DA Victim Engagement Research Report Released

The Victim Engagement Study was carried out between 2020 and 2023, led by Dr Lis Bates with colleagues from the Open University and funded by the Centre for Policing Research and Learning at The Open University.  

There were seven participating forces who most generously provided crime and incident data, and three forces which also allowed access to case files, and to officers and staff for focus groups.  Data relating to 2019 to 2021 was analysed from 88,949 police domestic abuse crimes across seven forces, 140 in-depth police case files, 31 survivor interviews, and focus groups with 15 police officers from three forces.

This summary reports presents new findings from that major mixed-methods study with police in England addressing survivor disengagement from criminal justice in domestic abuse (DA) cases. The research was carried out between 2020 and 2023, led by Dr Lis Bates with colleagues from the Open University and funded by the Centre for Policing Research and Learning at The Open University. Despite initiatives to improve policing responses over several years, victim-survivor disengagement linked to evidential difficulties remains the most common reason for domestic abuse crimes to “fall out” of the criminal justice system.  This Project sought to generate new understanding about how, when and why victim-survivors disengage from police and how, in turn, police officers encourage and interpret victim-survivor engagement. 

Dr Lis Bates extends her gratitude for the kind support of the CPRL member forces, 

"we believe the range and quantity of data collected allowed for a more in-depth exploration of (dis)engagement in domestic abuse cases than had been achieved previously which (we think) has led to many interesting insights and practical recommendations"

Lis will be hosting a research seminar for members later this year. In the meantime, the Summary Report is available in the members area. For Non-member forces or to request access to the full report please contact oupc@open.ac.uk