A critical reflection on the use and effectiveness of DVPNs and DVPOs

ABSTRACT

Domestic Violence Protection Notices (DVPNs) and Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) are short-term police-initiated protection mechanisms, aimed at providing victims with time to plan longer-term strategies to escape abusive relationships. Despite being available in England and Wales since 2014, there is relatively little research regarding their use and effectiveness. This article fills this knowledge gap by providing an empirically based ‘snapshot’ of their use by London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), and considers whether they can be deemed successful in their intended outcomes. It does so against the national and international legal context in which the orders were created and the practices and policies used to deploy them (including: management of risk, protection of human rights and combating violence and abuse against women). It also considers the implications of their replacement with Domestic Abuse Protection Notices (DAPNs) and Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs), as foreseen by the new Domestic Abuse Bill.

KEYWORDS:

• Domestic abuse
• protection orders
• risk
• DVPNs
• DVPOs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. Now, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).

2. Now, Independent Office for Police Complaints (IPCC).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kate Blackburn

DI Kate Blackburn has extensive knowledge and experience in investigating and supervising domestic violence inquiries, including domestic homicides, with the Metropolitan Police Service (London, England). She has read for an MA Policing and Criminal Justice where she attained a distinction for her dissertation.

Sofia Graca

Dr Sofia Graca is Principal Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, England. Her research interests lie in the field of domestic abuse, social-legal studies and migrant women. She has conducted empirical research on Portuguese women’s experience with the English justice system in situations of domestic abuse and taught in policing degrees internationally.