessed a DVDS were heterosexual, White-British women.
9. From our sample, those women with prior negative experiences of the criminal justice system influenced their decision to request a disclosure from the police.
10. A Freedom of Information request to 43 police forces in England and Wales demonstrates that recording DVDS requests and disclosures varied, with most police forces failing to record (or at least collate data in a publicly accessible way) by sex, ethnicity or disability. This makes it difficult to understand who is and who is not accessing DVDS. Contents Headline Findings .................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Background to the study and rationale .................................................................................................................... 4 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................................................ 5 Research design .................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Participant recruitment....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Interviews .................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 Survey ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Results ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 6 Respondent demographics ............................................................................................................................................. 6 Survey .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Interview participants ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 Quantitative DVDS related information ..................................................................................................................... 6 Survey ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Using a DVDS........................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Survey ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Interview Participants .......................................................................................................................................................... 7 Freedom of Information ..................................................................................................................................................... 7 Interview data........................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Awareness of Clare’s Law/ DVDS ................................................................................................................................. 7 Experiences of using DVDS............................................................................................................................................. 8 Inconsistency in giving information ............................................................................................................................. 8 Time taken for the information to be given ............................................................................................................. 9 Delivery of the information and follow-up support ............................................................................................. 9 Concluding thoughts ........................................................................................................................................................ 10 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................................................ 11 Resources ............................................................................................................................................................................... 11 About the Researchers .................................................................................................................................................. 11 References ............................................................................................................................................................................. 11 Thanks to Karolina G Rabowska for use of the image on the cover of this report

(^6) | Clare’s Law & Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes: Victim-Survivor Perspectives Clare’s Law & Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes: Victim-Survivor Perspectives (^) | 7 Where the information was known, 11 respondents ended the relationship following the disclosure, although only two terminated the relationship immediately. A further six ended the relationship a short time later and four reported taking some time post-disclosure to do so. Five women reported having remained in the relationship. All women who accessed the scheme via the right to know route or where a family member had requested information on their behalf remained in the relationship after the disclosure for a longer period than those who had not received information in this way.

Interview Participants

Less than half of interviewees had used a DVDS, all of whom had made the referral themselves (n=13). The remaining 13 had not accessed the scheme. Of the 13 who had accessed a DVDS, 11 had resulted in disclosure – three of whom were told there was ‘nothing to disclose’. Two of these women’s relationships had ended naturally. However, one interviewee subsequently ended the relationship sometime later as it became abusive. Where a history of domestic abuse was disclosed as part of the referral request, five women had received this information at a point in which they had already left the relationship but may have been likely to return but never did. One woman ended the relationship, which was in its infancy at the time, immediately upon disclosure, whilst a further two ended the relationship within the 12 months after. In one case, a DVDS had been requested twice with the first disclosure application having resulted in no response to this applicant. Freedom of Information 43 police forces were asked to provide information about right to ask disclosures from applicants other than the victim- survivor for years 2018 – 2020. 42 forces responded. Only 16 forces collected data on who accesses a DVDS broken down by victim-survivor or a third-party applicant. However, even where this data was provided, it was not consistent enough with ONS data to make meaningful analysis possible. Additionally, the search also identified that this data is not consistently collected and/or recorded in a way which lends itself to FOI requests or analysis by sex, ethnicity or disability. Interview data This section will outline the qualitative themes that were identified from the interviews, with some reference to the qualitative responses in the survey data where appropriate. Three over-arching themes were identified, namely awareness of Clare’s Law, experiences of using the scheme and broader issues with DVDS. Various sub-themes also emerged and will be discussed in turn. Awareness of Clare’s Law/ DVDS A key issue identified in the interviews was a lack of awareness that the DVDS existed or how the scheme could be accessed. For example, one woman stated, “I just don’t think a lot of people know about it” (P2) and “at the time, I just didn’t know that you could get information on your partner” (P7). Approximately half of the women who participated in this study had not accessed or heard of Clare’s Law and for those who had, almost all were introduced to or heard about the scheme during their relationship with their abusive ex or current partner. It is also important to consider who is not aware of the existence of the DVDS. Most of the women who participated in this study and who had accessed Clare’s Law were white, heterosexual, non-disabled women. The disabled group of women who participated in the study had not only not accessed the scheme but had never heard of Clare’s Law prior to their involvement in this project. Furthermore, one participant who was both a survivor and practitioner reflected on a lack of awareness of the scheme in relation to migrant women: “Thinking about survivors who have language difficulties. Like I know for example [town] is one of the areas where we are taking in refugees at the moment, so we’ve got a lot of Syrian refugees and I know there are organizations supporting them, but whether they’re aware of these disclosure processes, I don’t know. I doubt it” (P13). Similarly, three interview participants reflected on the barriers faced by women of colour when accessing Clare’s Law. For example: “I think we need to talk about race and culture, and like how people may want to deal with things within the community, within the family. Like how does that impact on people using Clare’s Law? How does that impact on people going to the police? I think all of these things need to be considered, because people won’t use Clare’s law in like a blanket way. It won’t be used the same across different communities and across different age groups. Like I think there are communities, especially like the black communities, minoritized communities who don’t have a great relationship with the police. Like it would be interesting to find out whether there’s differences in who uses of Clare’s law, depending on culture and race, because if you don’t see the police as being any help to you, if you see the police is inviting more violence into your life, will you go to them for information about your abusive partner? Or someone who’s being abusive in your life?” (P6) Results In this section we provide an overview and breakdown of the FOI request and the quantitative data collected from the survey. We also capture the demographic and DVDS context data of the interview participants. The qualitative thematic findings will be described in the subsequent section. Respondent demographics

Survey

As mentioned above, 91 survey respondents were included in the final analysis. Six respondents were the family member or friend of the victim-survivor and 29 were practitioners who had accessed a DVDS on their behalf – also known as ‘the right to ask’ (3rd party RTA hereon in). The remaining 56 (61%) of respondents were victim-survivors, or practitioners who had been victims of domestic abuse themselves and now supported other women to apply for a DVDS as part of their professional role (n=1). Given the aims of the project, questions were asked about sexual orientation, age, disability, and ethnicity in order to gauge an overall picture of those responding to the survey. 54 respondents identified as heterosexual, one as lesbian, with one respondent preferring not to say. All bar one of our respondents were aged between 18-34 (n= 20), 35-59 (n=35) with one, aged between 60-74. Ten victim-survivors identified as disabled (13%) with the type of disability recorded as ‘Poor mental health affecting day to day functioning’ (n=6), ‘physical impairment’ (n=3) and ‘multi disabilities’ (n=1). 6% of respondents (n=3) identified as being from a Black, Asian or other ethnic minority woman and 2% as a woman with insecure immigration status (n=3 and n=1, respectively).

Interview participants

All 26 victim-survivors who participated in semi-structured interviews were female. One participant identified as lesbian and another bisexual. All were aged between 18-34 (n=8) and 35-59 (n=17). One participant was unknown. Two women identified as disabled with the type of disability reported as Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) (n=1) and poor mental health affecting daily life (n=1) The DIVAS comprises a group of disabled women who are autistic and/or have learning difficulties/disabilities. Three interviewees identified as coming from a minoritized ethnic community. The email respondent did not provide any defining characteristics or demographic data. The largest proportion (n=12) of participants were from the North of England with other participants (where known) came from South of England (n=8), Scotland (n=4), The Midlands (n=2) and Northern Ireland (n=1). All interviewees were (or had been most of their lives) in employment, and/or were Higher Education students. This included doctoral students and those undertaking professional degrees whilst working. Quantitative DVDS related information

Survey

In this section we describe information regarding victim- survivors and, in some cases, practitioner responses, in relation to:

1. how they came to know about Clare’s Law and DVDS;
2. how many had accessed or had heard about DVDS;
3. whether there were children involved at the time a DVDS was accessed;
4. their relationship status at the time. Out of 56 victim-survivors, 45 provided information on how they knew about Clare’s Law. 18 (40%) said that they had heard about Clare’s Law and DVDS via the media/social media and was the highest reported knowledge source. Next was a 3rd Party organisation such as a Domestic Abuse Service or Social Services at 20% (n=9). Other sources, in order, were the police (9%), a family member/friend or an alleged perpetrators ex-partner, each at 4%. Also at 4%, were respondents who stated that the research project survey was the first time they had heard about the DVDS. 11 respondents (20% of the victim-survivor sample) had never heard of Clare’s Law prior to participating in the survey. Finally, practitioner only respondents reported similar responses to victim-survivors, though the dominating source was because of their employment/role. Using a DVDS

Survey

In relation to accessing a DVDS, just over half of the respondents (29) had used a scheme or it had been used on their behalf. The remaining had not accessed a DVDS (27). At the time of making a DVDS application 55% of victim- survivors were in a relationship with the suspected perpetrator and 46% had children living with them. 27 victim-survivors had accessed a DVDS themselves through the right to ask route whilst the scheme had been accessed by a third party on their behalf for the other two. A further five respondents stated that a right to know disclosure had been given or at least offered. 18 cases resulted in a disclosure being made (including right to know or 3rd party applications) with six respondents stating that there had been ‘nothing to disclose’. The most common disclosure method was over telephone (n=12) with the next most cited method being by home visit or attending a police station (both n=5). Email and multidisciplinary meeting were cited in two cases. The most common history disclosed of the alleged suspect related to domestic abuse-related offending (n=11) followed by offences that included fraud, threats, sexual and violent offending, violent offending only, and (reported) domestic abuse with no conviction. All of these were each cited once in the survey.

(^8) | Clare’s Law & Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes: Victim-Survivor Perspectives Clare’s Law & Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes: Victim-Survivor Perspectives (^) | 9 There were also concerns that cases against a partner which led to no further police action (NFA) may not feature as part of a Clare’s Law disclosure. This was discussed by five women in the interviews and is captured by the following quote: “There is so much stuff that people like him do that he won’t get convicted of, and would never appear on Clare’s Law. So it gives a bit of a false impression about what he’s actually done if you get me? How many times did I call and nothing happened? People won’t know about that. It’s so hard to get a conviction, and the woman has to want to go down that route which I didn’t for a long time. You know, there could have been 20 incidents of domestic violence but if there wasn’t a conviction people wouldn’t know about it, you know. And that’s what worries me, I think its really important that you hear of the alleged stuff on Clare’s Law as well and I don’t think you do” (P21). According to the victim-survivors who participated in this study, there appeared to be selectivity in whether or not police officers provided information about previous cases which led to no further action as part of a Clare’s Law disclosure. In relation to this issue, the women felt strongly that applicants should be made aware that an absence of information to disclose, does not mean there is not anything to be concerned about. This issue with DVDS’ more broadly has been raised elsewhere (Greene and O’Leary, 2018). It is well documented that convictions are consistently low for domestic abuse related offences and many cases lead to no further action for various reasons, such as a lack of evidence or the victim-survivor not wanting to pursue a prosecution. This is particularly the case for ongoing domestic abuse, as seen in coercive and controlling behaviour cases (Brennan and Myhill, 2021). Furthermore, according to the ONS (2019) approximately 80% of victim-survivors of domestic abuse will not report their experiences to the police for reasons such as fear of not being believed or fear the abuse will escalate. Not including NFA cases, or a lack of transparency that abuse that is not reported to the police will not feature on a DVDS, can therefore be problematic.

Time taken for the information

to be given

The issue with the length of time it took for information to be disclosed (or not) to the applicant was raised by seven women. It took longer than the 35 recommended days to receive information for all these women, with it taking much longer than this for four of them. One stated “ So I put the request in, but it must have slipped through the system because nothing came back to me for months” (P22). Another example: “It took 5 months for me to hear back. I rang 3 or 4 times asking what had happened. I can’t remember exactly, but I just know it was after I had already decided it was the end of the relationship and it was finished. So a very long time. It was just so slow. If I had been in a very violent relationship, and I was worried I was going to be killed for instance, can you imagine the repercussions of that taking 5 months? It doesn’t bare thinking about” (P24) The latter part of this quote captures the possible repercussions of disclosures taking long periods of time. The Home Office recommended 35 days is too long for women living with an abusive partner. Having to chase the police for information places the responsibility of safety on the women themselves, contradicting the intended aims of the scheme. Furthermore, taking such long periods of time for information to be disclosed fundamentally contradicts the preventive intentions of the scheme.

Delivery of the information and fol-

low-up support

As stated earlier in the report, information was disclosed (or not) to the women in various ways, including in person and over the telephone. In person delivery appeared to be favored by the interview participants over other methods because, supporting the College of Policing recommendations, for example, the “telephone just felt really impersonal” (P17). Three women also reported feeling uncomfortable sharing their experiences with a male police officer, “I didn’t feel like I got any compassion until I spoke with a female police officer” (P1). The delivery of the information, including who this is delivered by, is important to ensure a positive experience of the DVDS for victim/ survivors. Some police forces disclose the information with the support of an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA), which may help to ensure that victim- survivors are appropriately supported during the process. However, none of the women who participated in this study had the information given to them in the presence of an IDVA, suggesting this approach is not widely used. Furthermore, eight of the women interviewed highlighted issues with a lack of follow up support after the disclosure process. The women reported feeling “left alone” and “unsupported” as a result. One woman stated, “I got no support after I had received the disclosure. I made that request for a reason you know, and nobody checked up on me to see if I was ok” (P24). Another stated “There seems to be nothing after the disclosure is made to really support or help you. I’ve got friends who work in DA services and they know girls who have taken out a Clare’s law on their partners, and then a few months later they are dead. And there is nothing in between the disclosure and afterwards. I mean they put numbers on a leaflet and that, but I think something afterwards is needed, just to stop people going back” (P27). Whether or not information can be disclosed, the process can be extremely challenging for women. Deciding what course of action to take following a disclosure is complicated and can compromise women’s safety, particularly if they decide to leave the relationship. Ensuring that women are supported both during and after this process is important. Police officers may not be best placed to do this, particularly if criminal justice intervention is not favoured by the victim- survivor. IDVAs or other specialist domestic abuse services may therefore be better placed to provide survivor centred follow-up support. This quote highlights a range of issues with accessing the scheme for minoritized women, both in terms of awareness of its existence and possible barriers for accessing. As noted above, our FOI request to all 43 police forces in England and Wales also demonstrated that many forces either do not collect or record data in an accessible way related to minoritized statuses, such as ethnicity. Furthermore, the interview data highlights that even for those women who did know about the scheme, all but three chose not to access it until they were ready to leave the relationship or did not access it at all. Six women suggested DVDS would be most useful early in a relationship before the abuse started. However, four of these women expressed that victim- survivors may not access the scheme in the early stages of a relationship in reality, as there are rarely ‘triggers’ or signs to prompt them to apply for a disclosure. As one woman said, although she didn’t know the scheme existed when she was with her ex-partner, “why would you fill out an inquiry for somebody who has come into your life and made you feel $1,000,000? and appears to be absolutely lovely? You know there isn’t the necessary signs that prompt you to do that” (P9). Ten women also described feeling too afraid to access the scheme when they were in the relationship because they feared the consequences for themselves and their children. For example, one said that “I was too far in and too scared. I would never have done Clare’s Law when I was in the relationship” (P20) and another claimed that “if you’ve got someone so controlling he takes your phone and stuff and you probably won’t even want to go to the police because you don’t want to instigate anything. You just want to minimise it all. And how would you even get the opportunity to instigate anything? How would you manage to actually get the information?” (P21) These issues question the preventive value of the DVDS, either because of the barriers in accessing the scheme or at least having access before their partner turns abusive. These kinds of issues are captured nicely by the following quote: “You don’t go into a relationship thinking ‘right, I best check out for domestic abuse before I get involved’. But then you’re in the middle of it, and you’re tired because they don’t let you sleep, or you’re tired because of being shouted out, so it becomes low down the list. You can’t see your friends, you can’t get on the internet. I couldn’t use the phone because he was permanently there” (P12). Four women also reflected on being afraid to go to the police to access the scheme because of previous negative interactions with the criminal justice system. For example, “it will only really work for some survivors who feel comfortable enough to speak to the police in the first place” (P20). The issues outlined here highlight that limited awareness of the scheme and difficulties in accessing it mean that victim- survivors face barriers prior to even making a DVDS. These issues may be particularly profound for minoritized women. Experiences of using DVDS Three of the women we interviewed had a positive experience of using the DVDS. For one of these women, it was very early in the relationship and for the other two, they had previously been in a violent relationship, and they requested information using DVDS when they met a new partner to “protect themselves and (their) children” (P19). For example, one of these women stated “For someone like me, who has been with a violent partner in the past, it was reassuring to be able to check my new partners past before it got serious. I know this won’t be the case for everyone, but it was helpful for me” (P10). Another woman reflected on going on two dates with a former partner and a colleague at her place of work informed her that he was a “bad guy”, which prompted her to request information via the DVDS. She states “doing it so early (in the relationship) was great for me. I wasn’t attached really in anyway, so it meant I could make the choice myself on ending it. So I just blocked him” (P16). These examples highlight the cases in which a DVDS can be useful and potentially empowering for women. However, the other women who participated in the study and accessed DVDS experienced various barriers. For those that had not used DVDS, they nonetheless reflected on the issues that women would likely face in accessing the scheme based on their own experiences of domestic abuse and interactions with the criminal justice system. The most dominant barriers evident in the interviews are discussed here in turn.

Inconsistency in giving information

One of the most prominent barriers evident in the interviews is the perception that police officers were inconsistent in providing information via the DVDS. This was particularly the case when victim-survivors requested information either once the relationship had ended, or when police officers believed that it had (even though the relationship was ongoing in reality). In the survey, 15 women suggested that they were not given information on the basis that they were no longer in the relationship. This was reflected on further in the interviews, with three women being refused information on these grounds. This is captured by the following quote: “My biggest worry is this idea that you have to be in a relationship with the perpetrator before they disclosed to you. I just cannot get past that. I mean, how many women leave, and then don’t feel safe when they’ve left, so they may think, I’m going to go and find out if he has a history of abuse. So then you go to the police, and they say, “oh well, we can’t tell you because you’re not with them anymore”. Now that might make women doubt their own judgment and think, maybe I’m just making all this up, and then go back, because there’s that hook, there’s that pull there anyway” (P15). The difficulties in leaving a violent partner are extensive and well established in the literature (Anderson et al, 2003; Duggan, 2012). Not giving information on the basis that a relationship has ended, or perceived as such, could lead to highly dangerous situations for women. However, two of the women in this study were given this information shortly after their relationship had ended. These reported experiences lend some weight to the problems of selective decision- making and ‘safety by geography’ reported by Hadjimatheou and Grace, (2020).