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Operation provide: a multi-agency response to increasing police engagement in cases of intimate partner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Because of the lockdown conditions imposed in the United Kingdom to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus, police services responded to the risk of increased domestic abuse and intimate partner violence in a variety of ways. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a multi-agency pilot program put in place to increase the engagement in both the criminal investigation and safeguarding actions of the police and other agencies for victims of intimate partner violence. In this program, independent domestic violence advocates and independent sexual violence advocates work side by side in a police patrol capacity, conducting joint incident response to reports of domestic abuse in an effort to provide enhanced, immediate victim support. The early findings indicate significant overall increases in engagement with criminal prosecutions. The level of engagement of repeat victims in respect of safeguarding and criminal investigations also greatly increased. In addition, individual offences of controlling and coercive behaviour, harassment, threats to kill, affray and malicious communications showed significant rises in engagement. The findings indicate that improved victim support at an earlier stage improves the likelihood of agencies protecting, preventing and reducing cases affecting victims of intimate partner violence. Areas of further research include victim and practitioner perspectives and a more comprehensive data analysis to evaluate if these early findings remain at greater volumes and over time.