Explainer: how domestic abuse progresses to homicide

If a tenant enters a relationship with a known perpetrator, Ms Ellis says, the housing professional could signpost to the domestic violence disclosure scheme, known as Clare’s Law. Under the ‘right to ask’, it allows members of the public to ask the police for information on their partner’s criminal history or history of abusive behaviour.

“For housing professionals, there’s a real opportunity here that we’re probably not taking and we’re not recognising,” she says.

Stage two: early relationship

In the second stage, the relationship will develop quickly, with the controlling person seeking some kind of commitment. This varies, but might include pregnancy or moving in together.

For housing providers, co-habitation would be a key indicator. “Often they move in and they move in quickly. And just speaking as a lawyer, once someone has moved in with you, it’s hard to get them out, even if they don’t have any legal right to be there,” Ms Ellis says.

How can housing providers take action at this stage?

“A lot of housing providers don’t know who actually lives in their properties, and they don’t do tenancy audits anymore,” Ms Ellis says. “So it’s about being aware of who is in your stock.”

In the event that a tenant requests a joint tenancy, Ms Ellis suggests speaking to the tenant privately about the implications of a joint tenancy, and the challenges if they later wanted to remove the person.

“Obviously always interview the tenant on their own, never do it in the presence of the new partner, and preferably in the office, not in the property,” she adds.

This conversation can also be used to gather information on the new partner: their name, date of birth and previous address, which may be useful at a later date.

Stage three: coercive control 

At stage three, the relationship becomes dominated by coercive control and violence from a quick-tempered perpetrator.

Stage three can last any length of time, Dr Monckton Smith explains. In her research, it ranged all the way from three weeks to 54 years: “Some people will stay living with a controlling person their entire life and die a natural death. Some people never leave. So we can’t use the length of the relationship to say how much risk there might be.”

Coercive control is an act or pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish or frighten the victim, and it has been a criminal offence since 2015.

Indicators of coercive control can vary hugely, although common ones include control over everyday life such as clothing, schedule and who the victim sees; isolation from friends and family; control of finances; degrading language; or tracking and monitoring.

“This is never about love, it’s about entrapment. It’s about capturing somebody in a relationship and making it incredibly difficult for them to escape,” Ms Ellis says. “Tactics will change, but the controlling patterns don’t, and the overarching motivation to trap you will not change either.”

This can be helpful for professionals to understand, as often both parties may be alleging abuse by the other, particularly if the victim resists with violence in self-defence. The perpetrator may be skilled at manipulating professionals, and the chronic fear and self-preservation of the victim might mean they deny the abuse.

“You may find victims who are just not co-operative and deny everything,” Ms Ellis says. “Victims can also be quite hostile to professionals. So perhaps consider, when you record these things, whether this could be a chronic fear response.”

She adds: “How do I find out who’s telling the truth? Domestic abuse is a difficult area, it’s counterintuitive and it is confusing, it is chaotic.

“But if we take a step back and say, ‘I don’t know where the truth lies, so I’m going to do nothing’, that is really unhelpful for victims.”

How can housing providers take action at this stage?

At this stage, reports of abuse or coercive control might come through a variety of channels, such as noise complaints, anti-social behaviour reports, financial concerns or repairs, says Kelly Henderson, co-founder of the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance.

It is vital that organisations have clear training and reporting pathways for all staff. This particularly includes repairs and maintenance staff, who often have the most in-home contact with tenants.

“Make sure it’s really clear what’s expected of your repair staff, so if they see punch holes in walls, for example, they report that,” she says. All that information should then be recorded in a case management system that is clear for other staff who read it later on.

“We might think it’s something that’s really innocuous, not really important, but we must make sure that we make a note of that, because it could be something really important later down the line,” says Ms Henderson.

If a housing provider receives a report of potential violence or coercive control, Ms Henderson suggests entering the home under the guise of doing a ‘property survey’ to subtly check in with the household, or inviting the victim into the office to have a ‘conversation about the rent account’.

But Dr Monckton Smith warns providers to always be highly cautious of tracking and monitoring: “If you’re ever at a victim’s home, be very careful about what you say. Assume that this person is being recorded and only have sensitive conversations in a more sterile environment.”

“You have to be patient; this is a long game,” Ms Ellis adds. “It’s not something that’s short term.”

Stage four: trigger 

The relationship may never move beyond stage three, but if it moves to stage four, it is because a trigger has threatened the perpetrator’s control, which leads to stage five: escalation.

“The single biggest trigger for risk and threat [of escalation] is separation,” says Dr Monckton Smith. “That can be an actual separation, an imagined separation or a threat of a separation, but it is the controlling person’s response to that separation that makes things escalate.”

This trigger may be the victim disclosing the abuse, in which case it is vital that action is taken swiftly, ahead of escalation. “When someone is looking for help, they’re entrapped at that point, and it’s really important for professionals to try and relieve that entrapment in some way,” Ms Ellis says. 

“They don’t want to hear that a refuge place is available in six weeks’ time, because they can’t see six weeks away.”

How can housing providers take action at this stage?

One of the most important takeaways for housing providers is understanding that separation does not end coercive control. In fact, this stage is an incredibly high-risk time for victims.

“You might think, ‘oh great, someone’s had a management move, job done,’ and then we ease off the gas, because we think, now they’ve left that abusive person, they should be really safe,” Ms Henderson says.

“But in fact that is when the danger is really high, because that is when it moves to the escalation and homicidal ideation stage.”

Ms Ellis also emphasises the use of anti-social behaviour powers such as injunctions, but stresses that if used, these must be done properly.

“If you don’t enforce, if you don’t hold perpetrators to account, they just think they can behave how they want,” she says. “And by getting an injunction against the controlling person, you’ve just increased the risk to the victim significantly, so if you don’t do anything about a breach of that order, you’ve increased their risk and then done nothing about it.”

Stage five: escalation

Following the trigger stage, stage five of the timeline is an increase in the intensity or frequency of the partner’s control tactics. 

“Separating is a process, it’s not done in a day, it’s not done when you move house,” Ms Ellis says. “It can take months and even years to separate from somebody, and it is a high-risk time for victims, even if they have moved property.”

How can housing providers take action at this stage?

If a victim has moved, the staff responsible for the new patch must be aware, and security measures such as locks and cameras should be considered.

If the victim reports instances of stalking, or if the perpetrator breaches an injunction or court order, that should be taken incredibly seriously, Ms Ellis says.

“They are signalling to everyone that their motivation outweighs the consequences of breaching a court order, and that motivation is likely to be trying to punish or instil fear in the victim, or potentially to cause them serious harm or even fatality.”

Stages six and seven: homicidal ideation and planning

Stage six is homicidal ideation, and is also called “a change in thinking”.

“This is a particularly dangerous stage, and it can be quite difficult to identify,” says Dr Monckton Smith.

“Stage six is when the situation has become irreversible or irretrievable. That means they’re not getting that relationship back together again, or they have reached a stage where they don’t even want the relationship back.”

Some signs of this change in thinking might be that the perpetrator starts talking about death or suicide, making more specific death threats or diverting from their usual routines.

Then, in stage seven, the perpetrator begins planning the homicide: they might buy weapons, or seek opportunities to get the victim alone.

How can housing providers take action at this stage?

At this stage, the housing provider must be flagging the urgency of the case with MARAC and the police to take action, such as increasing security measures or getting the victim to an emergency housing placement.

These multi-agency relationships are incredibly important at this stage. Often the attempted homicide takes place very soon after the trigger and escalation stage, sometimes mere days.

Stage eight: homicide

The perpetrator kills their partner and possibly hurts or kills others, such as children.

“It’s important to say that travelling through all of the stages is not inevitable – the pattern can be disrupted,” Ms Ellis says. “Most controlling people will stop at stage five, before the escalation towards serious harm and fatality.”

How can housing providers take action at this stage?

In the event that the worst does happen, and a homicide does take place, the housing provider should have clear procedures to make sure family, local residents and staff are supported.

It is also vital that information on the case is gathered and recorded for learning, in internal reviews and multi-agency domestic homicide reviews.

Read Inside Housing’s full analysis of domestic homicide reviews.