Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR)
Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) were established under section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004), which came into force on 13 April 2011.
A DHR is defined as “a 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) a person to whom he was related or with whom he was or had been in an intimate personal relationship, or
- (b) a member of the same household as himself, held with a view to identifying the lessons to be learnt from the death
The purpose of a DHR is to:
- establish what lessons can be learned from the domestic homicide and the way in which local professionals and organisations work individually and together to safeguard victims
- 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
- apply these lessons to service responses including changes to policies and procedures as appropriate
- prevent domestic violence homicide and improve service responses for all domestic violence victims and their children through improved intra and inter-agency working
For further information and guidance, visit the Home Office homicide review website.
Page last updated: 09 September 2020
