Supporting victims of domestic violence leads to more successful prosecutions

13/11/2012

November is Domestic Violence Awareness month, a good time to highlight the work the CPS is doing with its partners to address this distressing type of crime and encourage victims to come forward.

There is no specific criminal offence of domestic violence. Instead, a definition that refers to "incidents of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse" was adopted in 2004. Now, following calls from local authorities, police and voluntary organisations, the definition of domestic abuse has been widened to cover psychological intimidation and controlling behaviour and apply to victims under the age 18. Acts such as preventing partners from leaving the house or having access to a phone could lead to a prosecution.

One in four women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime and two women a week are killed by their current or former male partner. Women still suffer an average of 34 to 40 incidents of domestic abuse before they report it. 

Anyone can be affected by domestic violence: young or old, male or female, gay or straight, in a relationship or living with other family members. One in six men will be a victim of domestic abuse at some time in their lives.

The Crown Prosecution Service, the police and the courts recognise the scale of the problem and have all done a lot of work over recent years to improve the way these offences are handled: 
 The police are better trained to recognise and deal effectively with DV;
 Cases are now heard at specialist DV courts where Magistrates and court staff are  all trained to deal specifically with this type of offence;
 Witness Care Officers now offer support to vulnerable and intimidated victims and work closely with DV survivors organisations;
 The wider use of special measures like video links that enable witnesses to give evidence remotely has encouraged more victims to come to court.

Although there is still a long way to go, all this work is starting to pay off and Gloucestershire now has one of the highest conviction rates for domestic violence in the country. Last year more than 80% of DV cases brought to court in the county resulted in successful prosecutions, against a national average of 73%.

DV performance has improved over recent years, but a great deal more still needs to be done to encourage people to report these offences. The CPS will continue to work with all the organisations charged with dealing DV to ensure help and support is available for victims and that we get even better results in future.