scholarly journals Defending ‘Co‐offending’ Women: Recognising Domestic Abuse and Coercive Control in ‘Joint Enterprise' Cases Involving Women and their Intimate Partners

Author(s):  
SUSIE HULLEY
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Iain Brennan ◽  
Andy Myhill ◽  
Giulia Tagliaferri ◽  
Jacki Tapley

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052098039
Author(s):  
Valeria Skafida ◽  
Fiona Morrison ◽  
John Devaney

Domestic abuse is a pernicious societal issue that has both short- and long-term consequences for those who are victimized. Research points to motherhood being linked to women’s victimization, with pregnancy being a particular point of risk. Across UK jurisdictions, new legislation aims to extend the criminalization of domestic abuse to include coercive control. Less clear is the relationship between mothers’ victimization of different “types” of abuse and other factors such as age, socioeconomic status, and level of education. The article makes an original contribution to knowledge by addressing these limitations of the existing literature. Using nationally representative data from a Scottish longitudinal survey ( N = 3,633) into children’s development this article investigates the social stratification of mothers’ exposure to different types of abuse, including coercive control, physical abuse, and threats. Overall, 14% of mothers report experiencing any type of domestic abuse since the birth of the study child (age 6), of which 7% experienced physical abuse. Compared to mothers in the highest income households, mothers in the lowest income quintile were far more likely to experience any form of abuse (Logistic Regression, OR = 3.55), more likely to have experienced more types of abuse and to have experienced these more often ( OR = 5.54). Age had a protective effect, with mothers aged 20 or younger at most risk of abuse ( OR = 2.60 compared to mothers aged 40+). Interaction effects between age and income suggested that an intersectional lens may help explain the cumulative layers of difficulty which young mothers on low incomes may find themselves in when it comes to abusive partners. The pattern of social stratification remained the same when comparing different types of abuse. Mothers of boys were more likely to experience abuse, and to experience more types of abuse, more often. We reflect on how these findings could inform existing policy interventions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Johnson ◽  
Li Eriksson ◽  
Paul Mazerolle ◽  
Richard Wortley

Severe and escalating violence is cited as a precursor to intimate partner homicide and figures prominently in risk assessments and domestic violence death reviews. Drawing on interviews from the Australian Homicide Project with a sample of men convicted of killing intimate partners, we examine the backgrounds of perpetrators and the contexts in which the killings occurred and find that fully half report no physical or sexual assaults against their partners in the year prior to the homicide. These results raise important questions about assessments of risk and the typification of the “battered woman” on which many policy responses rely.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002201832110505
Author(s):  
Amy Elkington

Abused women who are coerced to commit crime have no adequate legal defence. Historically, martial coercion may have been pled, but since its repeal and lack of replacement, abused women have been left without adequate protection in the criminal justice system. Duress would seem to be the logical defence in such a situation, but its construction by the courts means that women are still left with no defence. If a woman resists the coercion to commit crime, and instead protects herself against the abuse, she will equally have no suitable defence. Parliament were presented with the opportunity to rectify this problem when passing the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, but despite the Lords’ support, proposals were rejected by the Commons. Whilst research shows that crime committed under coercive control is not an insignificant problem, the current law does not protect some of the most vulnerable from prosecution.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Burman ◽  
Oona Brooks-Hay

Since 2000, the Scottish Government has adopted a gendered definition of domestic abuse which explicitly positions it as both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality. Following the launch of a new strategy to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls, the Scottish Government announced proposals to create, for the first time, a bespoke offence of domestic abuse, designed to encompass the spectrum of abusive acts that constitute domestic abuse, including emotional and psychological abuse. The new offence is intended to better reflect the experience of victims subject to coercive control, improve the criminal justice response and facilitate access to justice. It represents one of the most radical attempts yet to align the criminal justice response with contemporary policy and feminist conceptual understanding of domestic abuse as a form of coercive control. Drawing on feminist scholarship which has interrogated the value of law reform, we critically assess the scope of the legislation, the likely challenges associated with its use in the Scottish context, and the potential for unintended consequences.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tirion Elizabeth Havard ◽  
Michelle Lefevre

Mobile phone ownership has become almost universal, with smartphones the most popular consumer electronics device. While the role of technologies and digital media in the domestic abuse of women is gaining international attention, specific information regarding how mobile phones, and their various ‘apps’, may assist perpetrators in the coercive control of their current or former partners is still a relatively unexplored area in the research literature. This study with women survivors was able to identify that perpetrators use mobile phones in ways that go beyond the traditional tactics of abuse identified through the globally used feminist theorisation of the Power and Control Wheel (developed by the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Programme). The portability and diverse capabilities of mobile phones have been manipulated by abusive men to develop strategies of ‘agile technological surveillance’, which allow them to track and monitor their partners in various ways ‘on the go’ and irrespective of physical proximity. An adaptation of the Power and Control Wheel has been developed and licensed to account for these new opportunities for surveillance, manipulation and control. Proposals are made for integrating this revised framework into professional practice to inform the assessment and management of risk in abusive relationships.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. e042444
Author(s):  
Nayreen Daruwalla ◽  
Suman Kanougiya ◽  
Apoorwa Gupta ◽  
Lu Gram ◽  
David Osrin

ObjectivesDomestic violence against women harms individuals, families, communities and society. Perpetrated by intimate partners or other family members, its overlapping forms include physical, sexual and emotional violence, control and neglect. We aimed to describe the prevalence of these forms of violence and their perpetrators in informal settlements in Mumbai.DesignCross-sectional survey.SettingTwo large urban informal settlement areas.Participants5122 women aged 18–49 years.Primary and secondary outcome measuresPrevalence and perpetrators in the last year of physical, sexual and emotional domestic violence, coercive control and neglect. For each of these forms of violence, responses to questions about individual acts and composite estimates.ResultsIn the last year, 644 (13%) women had experienced physical domestic violence, 188 (4%) sexual violence and 963 (19%) emotional violence. Of ever-married women, 13% had experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence in the last year. Most physical (87%) and sexual violence (99%) was done by partners, but emotional violence equally involved marital family members. All three forms of violence were more common if women were younger, in the lowest socioeconomic asset quintile or reported disability. 1816 women (35%) had experienced at least one instance of coercive control and 33% said that they were afraid of people in their home. 10% reported domestic neglect of their food, sleep, health or children’s health.ConclusionsDomestic violence against women remains common in urban informal settlements. Physical and sexual violence were perpetrated mainly by intimate partners, but emotional violence was attributed equally to partners and marital family. More than one-third of women described controlling behaviours perpetrated by both intimate partners and marital family members. We emphasise the need to include the spectrum of perpetrators and forms of domestic violence—particularly emotional violence and coercive control—in data gathering.Trial registration numberISRCTN84502355; Pre-results.


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