Campaigners and politicians unite to demand that police investigate suicides linked to domestic abuse as potential homicides, exposing a "tickbox" culture that fails victims.

A seismic shift in criminal justice is underway as experts call for the recognition of "hidden homicides." The campaign argues that when a victim of domestic abuse takes their own life, it is often the final, tragic act of a coerced existence, not a voluntary choice. The demand is clear: police must stop treating these deaths as standard suicides and start investigating the abusers who drove them to the edge.

The Scale of the Crisis

The numbers are staggering and shameful. While official police figures record fewer than 100 such deaths annually, investigations reveal the true toll could be as high as 1,500 victims a year—dwarfing the number of intimate partner homicides. "That we don't even know how many women take their lives because of men's violence is to our society's shame," says campaigner Karen Ingala Smith.

• The Liability: Legal experts argue this falls under "unlawful killing" or manslaughter, where the abuser's coercive control is the direct cause of death.
• The Failure: Current police procedure is criticized as a "tickbox approach," often missing the history of violence that precedes the suicide.

Justice Beyond the Grave

Dame Nicole Jacobs, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, warns that perpetrators are escaping justice because police fail to ask the right questions at the scene. The proposed reforms would require officers to investigate the "psychological autopsy" of the victim, linking the abuse directly to the fatality.

"No perpetrator should escape justice because we failed to look closely enough," Jacobs asserts. This movement seeks to pierce the veil of impunity, ensuring that the abusers who destroy lives from the inside out are finally held accountable for the bodies they leave behind.