Examine the effectiveness of the criminal justice system’s response to the
issue of domestic abuse.
Domestic abuse is the pattern of coercive behaviour through physical, emotional or
sexual ways and is often imposed by the partner in the relationship. The most
common issues reoccurring within domestic abuse are underreported cases,
statutory uncertainty, and lack of awareness among police officers. Starting from the
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, 1 criminal justice effectively
responded to some of this issue by implementing improved legislation and training
for the police. However, there are still some gaps to be filled to better tackle
domestic violence in England and Wales. The current pandemic exposed these gaps
as there is an increased number of cases since the national lockdown was
announced in March 2020. It also emphasised the importance of the domestic abuse
problem as the emerging research indicates that domestic abusers using the
lockdown to increase their pattern of abuse.2
The police bodies have seen some significant improvements, such as training in
response to domestic abuse, for the past few years; however, there is still a small
gap that needs to be filled.1 The report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of
Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services expressed their concerns in 2018 about
the lack of evidence in the domestic cases, such as no photographs were taken by
the police officers.3 In 2019, they detected an improvement in this area as 92% of
cases had photographs of the scene and injuries. 4 The rate of recorded domestic
abuse cases also increased by 18% from 2018 to 2019. The Office for National
Statistics believes that this increase was impacted by the police improved training in
offence-recording practices. It also certainly affected the victim confidence in the
1
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004
2
Ria Ivandić and others, ‘Changing patterns of domestic abuse during Covid-19
lockdown’ (Centre for Economic Performance, November 2020 )
< http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/108483/1/dp1729.pdf >assessed 19 April 2021
3
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, ‘The
police response to domestic abuse’ (HMICFRS, February 2019)
< https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/wp-content/uploads/the-police-
response-to-domestic-abuse-an-update-report.pdf > assessed 19 April 2021
4
Ibid
, police forces.5 Professor Brennan compares both pre-trained and untrained forces,
and he mentions that the trained troops saw an increase in arrest rates in contrast to
untrained forces. He also explains that training was meaningful and significant for the
police forces; however, it had a short period of effects. 6 According to the National
Police Chiefs’ Council, police continued to respond to the surge of domestic abuse
cases during the pandemic period using tools available to the police officers to
ensure victim’s safety. They state that the police is increasing the use of Domestic
Violence Disclosure Schemes and Domestic Violence Protection Orders to distance
the perpetrators from victims.7 However, as mentioned above, police training has a
positive impact only for a short time. According to the Office of National Statistics,
only 17.3% of victims reported domestic violence to the police in 2018, 34.2% of
victims considered the police helpless in their matters and did not report the case,
and 26.6% of victims did not feel safe after the reporting.
Furthermore, as soon as reported, 35% of the incidents did not see any further
investigation once the police assessed them, and 43% were only issued with a
warning.8 In 2019, HMICFRS reviewed 554 cases where the victims withdrew their
support, 215 of these cases were classified as eligible for further investigation
5
Nick Stripe , 'Domestic abuse during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,
England and Wales: November 2020' (Office for the National Statistics, 25
November 2020)
<https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/
domesticabuseduringthecoronaviruscovid19pandemicenglandandwales/
november2020#domestic-abuse-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-data
> accessed 19 April 2021
6
Iain Brennan and others, 'Policing a new domestic abuse crime: effects of force-
wide training on arrests for coercive control' (An International Journal of Research
and Policy, 11 January 2021)
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10439463.2020.1862838?
scroll=top&needAccess=true >accessed 20 April 2021
7
National Police Chiefs' Council , 'Domestic Abuse victims urged to keep seeking
help during national lockdown' (NPCC, 18 November 2020)
< https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/domestic-abuse-victims-urged-to-keep-
seeking-help-during-national-lockdown >accessed 20 April 2021
8
Nick Stripe, 'Partner abuse in detail, England and Wales: year ending March
2018' (Office of National Statistics , 25 November 2020)
<https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/
partnerabuseindetailenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2018>accessed 20 April
2021
