We want a public facing register for convicted domestic abusers and stalkers.
We have been asking for serial domestic abusers and stalker's violent and controlling histories to be joined up and Labour's MPs Yvette Cooper and Jess Phillips called for this change too. When they came to power we believed this would happen in its entirety. We are still waiting - our voices unheard.
For more than two decades we have been fighting for a common sense approach to protecting the public, in particular women and children, by ensuring serial domestic abusers and stalkers were included on the Violent and Sexual Offender's Register (ViSOR) and proactively managed by the statutory Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) just like sex offenders and terrorists are - convicted and unconvicted.
Far too many women and children have been murdered by serial abusers, whose histories remained invisible and who were allowed to offend with impunity.
Our ask has changed. Now we want convicted domestic abusers and stalkers to be on a public facing register. We want women to know who they are getting into a relationship with.
Tennessee, Ireland and Florida have introduced this for domestic abusers.
Other countries have now overtaken the UK where this work began.
We also want stalkers to be included in England and Wales and for it to include all domestic abuse and stalking related offences so the pattern of behaviour is joined up and visible and abusers are held accountable.
For too long the perpetrators have been invisible and their rights prioritised above the victims and future victims. Help us change this.
We also want non-convicted serial domestic abusers and stalkers to be included on the new MAPPS database which replaces ViSOR and for them to be managed by MAPPA.
These serial and dangerous abusers histories must be proactively joined up, risk assessed and managed. We need one national database - everyone doing it in the same way and it needs to be enshrined in law. We have had enough of the discretionary approach (which does not work) and which has historically been personality driven.
Women's safety has not been a priority for police leaders for far too long, which is why the femicide rate has been allowed to increase to devastating proportions.
On October 20 the newly formed National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection (NCVPP) released a report on October 20 highlighting the biggest threat to women are repeat domestic abusers.
We have known this for more than two decades. We have been asking for repeat and serial domestic abusers to be proactively identified and managed for years (Getting Away With It: A Profile of Domestic Abusers, Richards 2004)
The greatest risk to women and children are domestic abusers and stalkers.
The Government declared they wanted to halve violence to women and girls. They need to focus on the men who cause the terror, fear and harm. Police services need to proactively close down their behaviour and we the public need to know who they are. Agree?
- Sign the petition.
- Write to Alex Norris MP the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor: alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk
- Write to Alex Davies-Jones MP Under-Secretary of State for Victims, Violence Against Women and Girls and International Justice: alexdaviesjones.mp@parliament.uk
N.B Do not donate money here as it does not go to the campaign. Consider donating Zoe Dronfield who was almost killed by a serial abuser: https://gofund.me/a47ce8bd2
Thank you for your help amplifying our voices.
Laura Richards, Zoe Dronfield, Jodie Edith and and Lisa Squire