Challenges for the Implementation of Northern Ireland’s Domestic Abuse Offence

Drawing on experiences from other jurisdictions within the UK, Criminalising Coercive Control explores the challenges and potential successes which may be faced in implementing Northern Ireland’s new domestic abuse offence.

A specific offence of domestic abuse was introduced in Northern Ireland in March 2021. This represents a crucial development in Northern Ireland’s response to domestic abuse. The new legislation has the effect of criminalising coercive and controlling behaviour, thereby bringing Northern Ireland into line with other jurisdictions within the UK, and also with relevant human rights standards in this regard. The book begins with a discussion regarding the offence itself and the underpinning domestic abuse policy in Northern Ireland. Subsequent chapters explore further measures which may be needed to respond effectively to domestic abuse in Northern Ireland, by drawing upon the experiences of other jurisdictions of criminalising coercive control. These reflections are considered through the lenses of policing, prosecutorial practice and frontline domestic abuse working.

Criminalising Coercive Control will be of great interest to students and scholars in a variety of fields, such as criminal law, criminology, social policy, human rights, family law, gender studies and sociology. The book is also accessible beyond academia, including practitioners and those in the voluntary sector who are working in the area of combating domestic abuse.

Biography

Vanessa Bettinson is Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. She researches coercive control in criminal law and is particularly interested in the creation and implementation of coercive control offences and embedding coercive control understandings within defence frameworks.

Ronagh McQuigg is a reader in the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, UK. She holds an LLB with First Class Honours, an LLM with Distinction and a PhD, and she is a qualified solicitor. Her research interests focus in particular on domestic abuse, and she teaches in the areas of family law and property law.

This textbook is both timely and significant when considering the continued significant rates of domestic violence both globally and domestically. The social, economic, and psychological costs of domestic violence are staggering. As a victimologist, domestic violence researcher, presenter, and moderator on this violence, as well as a survivor of serious physical, emotional, and financial relationship abuse, Laura Elizabeth combines her academic expertise with her personal experiences to illuminate the intricacies of this type of violence. From basic definitions and types of domestic violence to laws, services, and intervention strategies, this textbook guides students through the reality of domestic violence so they can objectively assess how far we have come and how far we have to go. Combining objective and scholarly research on domestic violence to date, with personal stories of survivors, high-profile cases, and case studies, this textbook will be of interest to a number of disciplines from criminology and criminal justice to sociology and gender studies.

Laura Elizabeth, PhD, most recently served as Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She completed her undergraduate work at Duke University, and her master’s and Ph.D. at Virginia Commonwealth University before embarking on her academic career. Her research focus is intimate partner violence. She invites readers to contact her for further questions and discussion on the issue of IPV.

Forms about domestic violence can be found here:
https://bbpolice.uk/forms

The Battenburg Policing platform provides quick access to a wide range of tools and references to support your duties. From a comprehensive directory of UK police forces, digitised question sets and risk assessments, and helpful mnemonics, to an almanac of policing acronyms, an interactive map, and a vehicle enquiry service — we’ve got you covered. Additionally, explore our repository of policing documents and use our pro forma duty statement form for streamlined reporting. Everything you need to save time, reduce paperwork, and improve efficiency in everyday policing.

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Whether you’re conducting a custody risk assessment, preparing for a welfare check, or completing a search record, these forms support accurate, consistent, and compliant decision-making.

Digitised Checklists – For arrests, stop/search, warrants, and more.
Risk Assessment Forms – Custody, mental health, domestic abuse, etc.
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Summary:
The Coercive Control of Children extends Evan Stark’s path-breaking analysis of interpersonal violence to children, showing that coercive control is the most important cause and context of child abuse and child homicide outside a war zone, as well as of the sexual abuse, denigration, exploitation, isolation and subordination of children. The book provides a working model of the coercive control of children and illustrates its dynamics and consequences withdramatic cases drawn from the headlines and Dr. Stark’s forensic practice. The cases include those in which the coercive control of children runs in tandem with the coercive control of women, where children are « weaponized » in the coercive control of their mother and cases where abused mothers harm theirchildren to survive or protect them from worse. By highlighting a criminal cause of child maltreatment and a plausible justice response, Evan Stark challenges the common assumptions that child abuse and neglect fall on a continuum of problems rooted in maternal deficits, immaturity, poverty, and environmental stressors as well as the combination of Child Welfare and Child Protection Services that currently provide the ameliorative response.

Summary:
Coercive control is a severe form of domestic violence experienced by millions of children worldwide. It involves a perpetrator using a range of tactics to intimidate, humiliate, degrade, exploit, isolate and control a partner or family member. Some coercive control perpetrators use violence, others do not.Drawing on interviews with children and mothers who have experienced coercive control-based domestic violence, this groundbreaking book sheds light on the impacts of coercive control on children, how it is perpetrators who must be held accountable for those impacts, and how resistance by children and mothers occurs. Resistance happens in everyday life, not just in response to incidents of violence. Breaking free from coercive control is not a one-off event but a sustained battle for safety and recovery in which child and adult survivors need supports and professional interventions that work.Written accessibly for students, researchers, practitioners, survivors of domestic violence, and anyone with a general interest in the topic, the book provides a child-centered perspective to revolutionize our understanding of how children are affected by coercive control-based domestic violence.

This sensitively written storybook has been created to help very young children understand about domestic abuse and coercive control.

Luna loves playing with her friends at kitten club, but at home things are different. One terrible night, Luna overhears a domestic abuse incident and, when her own name is mentioned, she wonders if it might be her fault. Accompanied by beautiful and engaging illustrations, the story provides a vehicle for talking with children about their experiences, safety and emotional wellbeing.

Three potential endings allow the story to be personalised to the individual child:

• In ending 1, Luna is comforted by her mummy and remains at home

• In ending 2, Luna and her mummy move to a refuge, and eventually into their own home

• In ending 3, Luna’s daddy apologises for his behaviour promising to change , and she and her mummy move back into the family home

Through age-appropriate rhyming language, this story explores children’s common reactions to domestic abuse, shows them that they are not alone, and helps them talk about their feelings. It is an essential tool for all early years practitioners, as well as professionals working with children and families who are experiencing, or have experienced, domestic abuse and coercive control.

For effective and safe use, this book should be purchased alongside the professional guidebook. Both books can be purchased together as a set, Helping Young Children Learn About Domestic Abuse and Coercive Control: A Luna Little Legs Storybook and Professional Guide [9781032072555]

10 vidéos dont 2 sur la violence au sein du couple , 1 sur la protection des adolescents et 1 sur la protection des enfants.

Dr Jane Monckton-Smith outlines an important framework to identify coercive control within relationships. Dr Jane Monckton-Smith is Professor of Public Protection at the University of Gloucestershire with a specialism in homicide, coercive control and stalking. In addition to her academic work she maintains a diverse portfolio of professional and case work. She works with families bereaved through homicide helping them with criminal justice and other processes; she advises homicide review panels, as well as chairing statutory domestic homicide reviews; she advises police on current and cold investigations, and crisis risk assessments; she trains police and other professionals in assessing threat and risk in cases of domestic violence, and recognising and identifying suspicious deaths. Her most recent book In Control: dangerous relationships and how they end in murder explains her work in creating the ”Homicide Timeline’ that shows how and why homicide risk may be escalating in cases of coercive control and stalking. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Interview with Professor Jane Monckton-Smith,  who noticed a clear pattern in over 400 domestic murders she was reviewing. We talk about questions like: is domestic abuse chaotic? Can domestic murder be predicted? Does domestic abuse arise out of a situation or is it down to the offender?