A sensible way to curb the brutality of domestic violence

For all the rhetoric, all the initiatives, eye-catching and otherwise, all the legislation and all the 10-year plans to "crack down" on violent crime, politicians of both main parties have for too long said and done virtually nothing about the biggest single type of this crime in this country – domestic violence.

A third of all murders in England and Wales are classified as "domestic", and the Crown Prosecution Service deals with 13,000 domestic violence cases a year, which certainly represents a gross underestimate of the true extent of this brutality, as so many women feel reluctant to report incidents of this type of crime.

So it is all the more encouraging that Harriet Harman, who made a quiet return to government last year as Solicitor-General, has spoken out about the problem and promised "no more excuses" for men who assault their wives. In practical terms, Ms Harman wants to give a right to anonymity to victims of domestic violence similar to that granted to victims of sex offences. That should encourage more victims of violence to come forward. Breaches of non-molestation orders should be a criminal rather than civil offence. And it is right that domestic killings should be subject to an automatic "murder review", another excellent suggestion from Ms Harman. And the Solicitor-General has also sent out a clear signal of intent by recently increasing a wife-beater's non-custodial sentence to a six-month jail term.

Just as the police have often been wrong to dismiss cases of this type as "just a domestic", so the courts have all too often imposed lenient sentencing for such assaults simply because those involved happen to be married and the crime happens to be committed in private rather than, say, on the street between strangers.

The only criticism of Ms Harman's speech is that any new legislation to implement her ideas is likely to be some time away. The victims of domestic crime, mostly women but occasionally men, have waited too long already to see their misery taken seriously by the criminal justice system. Ms Harman must ensure that the laudable measures she suggested yesterday are made law without further delay.