database of serial offenders of domestic abuse, some of which are woemn

»More than 400 serial domestic abuse offenders, including women, have been recorded on a police database.

Kent Police has started the scheme for the first time in a bid to better protect victims and encourage offenders to get help to break their cycle of crime.

Serial perpetrators are different to repeat offenders in that they assault each new partner whereas repeat offenders continually assault the same victim/s.

Specialist officers have identified 389 men and 36 women in the county.

Homicides

A serial perpetrator is defined as someone who has offended against two partners or more and where those partners are not related to each other such as parent and child or siblings.

Under the initiative a marker is put against their names on records linked to the Police National Database.

Police aim to create tailored action plans for each victim and offender. This could include telling people about their new partner’s volent history.

They also want to encourage offenders to change their ways voluntarily by joining an appropriate course.

Det Supt Maria Shepherd, head of the Public Protection Unit, said: “Domestic abuse accounts for about a fifth of all violent crime in Kent.

“There are nearly 22,000 incidents of domestic abuse in Kent each year, or 60 a day. Significantly, there were five homicides in the last financial year in Kent linked to domestic abuse.

“By focusing on serial perpetrators, police around the country can track relationships where victims or children are at risk and intervene before anyone is hurt. This is particularly important where offenders move outside county boundaries.

Unacceptable

“Once we’ve identified a serial perpetrator and he or she moves onto a new relationship, we can make a decision about whether we should let their new partner know about the offender’s violent background.

“This is designed to better protect potential victims but we also seek to use the opportunity to encourage perpetrators to enter rehabilitation voluntarily.

“Our ultimate aim is to reduce the amount of domestic abuse in our community, make it unacceptable and therefore improve the quality of people’s lives.”