Falling Through the Fault Lines: Victims Experiencing Poor and Fragmented Legal Responses to Domestic Abuse in England and Wales

Abstract

Domestic abuse presents significant challenges for legal systems around the world. In England and Wales, victims of domestic abuse sometimes find that they are pulled in different directions by multiple legal interventions in the criminal, civil, and family justice spheres. This is often due to inadequate information and evidence sharing but also inconsistent approaches and court orders. The “Harm Panel” report published in 2020 examined the approach of the family justice system in child arrangement cases involving allegations of domestic abuse. It found “silo working” was one of four structural barriers contributing to unsafe processes and outcomes. The Harm Panel provided renewed impetus for a policy to introduce integrated domestic abuse courts (IDACs) to address the problems of fragmented legal responses. There has previously been one unsuccessful attempt to introduce an IDAC in England Wales. This chapter will explore what went wrong and whether the evidence base for IDACs in other countries supports another attempt.

Citation

Burton, M.D. (2022), "Falling Through the Fault Lines: Victims Experiencing Poor and Fragmented Legal Responses to Domestic Abuse in England and Wales", Maxwell, S.R. and Blair, S.L. (Ed.) The Justice System and the Family: Police, Courts, and Incarceration (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 20), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 223-239. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1530-353520220000020010