Reviewing in a pandemic? A commentary on Covid-19 and domestic homicide review

Purpose: This paper is a commentary on Covid-19’s impact on Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs), the system in England and Wales that enables learning from domestic abuse-related deaths. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on a practitioner-researcher perspective, this paper reflects on how Covid-19 affected the delivery and experience of DHRs, the place of victims at the heart of this process, and what the pandemic’s impact might mean moving forward. Findings: This paper explicates some of the challenges of undertaking DHRs in a pandemic. Critically, however, it argues that these challenges illuminate broader questions about the practice of DHR. Originality: This paper’s originality comes from the author’s practitioner-researcher perspective and its use of Covid-19 as a lens to consider DHRs.