Dear Subscriber,
Happy Holidays Lovely People!
I hope you are well. A lot has happened since the last newsletter, including Covid and the pandemic and an increase of domestic abuse and femicide which is extremely concerning and yet again highlights the importance of asking the right questions when victims disclose abuse and the importance of taking effective action working alongside victims.
I know it has been a tough time for man. I wanted to start with sharing some happy personal news - Rafi, my beautiful baby boy, made his appearance into the world in 2021. Rafi is my greatest achievement yet and it is an honour to be his mumma.
At the same time, I birthed a new podcast called Crime Analyst where I centre the victim's voice and educate and raise awareness through storytelling and an expert female lens. Please subscribe and download as it supports all expert training classes that I facilitate.
It's also been a busy time with the serial domestic abuser and stalker campaign resulting in a new database to replace ViSOR and include domestic abusers and stalkers, a new national perpetrator strategy and updated MAPPA guidance to include serial abusers in Category 3 MAPPA meetings.
I wanted to put other significant steps forward across the world regarding domestic abuse and coercive control on your radar, including:
· the Domestic Violence Act in England and Wales;
· new coercive control laws in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia;
· a new draft Domestic Abuse Bill in Gibraltar which includes coercive control;
· Connecticut has codified coercive control in Family law following California, and other US states have coercive control laws slated, and;
· Ontario, Canada Keira’s Law was passed which means Judges and other professionals will be trained on intimate partner violence and coercive control.
I am pleased that America, Australia and other parts of the world are learning from our experiences in England and Wales. Having spearheaded coercive control law reform in the UK I have been sharing my knowledge and experience across the world.
New coercive control laws ensure that the pattern of behaviour is taken into account, not the single incident and that we ask questions about non-physical abuse. Coercive control correlates significantly with femicide and familicide.
It's the reason why more than HALF the questions in the DASH focus on coercive control.
To understand more about why these patterns are important you can listen specifically to my 20-part series on Gabby Petito on Crime Analyst podcast, and in fact all of my episodes on Crime Analyst.
These murders in slow motion™, as I call them, CAN be prevented. In fact, they are the most predictable and preventable of all crimes.
DARA and DASH
You may have heard about DARA from the College of Policing or others. I want to reassure you that the DARA is not replacing the DASH. I am working in partnership with SafeLives to ensure you have the best tools and the DASH is the risk identification, assessment and management model all services should use.
I want to clarify a few other points: (I promise to keep it brief!)
1. DARA is not a risk assessment tool;
2. It has not been properly evaluated;
3. It omits critical questions to make it easier for officers to use – but that is not the purpose of a risk tool;
4. The statement 'DARA identified 38% more coercive control (CC) cases than DASH' is misleading and false. In the pilot, officers were trained officers on CC and following that training they identified CC in more cases. That’s great, but it’s the training and not the tool. You would hope that if you train professionals on CC, that following that training they should identify more CC.
The message is to continue using DASH. A common language and framework is key when we talk about risk identification, assessment and management. The police have a lot of work ahead of them to identify abusers in their rank and file and challenge misogyny and sexism. Their energy would be better spent there in my humble opinion. And that is me being measured!
OK – so for those who need training and to start the year off right I will be running a series of my Training Courses in January and February to include DASH (Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Harassment and Honour Based Violence), Coercive Control Masterclass and the DASH Train the Trainer course, which is open to everyone. This training is university accredited and will enable learners to be trained on how to use the DASH risk Identification, Assessment and Management model.
Winter Masterclasses 2022
DASH University Accredited Masterclass
January 24th & 25th
This is a pre-requisite for DASH Train the Trainer.
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Coercive Control Masterclass
February 14th & 15th
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DASH 'Train the Trainer' University accredited Masterclass
February 28th & March 1st
In order to attend Train the Trainer we also ask that delegates already have some experience as a trainer / in public speaking.
Course Information:
DASH (Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Harassment and Honour Based Violence)
January 24th and 25th
The cost is £450 per person for a statutory agency or £350 per person for a charity which includes all training material, pre-listens, pre-watch and pre-reads prior to arrival in the virtual Zoom classroom with myself. The course material will be sent out one week in advance of the start of the training.
The course is 8 hours in duration and accessible remotely via a computer and strong wifi connection. There are 4 hours of pre read, pre-listens, pre-watch material and completion of interactive case studies plus 4 hours of Zoom training and facilitation with myself split over 2 days - a 2 hour session on January 24th and again on the 25th.
Coercive Control Masterclass
February 14th & 15th
The cost is £450 per person for a statutory agency or £350 per person for a charity which includes all training material, pre-listens, pre-watch and pre-reads prior to arrival in the virtual Zoom classroom with myself. The course material will be sent out one week in advance of the start of the training.
The course is 8 hours in duration and accessible remotely via a computer and strong wifi connection. There are 4 hours of pre read, pre-listens, pre-watch material and completion of interactive case studies plus 4 hours of Zoom training and facilitation with myself split over 2 days - a 2 hour sessions on 14th & 15th February.
DASH 'Train the Trainer' University accredited Masterclass
February 28th & March 1st
The cost is £650 per person for a statutory agency or £550 per person for a charity which includes all training material, pre-listens, pre-watch and pre-reads prior to arrival in the virtual Zoom classroom with myself. The course material will be sent out one week in advance of the start of the training.
The course is 8 hours in duration and accessible remotely via a computer and strong wifi connection. There are 4 hours of pre read, pre-listens, pre-watch material and completion of interactive case studies plus 4 hours of Zoom training and facilitation with myself split over 2 days - a 2 hour sessions on 28th February and 1st March.
Possible Future Refresher Class : We've had several enquiries for a DASH Masterclass Refresher and a Dash Train the Trainer Refresher course. If you would be interested in one of these courses please email Amanda at LauraRichardsPA@gmail.com
Please click buttons below for learning objectives for DASH Masterclass, Coercive Control Masterclass, and DASH Train the Trainer Masterclass.
