In Control

Roger murdered his wife because he was scared she was going to leave him Roger murdered his wife because he needed to be in control Mohammed stabbed his wife because she had an abortion without telling him Mohammed stabbed his wife because he needed to be in control Karl killed his partner because he was jealous Karl beat his partner to death because he needed to be in control Every week, three women die by their partners hand in the UK alone. This epidemic shows no signs of being staunched. We determinedly cling to the belief that domestic violence is a private matter in which both parties are responsibility, and that people who hurt or kill their partners have snapped and lost control a belief perpetuated by a culture that has normalised misogyny, and a legal system built on values which prioritise men s lives.

What if all this time, we were asking the wrong questions and that a pattern was right in front of us, if we knew how to look for it? For decades, internationally renowned criminologist and former police officer Jane Monckton Smith has researched cases when relationships have ended in the worst possible scenarios and in doing so has developed a 8-stage timeline which has revolutionised the approach to predicting homicide. Part case study, part social commentary and part memoir of a young woman on the police force, In Control paves the way for the conversation we urgently need to have about a widely misunderstood topic that will touch millions of women s lives.