By Charlotte Webster-
Suspected attackers of domestic violence have been banned from examining victims of domestic violence under new laws announced by the Government.
The British Government has finally drafted a bill to end the torture faced by victims of domestic violence in both family and criminal courts, ending years of a flawed system practised in the courts.
The landmark bill, published today, will for the first time forbid defendants of domestic abuse from cross examining their accusers in court. Up until now, a victim of domestic violence could be interrogated by a suspect who did not have a barrister to defend them, and had chosen to represent themselves to avoid the costs of legal representation. This meant that in a family court, a victim of domestic violence could be interrogated by their abuser.
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MP Victoria Atkins said that this avenue open to perpetrators “as another form of abuse. [It’s] another way of exerting control and fear over their ex-partners”.
The new bill also introduces the first statutory definition of domestic abuse to specifically include economic abuse, as well as controlling and manipulative non-physical abuse. This dramatic decision to ban cross-examination in the family courts follow a unanimous response to its call for evidence and stakeholder events last year. New laws will now change the way criminal and family proceedings are conducted.
In criminal proceedings, the court can make an order preventing an unrepresented defendant cross-examining the alleged victim in person. In family proceedings, judges can use their general case management powers to prevent a victim from being cross-examined in person by the alleged perpetrator, but the family court currently cannot appoint a legal representative to represent the victim and conduct the cross-examination in their place.
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The government says it is making 120 commitments to tackle domestic abuse, including £8m of Home Office funding to support children affected by domestic abuse and an additional £500,000 for provisions for male victims. McCurley said the justice system is ‘absolutely at breaking point and a few bits of window dressing are not going to do the job’.
Polygraph or lie detector tests will be introduced to pilot a scheme where existing offenders of domestic abuse with a high risk of re-offending are subjected to a lie detector test to assess their intentions post prison.
Perpetrators would be asked questions about their intentions to re-offend with extra precautionary measures could be put in place to monitor those found via the lie detector test to be highly likely to abuse again in future. Such measures might include formal warnings by police or increased supervision, ideally reducing the chance of another person having to suffer abuse at the hands of a known previous offender.
The concept is based off the back of research carried out on a very similar scheme for sex offenders, which found that “polygraph testing has increased the chances that a sexual offender under supervision in the community will reveal information relevant to their management, supervision, treatment, or risk assessment.”
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