Judicial Monitoring of Compliance: Introducing ‘Problem Solving’ Approaches to Domestic Violence Courts in England and Wales

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mandy Burton
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Domestic Violence Courts

Beyond Therapy: Problem‐Solving Courts and the Deliberative Democratic State

2008 ◽  
Vol 33 (04) ◽  
pp. 853-893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rekha Mirchandani
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Mental Health Courts ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Problem Solving Courts ◽  
New Institutions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Domestic Violence Courts

Problem‐solving courts (drug courts, community courts, domestic violence courts, and mental health courts), unlike traditional courts, attempt to get at the root of the individual and social problems that motivate criminal behavior. Theoretical understandings of problem‐solving courts are mostly Foucauldian; proponents argue that these new institutions employ therapeutic techniques that encourage individuals to self‐engineer in ways that subtly increase state power. The Foucauldian approach captures only some elements of problem‐solving courts and does not fully theorize the revolution in justice that these courts present. Problem‐solving courts, domestic violence courts in particular, orient not just around individual change but also around social change and cultural transformation. Combining the Foucauldian idea of a therapeutic state (as developed by James Nolan) with an understanding of the deliberative democratic mechanisms of larger‐scale structural transformation (found in Habermas and others) leads to a more balanced and empirically open orientation to the actual motivations, goals, and achievements of problem‐solving courts.

Prosecuting controlling or coercive behaviour in England and Wales: Media reports of a novel offence

2019 ◽  
pp. 174889581988094
Author(s):  
Paul McGorrery ◽  
Marilyn McMahon
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Empirical Evaluation ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
Media Reports

The offence of controlling or coercive behaviour came into effect in England and Wales in December 2015, and related offences have since been enacted in Scotland and Ireland. To date, there has been almost no empirical evaluation of the operationalisation of the new English and Welsh offence. This article fills that gap by analysing media reports relating to 107 individuals convicted of controlling or coercive behaviour, providing a profile of offenders and victims (gender and age), the types of abusive behaviours offenders engaged in and how the cases progressed through the criminal justice system (manner of conviction, sentencing outcomes). Media reporting of these cases is also discussed. The results suggest that the offence is (appropriately) operationalised in a highly gendered manner, that it has captured a diverse range of behaviours that would not previously have been considered criminal, and that media reports of this form of domestic violence have not demonstrated the negativity towards victims identified in previous studies. Further research of primary data is required to confirm these findings.

scholarly journals Untangling the concept of coercive control: Theorizing domestic violent crime

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Walby ◽  
Jude Towers
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Violent Crime ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
Coercive Control ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Intimate Terrorism ◽  
Original Analysis ◽  
Couple Violence ◽  
Situational Couple Violence

The article assesses three approaches to domestic violence: two that use the concept of ‘coercive control’ and one that uses ‘domestic violent crime’. These are: Stark’s concept of coercive control; Johnson’s distinction between situational couple violence and intimate terrorism, in which coercive control is confined to the latter; and that of domestic violent crime, in which all physical violence is conceptualized as coercive and controlling. The article assesses these three approaches on seven issues. It offers original analysis of data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales concerning variations in repetition and seriousness in domestic violent crime. It links escalation in domestic violent crime to variations in the economic resources of the victim. It concludes that the concept of domestic violent crime is preferable to that of coercive control when seeking to explain variations in domestic violence.

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