Irish Examiner view: New database essential in prevention of domestic homicides

Recommendations of the familicide review need to be implemented as a matter of urgency

The review's top line — that pregnant women or new mothers in their 30s or 40s are the most likely victims of intimate partner homicide — was a horrifying indication of the dangers faced by women in abusive relationships.

The research from the Study on Familicide and Domestic and Family Violence Death Reviews, published this week, made for grim reading.

Its top line — that pregnant women or new mothers in their 30s or 40s are the most likely victims of intimate partner homicide — was a horrifying indication of the dangers faced by women in abusive relationships, one that surely gave pause to many readers.

Other discoveries made by the report were almost as shocking, such as the fact that some families have had to pay for the cleaning of crime scenes where loved ones were killed.

The researchers have made some key recommendations on data and statistics, which need to be implemented as a matter of urgency. 

The lack of a national database that is integrated with the Garda Pulse system is an obvious problem which must be addressed.

The collation, maintenance, and accessibility of accurate statistics is a fundamental principle in dealing with crime. In this case, the researchers observed that international literature in this area points to a previous history of domestic abuse as the most common risk factor for domestic homicide — but if a national database is not integrated for Garda use on Pulse, then how can those risk factors be identified before that domestic abuse escalates?

Such an integrated database has the potential to arm the gardaí with information which might help them to prevent future domestic homicides, but it can also offer a solid foundation for broader legislative reform in the general area.

Readers can see elsewhere on this website that the Department of Social Protection has been retaining too much information, but this is the opposite problem — in this case, not enough information is being shared among other agencies.

It is difficult to believe that this integrated database does not already exist, but it is past time that it was put in place.