Clare's Law, often known officially as a Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme or similar, designates several ways for police officers to disclose a person's history of abusive behaviour to those who may be at risk from such behaviour. It is intended to reduce intimate partner violence. Clare's Law is named after Clare Wood, a woman murdered in England by a former domestic partner who police knew to be dangerous.
Clare's Law has two main elements: a 'right to ask', which allows members of the public, including a domestic partner, to request information from the police about a potential abuser; and a 'right to know', which, in certain circumstances, permits police to disclose such information to the public on their own initiative.
First implemented in England and Wales in 2014, the policy structure has since been adopted or proposed in various forms elsewhere in the United Kingdom as well as in Australia and Canada. Despite its name, Clare's Law need not—and often does not—take the form of a statute. Instead, it may be implemented as a policy document or guidance issued by a government authority to police departments.
History and nomenclature
Clare's Law is named after Clare Wood, who was murdered at age 36 by George Appleton, an ex-boyfriend, in Salford, England in February 2009. Appleton strangled and burned Wood. Appleton killed himself several days after murdering Wood.
Appleton had seriously abused women in the past and the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were aware of his violent history. Appleton had served three prison sentences before his relationship with Wood: six months for failure to comply with a restraining order; two years for harassment; and six years 'for holding a woman at knife-point for 12 hours'. Following her death, Wood's family stated that she would not have entered into a relationship with Appleton had she known of his violent past.
In a report on Wood's case, the Independent Police Complaints Commission noted that there had been 'individual failings by officers who demonstrated in some cases a shocking lack of understanding about the nature of domestic violence'. In this connection, one commentator has noted that, given the GMP's failure, it is unclear whether Clare's Law alone would have prevented Wood's murder. Following Wood's death, her father campaigned to create legal means for police to warn potential targets of abuse of their partners' violent pasts.
Historically, police in England and Wales have not responded effectively to domestic abuse. A 2014 report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary concluded that:The overall police response to victims of domestic abuse is not good enough. Unacceptable failings in core policing activities, investigating crime, preventing crime, bringing offenders to justice and keeping victims safe are the principal reasons for this.In the United Kingdom, the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 and the 2011 policy document Call to end violence against women and girls represent some recent attempts to combat domestic abuse. Additionally, the Crime and Security Act 2010 created two new legal structures—the domestic violence protection notice (DVPN) and domestic violence protection order (DVPO)—intended to protect potential targets of abuse from violence.
Background
Intimate partner violence
Intimate partner violence contributes to significant gender-based disparities in the distribution of homicides. From 2018–19, 48 percent of adult female homicide victims in the United Kingdom were killed by a current or former domestic partner. In the same year, 8 percent of adult male victims were killed by an intimate partner. In Canada from 2008–18, female victims constituted 79 percent of deaths due to intimate partner violence. In Australia in 2018, 53 percent of victims of family and domestic violence–related homicide were women.
Legal precedents
Fitz-Gibbon and Walklate suggest that sex offender registries and related community notification laws, which allow members of the public to be informed if a sex offender lives in their area, resemble Clare's Law in that they involve the disclosure of information about a potential offender to a potential target of abuse or violence. However, they also note that 'sex offender schemes are community focused, while the domestic violence disclosure scheme is individual focused'.
Privacy issues
Disclosure of information about a person by police raises privacy issues under English common law and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police declined to participate in Saskatchewan's version of Clare's Law due to concerns about violating Canadian federal privacy laws.