I thought it was worth flagging this up here as well as in Relationships!
It will be announced today that from March next year the definition of domestic violence is 'to be widened to explicitly include "coercive control", which is defined as complex patterns of abuse by one partner using power and psychological control over another, such as financial, verbal abuse or enforced social isolation'. Teenagers aged 16-18 will also be protected for the first time.
You can read more here:
//www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/sep/19/teenage-victims-domestic-violence-definition?newsfeed=true
//www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9551252/Domineering-men-face-domestic-violence-prosecutions.html
//www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2204778/Domestic-violence-include-mental-torment-laws-applied-aged-18.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
A little bit of light at the end of the tunnel for anyone who has to put up with bullying, verbal, emotional and financial abuse in the home.
What's really interesting is whether this will also have an impact in the Family Courts with regard to the consideration of the conduct of ex partners/spouses in divorce proceedings and child residence/contact Orders. At the moment the only "conduct" usually taken into account is physical violence. Anything else is more or less ignored. Surely that will also have to change.
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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - Important changes from March 2013
41 replies
olgaga · 19/09/2012 10:02
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