CWJ’s response to Lord Chancellor’s announcement of consultation on tougher sentences for knife and domestic killers

Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) welcomes the consultation into proposals for tougher sentences for domestic killers. We recognise the effort made to consider how coercive and controlling behaviour can be an aggravating or mitigating factor in domestic killings, depending on whether the convicted killer is the perpetrator or victim of the domestic abuse underlying it.

While recognising the leniency of the sentences of the killers of Poppy Devey Waterhouse and Ellie Gould and their mothers’ campaign to change the law to address this problem, we oppose an automatic increase in sentences for use of a knife within the home. Such a measure would have serious consequences for women who kill their abusers.

In our research, set out in our report on Women who Kill, we found that in 77% of cases where women killed a male partner, they had experienced a history of abuse from the victim. We also found that in 80% of cases where women killed they used a weapon – in the vast majority of cases, a kitchen knife. This is usually a consequence of being physically weaker and intimidated by their stronger, male partner.

Changes to sentencing to produce more appropriate and just outcomes based on the careful review into domestic homicide sentencing conducted by Clare Wade KC are necessary. However, most domestic homicides could have been prevented if there was more effective understanding and tackling of domestic abuse at an earlier stage. It is important that in addressing sentencing guidelines, the necessity of early intervention is not lost.

In a recent report, produced by CWJ in collaboration with Imkaan, we looked at the domestic homicides of black and minoritised women. The report examined 46 case studies over the last ten years and found that serious failures by police, social services and other state organisations stood as an impediment to reporting and investigating domestic abuse. More work must be done to tackle the problem of prevention and protection of victims of domestic abuse before the escalation of violence leads to homicide.