Dr Marian Duggan from the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research explains how the government's new Domestic Abuse law could make current policies for accessing information on a partner's criminal history with regard domestic abuse crimes more effective.
‘The Government’s draft Domestic Abuse Bill offers a consolidated and definitive approach to tackling domestic violence and abuse in England and Wales. While incremental changes have been made to existing legislation over the years – most recently with the inclusion of coercive and controlling behaviour – at present there is no specific crime of domestic violence or abuse.
‘Instead, any charges or prosecutions are for existing offences, such as assault, criminal damage or grievous bodily harm. This makes it difficult for policies such as ‘Clare’s Law’ (the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme) to operate effectively. Clare’s Law allows members of the public to request background information from the police about a person’s history of domestic abuse or violence against women.
‘While domestic-related incidents are increasingly being flagged as such by the police, creating specific crimes related to domestic violence means perpetrator information will be duly recorded and more easily located in future Clare’s Law requests.
‘Importantly, the Bill also provides statutory grounding for Clare’s Law which will offer greater protection to members of the statutory sector (i.e. the police and Independent Domestic Violence Advisers). This is a welcome development as my research has demonstrated the need for greater understanding of how this policy variously operates on a national scale and among different types of applicant (Duggan, 2018; Duggan and Grace, 2018).
‘As people become increasingly aware of Clare’s Law and seek to safeguard themselves by requesting background checks on partners, it is also vital that increased funding is provided to ensure domestic abuse victims are fully supported.
‘Therefore, it is important that the Government delivers on the many promises made about combatting domestic violence and abuse in this draft Bill.’