Domestic Abuse (DA) and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG): An evidenced based approach

Online

Jul 9

Registration

To book your place please complete the registration form.

Overview

Learn from anywhere. Start when you are ready. This is an online course designed to take up to 26 weeks .

The course begins with introductory materials, including a learner guide, platform instructions, and a video overview. Learners then explore the foundations of Evidence‑Based Policing (EBP), covering the Maryland Evidence Hierarchy and the principles of testing police practices and policies. This is supported by lectures from leading scholars such as Professor Lawrence Sherman, Dr Heather Strang, and Professor Jerry Radcliffe.

A key module focuses on the Cambridge Crime Harm Index (CHI), teaching learners how harm‑based metrics can improve prioritisation of victims, offenders, and places. This is followed by extensive content on victim‑survivor dynamics, including targeting victim harm, testing responses to domestic violence, restorative justice experiments, and risk‑forecasting approaches such as algorithmic prediction and panic alarm trials.

The course also examines perpetrator behaviour, high‑harm offender identification, ethical issues in risk assessment, victim‑offender overlap, and escalation patterns across multiple forces. Learners then move into specialist VAWG content, including juvenile offender management, sexual risk orders, familial DNA techniques, and longitudinal analysis of VAWG in public spaces.

A further module explores place‑based harm, covering high‑harm locations, deterrence, predictive accuracy, and experimental approaches to violent places.

The programme concludes with three detailed lectures on Problem‑Oriented Policing (POP), providing practical guidance on applying POP to DA and VAWG.

Learners complete three live tutorials and a final assessment, with the course ending in a feedback stage.

The course comprises of around 21 hrs of video lectures (47 videos), readings (about 10 hrs total), three 1-2-1 online tutorial with a Cambridge tutor and an oral assessment at the conclusion of the course.

View Course Outline

Challenge

The challenges and gaps that the course addresses are:

Weak use of evidence‑based decision‑making in DA and VAWG investigations.
Over‑reliance on crime counts instead of harm, limiting effective prioritisation.
Difficulty identifying high‑harm victims and spotting escalation early.
Inconsistent or untested responses to domestic violence and safeguarding.
Challenges in targeting and managing high‑harm offenders and victim‑offenders.
Limitations and ethical issues in risk assessment and algorithmic forecasting.
Gaps in predicting and preventing domestic homicide.
Poor understanding of VAWG in public spaces and stranger‑offender patterns.
Difficulty identifying and targeting high‑harm places rather than high‑volume ones.
Weak or inconsistent Problem‑Oriented Policing (POP) approaches to DA and VAWG.

Objectives

This online course, spread across 26 weeks from each learner’s enrolment date, will help officers and staff

Build a clear understanding of Evidence‑Based Policing (EBP) and how to apply it to DA and VAWG.

Strengthen capability to assess research quality using tools such as the Maryland Evidence Scale.
Develop skills in harm‑focused policing, including use of the Cambridge Crime Harm Index.
Improve knowledge of victim safeguarding, harm patterns, escalation, and effective intervention strategies.
Enhance ability to identify, target, and manage high‑harm offenders using data‑driven and ethical approaches.
Build understanding of risk assessment and algorithmic forecasting, including ethical considerations.
Increase capability to tackle VAWG through specialist topics such as juvenile offender management, sexual risk orders, and familal DNA techniques.
Strengthen skills in place‑based analysis, including identifying high‑harm locations and evaluating deterrence.
Develop practical competence in Problem‑Oriented Policing (POP) for DA and VAWG, from problem identification to evaluation.
Support professional development through live tutorials and assessment, ensuring operational application of learning.

Faculty

The Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing faculty teaching this 30-hour*, online course includes the following instructors set out below.

The course was created and the content recorded and prepared under the leadership of Professor Lawrence Sherman, Wolfson Professor Emeritus, University of Cambridge, and Honorary President, Society of Evidence-Based Policing.

The Faculty include:

Tutorial

Every delegate is assigned a personal tutor for a three 1-2-1 live tutorial and an end of course oral assessment.

Cost

The fee for 26-week access to the online course is £485 (+ VAT where applicable) per learner.

This is discounted by 25% to £363 (+VAT where applicable) until 10th August 2026

The Cambridge Centre is pleased to receive, with immediate effect, Purchase Orders and Registrations for this online course. Learners can register now and commence the course at a time that suits them, in agreement with their tutor.

This course is open to all present and aspiring police professionals who wish to understand recent developments in knowledge and techniques for hot spot policing of democratically-governed police agencies, both in the UK and abroad.

The Cambridge Centre has been advised that police forces in England and Wales receiving Home Office special funding for serious violence may assign the cost of this course to that funding.

Once payment has been received, each learner agree an enrolment date. The week prior to the agreed enrolment date, the learner receives the enrolment and tutor details. From enrolment date, each learner has 26 weeks to complete the course and assessment process, to be scheduled in consultation with each learner’s tutor.

* This is only the approximate number of hours that it would take a learner to complete the course.