Former top Metropolitan Police violent crime analyst Laura Richards has campaigned for a national strategy and register of serial domestic abusers.
She said information on the current national police data base is “patchy” and not identifying serial abusers as crimes are often logged as assault or harassment with no context to show there is a pattern of domestic attacks.
The problem is compounded by a lack of information sharing and intelligence gathering between agencies, especially across jurisdictions.
She said: “Perpetrators travel. They learn the systems. They change their names. They try to fly under the radar.
“Police officers say themselves that when offenders move and are new to the area, they have no history about the perpetrator.
“The ‘drip-drip-drip’ terrifying pattern of behaviour is routinely missed. If an offender’s serial, repeat or high-risk offending behaviour, is left unchecked, they are on a timeline to murder.
"Domestic abusers should be treated like terrorists.
"They create fear and terror and kill more women and children than any terrorist incident year on year, yet still there is no national, co-ordinated response to pro-actively identify, assess and management these dangerous men by police, prison or probation services.”
She wants such offenders to be forced, like sex offenders, to notify a change in name or address, travel abroad or the start of a new relationship.
