New research from the University of Gloucestershire is helping police to predict the critical steps a killer takes from stalking, violence and coercive control to domestic homicide.

Research carried out by Dr Jane Monckton Smith looked at hundreds of cases of intimate partner homicide through interviews with bereaved families and public protection professionals. Through her study, published in the Violence Against Women Journal (VAW), Dr Jane Monckton Smith, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Gloucestershire, found an emerging pattern that could be broken down into eight separate stages.