Manifestos come and go but women continue to be murdered by men they know in grotesquely high numbers. According to the Times, the Conservatives are set to crack down on femicide in their manifesto, with the minimum sentence for murders that take place in the home raised from 15 to 25 years. Will this make any difference?
Of the 590 recorded homicides in England and Wales alone in 2022-23, 174 of these were women – with a significant proportion murdered by their partners in their homes. There is something undeniably horrifying about these deaths. The women, often killed by knives, die in a familiar surrounding where they should expect to be safest, at the hands of men who might have loved them once, but who are now consumed with murderous rage.
While the change is powerfully suggestive – the sort of action manifesto writers love – it is unlikely to make any difference to the death toll
So this proposal to increase the starting point for offenders convicted of such murders looks just. It would also end a ludicrous legal anomaly where convictions for those who bring a knife to a murder are judged more harshly than those who grab their weapon from a rack in their kitchen.
But while the change is powerfully suggestive – the sort of action manifesto writers love – it is unlikely to make any difference to the death toll. There is no evidence I know of that male partners who kill women will alter their behaviour because they are likely to receive a life sentence with ten more years of custody added. Deterrence must operate much earlier in the cycle.
As we know from the dire statistics, these events are the culmination of often years of psychological and physical coercive control. These changes may be just, but they are an insufficient response to the endemic violence that Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described a few days ago when he referred to ‘millions’ of men being a danger to women and girls. Harsher sentencing will do little to stop a woman being killed by a man every three days in this country – a statistic that has been unmoved by this government’s faltering attention span over the last ten years. We must pour money into interventions that work before someone is killed: better awareness, better facilities, more shelters, better training, more assertive policing and better offender behaviour and risk management programmes. Unfortunately these are far less glamourous or easy than a quick headline. But they are far more likely to stem and reverse this tidal wave of violence.
As well as making promises on femicide action, the Tories are also set to commit to reform the law on manslaughter. This follows the conviction of Valdo Calocane for the murder of three randomly targeted people in Nottingham in 2023 on a killing spree. The judge ordered him detained indefinitely in a secure hospital because of his diagnosed mental illness. The decision to convict him of a lesser charge than murder due to ‘diminished responsibility’ caused widespread outrage, not least in the families of those bereaved who campaigned for the lenient sentence to be reviewed. The decision was upheld on appeal, leaving the impression that the criminal law was out of step with public feeling over a horrific crime that had been too easily excused. Whether and when Calocane is released is in the hands of doctors rather than the parole board. The judge elected not to invoke a ‘hybrid’ sentence that would have allowed him to be transferred to prison when deemed well enough.
New Conservative proposals will mean that there is a sentence of second-degree murder available to a judge in cases like these. The Prime Minister is said to have been converted to this path since meetings with the families of the Nottingham outrage. It’s worth adding that Sir Keir Starmer was in favour of this reform as far back as 2010 when he was Director of Public Prosecutions.
While these proposals look good and will play well with voters who respond to toughness on crime, it is worth remembering that it is only weeks since the courts were told to delay sentencing, even for serious crimes, because our prison system is running at near 100 per cent capacity. We are throwing people out of prison up to 70 days early into an overwhelmed probation service. Many will inevitably have been convicted of domestic homicide ‘precursor’ crimes like stalking. It’s all very well signalling muscular intent on changes that should have been in place long ago but if there’s nowhere left to put murderers for longer, your elephant is bigger than the briefing room. As with domestic violence, the lens should move away from being punitive and back to its poor cousin, prevention. Nottingham constabulary is now in special measures in large part due to how it mishandled the violent background to Calocane’s attack. Similarly the NHS mental health trust responsible for his ‘care’ has been criticised heavily for failing to manage the risk of a psychotic and aggressive man in the community. It is now subject to a special review by its regulator, the CQC. A threadbare safety net and official incompetence contributed to Calocane’s crimes. He should never have been on the streets in the first place.
As well as promises to toughen sentences we need concrete proposals to clear prisons of people who don’t need to be there – creating the time and space to properly control and rehabilitate offenders who pose a danger to others. Both parties need to be honest with the electorate as well as enticing them with new pledges. The murdered and those now in mortal danger deserve nothing less.
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