Last week the home secretary announced that the government would be launching a consultation on the possible introduction of Clare’s Law – a proposed change to the law that would give women and men at risk of domestic violence the right to know if their partner has a history of serial violent abuse.
The campaign to change the law has emerged as a result of a tragedy in my constituency. Clare Wood was a young woman in Salford who began a relationship with a man she met online. She had no way of knowing about his background of systematic domestic abuse and violence against women. His record included repeated harassment of women, threats to kill, and the kidnap of one of his ex-girlfriends at knifepoint. After ending their relationship he stalked Clare, told her he would kill her and assaulted her; six months later he strangled her to death and then set her body on fire.
Had Clare known what he was really like it could have saved her life.
One in four women and one in six men will be a victim of domestic violence in their lifetime, and it often becomes a repeat cycle; domestic violence has the highest rate of repeat victimisation of any crime, with 44 per cent of victims assaulted more than once in the past year. Incidents that result in death are rarely the first attacks – on average a woman is assaulted approximately 35 times before she seeks help. The challenge for government is to create a framework that provides support for victims of domestic violence before it is too late.
Clare’s Law proposes to establish a culture of early intervention; giving women and men the right to know of any risk that they face will allow them to make an informed choice about their safety and the future of their relationship, and polling by Fabulous magazine shows that most women would consider leaving a relationship if they found out that their partner had a violent past.
The Home Office consultation sets out three different options. First, to leave the law as it is with common law provision for a disclosure of information in rare cases; second, to create a ‘right to ask’ that would allow women and men to ask the police for information about any domestic violence offences carried out by their partner; third, a ‘right to know,’ which would impose a duty on the police to actively inform women and men of any impending threat.
While the consultation is welcome, something needs to be done urgently. Two women a week are killed by a current or former male partner; that’s two too many. Long-term statistical trends show no decline in domestic violence murders; over the past 10 years there has been an average of between 111 and 146 people murdered by their partner, ex-partner or lover each year, and 25 per cent of all women’s suicides occur in the context of domestic violence relationships.
There is also the hidden emotional cost that domestic violence homicides have on the families of the victim. I’ve been working closely with Michael Brown, Clare’s father, on the Respect & Protect: Clare’s Law campaign and his passion to change the law so that others don’t have to suffer in the way his daughter did is truly inspiring.
Later today I will be leading the debate on Clare’s Law in the House of Commons, and urging MPs to consider supporting my amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. The amendments have cross-party support – issues as important as domestic violence transcend party politics – and I look forward to the opportunity to discuss the potential impact of a disclosure law in parliament.
The introduction of the Police National Database earlier this year offers a means for flagging up serial perpetrators of domestic abuse, and if a disclosure can take place within a MARAC framework a support network will be in place to provide protection and advice for recipients of any disclosure.
I know that some people have concerns about the impact that Clare’s Law would have on people’s privacy, and I think it is important that we have the opportunity to debate these issues. However, the results of the rollout of Sarah’s Law – disclosure in cases of child sex offenders – are overwhelmingly positive and show that many of the concerns about the power being used recklessly were misplaced; the overwhelming majority of people take these powers seriously and act responsibly.
Of course, if adopted in isolation Clare’s Law will not prevent all domestic violent homicides – far from it. It has to be part of a coordinated strategy by the government to try and eradicate this scar on society. But I really believe this change in the law could save lives, and I know that people like Michael who have seen firsthand the trauma that domestic violence causes believe it is time for a new approach. We owe it to people like Clare.
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Hazel Blears is MP for Salford and a former secretary of state for communities and local government
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This is an excellent article, and a cause we should all be giving our fullest support. Just to ensure that MPs and the government get the message, I wonder if there is an online petition people can sign, or a Facebook group we can join.
While totally sympathizing with Clare Wood I think ‘Clare’s Law’ would do nothing to protect vulnerable people from abusive partners. To claim that having the ability to access information on a partner’s past criminal record of domestic abuse would prevent future abuses is logical but simplistic and unrealistic for the following reasons:
1) only abusive partners who have criminal records for domestic violence will feature in this proposed legislation – there will be no public information on the vast majority of domestic abusers who, for one reason or another, avoid the attentions of a court,
2) embarking on and sustaining an intimate personal relationship is not a logical one (as, for example, a business arrangement) but a deeply emotional experience where ‘common sense’ usually has little or no relevance,
3) the symptoms of abuse are generally ‘tolerated’ by the abused because they have become emotionally dependent on the abuser (which explains why so many abused victims – predominantly female – refuse to co-operate police and prosecution services.
I suggest that even if this proposal became law the vast majority of victims like Clare would refrain from employing this law to end abusive relationships.
While totally sympathizing with Clare Wood I think ‘Clare’s Law’ would do nothing to protect vulnerable people from abusive partners. To claim that having the ability to access information on a partner’s past criminal record of domestic abuse would prevent future abuses is logical but simplistic and unrealistic for the following reasons:
1) only abusive partners who have criminal records for domestic violence will feature in this proposed legislation – there will be no public information on the vast majority of domestic abusers who, for one reason or another, avoid the attentions of a court,
2) embarking on and sustaining an intimate personal relationship is not a logical one (as, for example, a business arrangement) but a deeply emotional experience where ‘common sense’ usually has little or no relevance,
3) the symptoms of abuse are generally ‘tolerated’ by the abused because they have become emotionally dependent on the abuser (which explains why so many abused victims – predominantly female – refuse to co-operate police and prosecution services.
I suggest that even if this proposal became law the vast majority of victims like Clare would refrain from employing this law to end abusive relationships.