What are Domestic Homicide Reviews?

A Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) is a statutory review of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by:

• a person to whom they were related or with whom they were or had been in an intimate personal relationship, or
• a member of the same household as themselves

held with a view to identifying the lessons to be learnt from the death.

What is the purpose of a DHR?

The purpose of a DHR is to:

a) establish what lessons are to be learned from the domestic homicide regarding the way in which local professionals and organisations work individually and together to safeguard victims;

b) identify clearly what those lessons are both within and between agencies, how and within what timescales they will be acted on, and what is expected to change as a result;

c) apply these lessons to service responses including changes to inform national and local policies and procedures as appropriate;

d) prevent domestic violence and homicide and improve service responses for all domestic violence and abuse victims and their children by developing a co-ordinated multi-agency approach to ensure that domestic abuse is identified and responded to effectively at the earliest opportunity;

e) contribute to a better understanding of the nature of domestic violence and abuse; and

f) highlight good practice.

Who is responsible for completing DHRs?

In Leicestershire & Rutland the responsibility of carrying out a DHR falls on the Community Safety Partnership for the area where the domestic homicide took place.

However, to protect the anonymity of some of the persons involved in these tragedies, the reports are anonymised and then hosted centrally on this webpage.