News and Events Additional | Addressing Domestic Abuse

We were joined by Sarah Ellis who is a seasoned Barrister with over 25 years of experience, specialising in family law and housing. Holding an MA in Criminology, she is deeply committed to promoting understanding and reform within the Criminal and Family Justice Systems, particularly in relation to coercive control, stalking, & intimate partner homicide.

She collaborates with Professor Jane Monckton-Smith to deliver training on the Homicide Timeline, provides analytical support to police investigations, and contributes to expert reports. Additionally, Sarah offers pro bono assistance on complex criminal and family cases where coercive control may be a significant factor.

The Homicide Timeline is a predictive tool for mapping escalating risk and threat in intimate partner relationships where there are controlling patterns and/or stalking. The team researched c. 400 cases of intimate partner homicide. From those cases they identified a predictable pattern of escalation on the part of a controlling person, which they call the Homicide Timeline.

The Timeline can be used with other risk identification checklists, however it differs in 4 key areas (see opposite). This session focussed on the timeline and how housing professionals can use it to recognise and respond to coercive control.

Webinar - The homicide timeline for housing professionals

Thursday, 14th of August 2025

1. Providing an easily understandable and intuitive framework for professionals;

2. Tracking the controlling person’s psychological journey;

3. Tracking how risk and threat is escalating;

4. Relieving reliance on victim’s input, as professionals can assess escalatory patterns in the absence of victims.

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We were delighted to host a webinar highlighting innovative work and research around domestic abuse. The webinar included:

Dr Katy Brookfield, University of Nottingham on technology-facilitated domestic abuse;
Nicki Clarke from Standing Together on housing and domestic abuse;
Grace Wilson from the Alice Ruggles Trust on their work engaging young people on stalking via school assemblies.

Webinar - Innovations in and around domestic abuse

Tuesday, 25th of June 2025

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You can watch the webinar HERE.

Our Domestic Abuse and Housing National Roundtable was hosted by Durham University Business School and the event brought together leaders from across the domestic abuse and housing fields to focus on what our key questions to HM Government would be.

Participants included colleagues from:

The Chartered Institute of Housing;
Wearside Women In Need;
Berwickshire Housing Association;
The Drive Partnership;
Social Finance;
Northern Housing Consortium;
Durham Business School;
Believe Housing;
National Housing Federation;
Crisis;
Neil Morland Associates;
Inside Housing.

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National domestic abuse & housing national roundtable

Thursday, 30 January 2025

The 2024 ADA National Learning Event was held in Sunderland and brought together academics, practitioners, statutory and voluntary agencies from across the UK to share knowledge and learn from each other. The event was kindly sponsored by Sunderland City Council and MRI Social Housing.

ADA National Learning Event

Sunday, 20 October 2024

Our speakers for the day included:

Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner;
Professor Geetanjali Gangoli, Durham University;
Dr Rebecca Shaw, University of Leeds;
Laura Seebohm, Wearside Women In Need;
Dr Nicki Rutter, Durham University;
Dr Mercy Denedo, Durham University;
Dr Liz Riley, Betknowmore UK;
Sam Miller, QPM, National Police Chiefs Council.

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Held in Durham, our 1-year anniversary National Learning Event brought people from across the UK to share domestic abuse knowledge, practice and research. The event was kindly sponsored by the Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRIVA), Durham University.