Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews

Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews (DARDR) were formerly called Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR). The name changed to better represent the types of deaths included in the reviews. This range covers suicides linked to domestic abuse and other related deaths.

DARDRs are required by section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 (DVCA 2004) and started on 13 April 2011.

A DARDR is a multi-agency review led by an independent person. It looks into deaths of individuals aged 16 or older when there’s evidence of violence, abuse, or neglect from:

• a family member
• an intimate partner
• someone living in the household

This includes cases where a victim died by suicide, especially if there were signs of coercive controlling behaviour in the relationship.

The Bracknell Forest Community Safety Partnership (CSP) holds overall responsibility for these reviews. CSPs consist of representatives from authorities like police, local governments, fire and rescue, probation services, and health organisations. They collaborate to reduce crime and enhance community safety.

The aim of a DARDR is not to investigate the death or assign blame, but to:

1. Learn from domestic homicides by looking at how local professionals and organisations work individually and together to keep victims safe.
2. Identify the lessons we can learn from this, both within and between agencies, and decide how to act on them, when, and what changes we expect to see.
3. Use these lessons to improve how services respond, including updating policies and procedures.
4. Stop domestic abuse homicides from happening and improve how services help all domestic abuse victims and their children, by working better together within and between agencies.

DARDRs typically gather information from:

• family members
• significant people who knew the victim
• participating agencies, through Individual Management Reviews (IMR) or event chronologies

You can view published Bracknell Forest DARDRs in the documents below: