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Communication | Creativity | Commonsense
Further news on the possibility of a specific 'domestic abuse' offence http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28860213
The official Home office definition of domestic abuse in England and Wales is:
"Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality."
The behaviour captured in this definition includes:
"… a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim".
What will be interesting is exactly how the burden of proof will be served? For a criminal court the standard is 'beyond reasonable doubt' - a higher level than the 'balance of probability' found in civil cases i.e.. most family cases.
With domestic violence it's clear when a physical assault has occurred - a crime is committed. But demonstrating that someone is controlling to an abusive extent rather than is 'protective', or 'supportive' by, for example, picking a partner up at work every day? That is likely to be far less clear-cut.
Recent Legal Services Commission cuts and cuts to the legal aid budget mean that the scope for calling an expert witness who can comment meaningfully on these issues to aid the Court is now far more restricted.This might hamper prosecutions where the issues are 'grey' and focus on deciding whether a non-physical behaviour does or does not fall within a certain definition of abuse.
