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Vera-Gray, Fiona, Hohl, Katrin, Robinson, Amanda, Nicole, Westmarland, Johnson, Kelly, Williamson, Emma, Lovett, Jo, Kelly, Liz and May, Tiggey (2025) Project Bright Light: transforming the police response to domestic abuse. Other. London Metropolitan University, London (UK).
Recent high-profile reports have identified persistent failings in the policing response to domestic abuse, including inadequate investigations, inconsistent risk assessments, and poor attitudes among officers. The policing workforce is not equipped to deal effectively with the scale of demand from domestic abuse. The result has been called a "postcode lottery" with insufficient safeguarding, including of children, and most cases finalised without a perpetrator being held to account for their behaviour. Despite numerous initiatives to tackle the high volume and harm of domestic abuse, the criminal justice system is still failing victim-survivors.
Project Bright Light was launched in response to these concerns. It involved a rapid research collaboration between Avon and Somerset police in England and a cross-institutional team of academics , many of whom pioneered the landmark Operation Soteria approach to rape and serious sexual offences.
The project undertook a thematic root-and-branch review of the police response to domestic abuse within one force. What it found revealed significant and systemic national issues, in part driven by the statutory definition of domestic abuse and crime recording practices, which have consequences for all police forces across England and Wales. This short briefing outlines key findings that have national implications.
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