Civil and Criminal Remedies for Domestic Violence Victims in England and Wales

Civil and Criminal Remedies for Domestic
Violence Victims in England and Wales

Introduction
Domestic violence is one of the most complex social problems that have lasting negative impacts
on individuals and the society at large. This problem breaks a number of human rights like the
right to get protection, right to live, right not to suffer abuse, right to physical and mental health,
etc. The prevalence of domestic violence in England and Wales is one of the top health concerns
and this is the burning problem of the country, as the reports of the crime survey demonstrates
that little change has been done to minimize this crime. On the contrary, the police reports
indicate that the domestic abuse and violence cases have increased in the recent years. The
Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) latest statistics demonstrates that approximately
1.2 million females experienced domestic violence in 2016-2017. Overall, 26% females and
experience some kind of moderate-to-severe type of domestic abuse between the age 16 to 59 in
England and Wales (Strickland & Allen, 2018). Although, these figures itself are shocking but
the fact we all know is that these are grossly underestimated. This is because the definition of
domestic violence is not clearly understood. Many abusers do not even realize that they are
inflicting domestic violence and on the flipside, many victims do not take action as they do not
realize that they are experiencing domestic violence. There is no legal classification of domestic
violence and abuse related crime and, as this is a hidden crime, very often the reports are not
recorded or even if some that are recorded do not result in prosecution or arrest. The domestic
violence and abuse is prevalent all over, yet the problem is often ignored or denied. It affects the
victims of all age groups, age, gender or economic background and its huge impact is
psychological rather than physical (Arizona Coalition, 2018). It can be prevented at initial levels
by noticing and acknowledging the signs of an abusive relationship and all are required to be
encouraged to live without fear of any person. So, this case study is intended to suggest civil and

criminal remedies for domestic violence victims in England and Wales and to recommend them
to take the initiatives to come out of such relationships (HelpGuide.org International, 2019).
Definition of Domestic Violence
The United States Department of Justice ‘Office on Violence against Women’ describes
domestic violence as a pattern of abusive behavior in any kind of relationship where one partner
uses it to control another. The crime of violence committed by current or former partner; with
whom victim has a child; has cohabitated or cohabiting with; or by any other person, comes
under the domestic violence.
The UK Government has extended its definition in March 2013 and defined domestic violence
and abuse as an incident or incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behavior between the
people of age 16 or above, and who are or have been in an intimate relationship or are family
members without considering their gender or sexuality (Wright, 2018).This encompasses all
kinds of abuse meaning emotional, economical, physical, sexual, psychological threats, stalking
or cyber stalking. The description of domestic violence also mentions that sufferers can be from
any socioeconomic background, race, religion, gender, age, educational level or ethnicity. The
basic difference between domestic violence and other aggressive acts is that it is committed by
close intimate people and the victims are spouses, intimate partners, dating partners, children,
family members or cohabitants (Full Fact, 2018). Domestic violence results in chronic repetition
of physical, verbal, sexual assaults, abuses and insults and one person constantly tries to have
control over the other(Anna, 2014).
The difference in the definitions of domestic violence in both the countries is that, the US has not
provided the elaborated pattern of behavior that could be considered as domestic violence while
in UK, the extent of behavior has clearly been explained. However, the concern is that domestic

violence has spread in countries like England, USA and other countries across the globe because
of an insufficient effective law and order system of violence detection, lack of professional skills
and knowledge, and lack of preventive measures and social awareness.
Contemporary Concern
The extent of domestic-related crime and its prevalence reported by CSEW demonstrates that
one woman out of four suffers domestic violence in her life time and approximately two at least
are killed per week by her present or previous partner in England and Wales. The latest figures
of CSEW of March 18 show that these figures have increased and a rough estimate states that 2
million adults between 16 and 59 years have suffered domestic abuse in this year. Furthermore,
the number of domestic crimes and abuse published are five per victim which means if the
women experiences 100 incidents of domestic abuse or violence, merely five are officially
reported (LWA, 2018). Thus, if the cap is removed, shockingly the incidents of domestic
violence would shoot up approximately by 70% (Refuge, 2018).
The prevalence of domestic-related violence is a great development of concern especially for
women, as majority of victims of domestic homicide recorded between 2013 and 2016 were
women. The CSEW conducted a domestic survey and noticed there was more number of
domestic crimes as compared to the official figures. This is because many offences are not
clearly defined by law as offences and hence, are not collected or recorded. The number of
arrests recorded by police in March 2017 was 46 per 100 domestic-related crimes. These
recorded crime number is estimated to be much less as majority of the cases are not brought to
the notice of police and those that do get attention hardly result in conviction of the doer.
Approximately, half of recorded domestic-related crimes do not result in arrest due to evidential
difficulties and challenges of investigation pertaining to domestic offences.

The crime report on Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)-Violence against Women and Girls,
which is a yearly publication that imparts all the data, related to the domestic violence and abuse
states that 117,444 cases of domestic violence were reported in 2016/2017. In 2017/2018 the
cases refereed by CPS to the police were 116,574 which were a drop by 0.7%, but compared to
2009/2010, CPS records indicate that domestic violence cases increased by 29 %(Strickland &
Allen, 2018). Ironically, there is great discrepancy in the total number of cases reported and the
number of people arrested for the offence. Approximately, half of unsuccessful prosecutions
were due to non-attendance of victim, victim’s retraction due to fear exerted by the perpetrator or
insufficient evidence.
The estimates provided by CSEW for domestic abuse have found number of victims of non-
physical abuse by partners and family in the form of threats, force or stalking. As per the
statistics provided by CSEW, around 7.5% females have been victimized of domestic violence
and abuse in 2016/17, which is equal to around 1.2 million females. Similarly, the people of age
group between 16 and 59 had suffered from some kind of domestic violence or abuse in their life
span and it includes 26% of females, which is equal to around 4.3 million women who had been
victimized. So, the problem is seriously big and requires serious consideration (Bird, Vigurs, &
Gough, 2018; Potter, 2017).
Comparative Study
Domestic-related crime is not limited to England alone. The National Statistics Domestic
Violence Fact Sheet demonstrates that on an average, 20 people every minute are physically
abused in the US by their close partner which is equal to around 10 million people. On average,
1 in every 3 women experiences physical violence in the US resulting in injury, post-traumatic
disorders, contracting sexually transmitted diseases, depression, fearfulness, etc. range of

behaviors like slapping, pushing, shoving, etc. which are not defined as domestic violence are
suffered by 1 out of 3 females by their close partners in the US and 1 in 10 women are raped by
their intimate partners. In only a day, above 20,000 calls is received by domestic violence
hotlines across the country and women between the ages 18 and 24 are most likely abused by
their close partners (NCADV, 2018).
As per the statistical data of Violence Policy Center, 3 females in the U.S. are killed by their
intimate present or ex-partners (The National Domestic Violence Hotline, 2018).Lack of law
enforcement, inefficient legal system, easy access to deadly weapons, and no units for domestic
violence are the main reasons for increase in domestic violence (O'Hara, 2017). As per the report
of Justice Bureau statistics, the African-American females are more prone to domestic violence
and the rate of their victimization is around 35% higher as compared to American females.
Furthermore, the complexities of the law create several dangerous gaps in the process of
punishing the offenders. For example, under existing federal law, an individual convicted for
crime or offense of domestic violence or if has permanent restraining order, is proscribed from
possession of a gun but the gaps in the law allow them to keep gun ownership in case of
temporary restraining order, convicted for stalking or domestic violence to those they are dating
but not living with or having child with them (Stanford University, 2018).However, the obvious
fact is that possession of firearms or guns and domestic violence are deadly combination and it
takes the life of survivor in much more danger when the perpetrators have access to firearms and
guns. So, there is no one country which is free from incidents of domestic violence and abuse,
however, variations are there in rate of occurrence depending on the legal policies of all the
countries (O'Hara, 2017).