Insights

The current debate about prisoner release has focused heavily on which offences should be excluded. But domestic abuse risk does not always sit neatly within the offence someone was convicted of. This article looks at what needs to happen when someone leaves prison, how the wider pattern of risk is recognised, and who is responsible for managing it.

Stalking Protection Orders can do far more than prohibit contact. Used properly, positive requirements can help manage risk, monitor compliance and identify whether stalking behaviour has continued or changed form.

The College of Policing is rewriting its stalking guidance, but new documents alone will not change practice. This article examines what the guidance must achieve in policing and across partner agencies if victims are to receive a properly connected, suspect-focused and risk-led response.

In my previous article, I argued that recent changes to stalking legislation are welcome, but legislation alone will not improve professional practice. Stalking Protection Orders already gave the police an early-intervention power. The more difficult question is whether that power is properly recognised, understood and embedded within the systems and practical tools used by investigators. The Joint NPCC and CPS Checklist for Use by Police Forces and CPS in Cases of Harassment

New legislation strengthens the response to stalking, but early intervention through Stalking Protection Orders is not new. The deeper failure has been one of recognition, professional understanding, confidence, leadership and consistent use of powers that already existed.