More than half of domestic homicides also experienced coercive and controlling behaviour
A study has revealed the extent of victims killed by their current or ex-partners.
The study by Manchester Metropolitan University reviewed more than 300 cases of domestic homicide in England and Wales between 2012 and 2018.
In more than half of the cases where the victim was killed, they had also experienced coercive and controlling behaviour in the relationship.
Coercive and controlling behaviour, whereby psychological abuse and intimidation is used to harm and frighten a victim, was made a criminal offence in the UK in 2015.
A YouGov poll of over 3,300 men and women across the UK showed that a third of women aged 25 to 64 had experienced some form of coercive and controlling behaviour.
In addition to this, 23% of women of women aged 18-24 and 15%of all men said they had also experienced this.
The number of women who said they experienced some kind of psychological or emotional abuse was almost half.
Professor Khatidja Chantler, who led the study, said the research showed the authorities must do more “to identify, recognise and intervene” when this abuse becomes apparent.
Prosecuting such offences though has been problematic as despite 33,954 offences being recorded by police in the year ending March 2021 only 373 convictions were carried out.
This follows a previous report in August which found just 23 out of 38 forces investigated had adopted the recommended domestic abuse training. Of this 23, 70% have trained less than half of their officers.
Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women’s Aid, told the BBC prosecutions remain “disappointingly low” despite the law being enacted seven years ago and that coercive control “continues to be a largely misunderstood and underreported crime”. She added:
“It is vital that police officers and prosecutors truly understand coercive control as the backbone of domestic abuse and its damaging, life-long impact on survivors and their children.”
A government spokesperson spoke to the BBC and said, “strengthening the multi-agency response” in order to tackle the rising issue of coercive control “is our priority”. They continued:
“We are supporting frontline services to better identify and respond to domestic abuse, including coercive control and emotional abuse.”
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