Abused Women - Experiences of the Criminal Justice System
Lesley Irving - Scottish Women's Aid
Today,
we are looking at how we can implement positive change in how
the criminal justice system in Scotland deals with domestic
abuse.
We will
hear about the response of the police, about the role of the
prosecutor, about how a sentencer views the issues, about work
with abusive men, about what we have learned from research and
about how local authorities can respond.
All
these delights are yet to come, but before we move on to them,
we must consider how one central person experiences how the
criminal justice system in Scotland deals with domestic abuse -
the woman who has been abused by her partner.
Part of
the difficulty women have with the criminal justice system is
that they don't realise that they are dealing with a system -
each part seems quite distinct to them, operating independently
of each other. Women do not experience a co-ordinated response
from the system; they experience individual responses from the
different elements, not always consistent with each other.
The
first contact women have with the criminal justice system will
be with the police officers who arrive at her house, because she
or someone else, possibly a child or a neighbour, have called
them. How these police officers respond can have a major effect
on how she acts now and in the future, and on what choices she
makes.
What
will these police officers see and how will they respond to what
they see?
Will
they see a woman who is upset because she has just been
assaulted, who can't be coherent because she is upset? Will they
see a man who seems calm and in control? Where will their
sympathies lie?
If
they've been called to the house several times before, will they
be impatient with the woman because she doesn't seem to want to
help herself?
They
will probably separate the man and the woman and speak to each
of them on their own. But will they make it clear to both of
them that domestic abuse is a serious criminal offence, or will
the words they use leave the woman feeling she has wasted their
time? If they go away saying that they don't want to be called
back to that house again, is that giving the man the message
that he must not abuse her again, or is it giving the woman the
message that she shouldn't call for help again?
There
are many myths and misconceptions about domestic abuse, which
are still prevalent among the general public. Many police
officers subscribe to all of these, and some extra ones of their
own. By myths and misconceptions, I mean for example that women
must enjoy being abused, otherwise they'd leave; that women
provoke their partners into assaulting them; that it's all
caused by drink; that children and young people who witness
abuse will inevitably grow up to abuse and be abused and that 9
times out of 10 women will ask for charges to be dropped because
they've made it up with their partner.
Presumably,
nobody here today shares these views, but when we in Women's Aid
train the police, we still see these attitudes being expressed.
Police officers nowadays may have a better idea about what they
are supposed to say, but how they say things can be just
as important. If their underlying beliefs have not changed, this
will come over to women, who will feel that they are being
blamed - for causing the situation in the first place by their
actions or inaction; for putting their children at risk by not
leaving or for refusing to do what other people think they
should do.
We have
become more aware recently of the interconnectedness of domestic
abuse and all forms of child abuse. It is increasingly
recognised that supporting women and children together is the
most effective means of supporting children who have experienced
abuse. Therefore, an automatic assumption by police officers
that children would be better off removed from a home where an
abusive man lives can be unhelpful.
And, as
in all other professions, there are male police officers who
abuse their women partners. How will this affect how they
respond to domestic abuse incidents?
In
addition, there are some women police officers who are abused by
their partners. Having personal experience can make women police
officers both more and also less sympathetic to women. The
reason they may be more sympathetic is obvious, the reason they
may be less sympathetic perhaps requires explanation. Some women
feel that they have dealt with their own situation in a
particular way and that everyone else should do the same. Others
are afraid that showing too much understanding could alert
colleagues to the fact that they have been abused, which they
may not wish to be known.
There
are also particular difficulties for women police officers in
calling the police when they have been abused.
As the
response of the police can be so important to women, perhaps
police forces should look at these issues when considering how
they deal with domestic abuse.
Some
women do find the police response helpful, and there's no doubt
that improvements in training are having a positive effect. But
too many women still tell us that they would never call the
police again because of how they were made to feel. This is
simply not acceptable; women and children should be able to rely
on the police to protect them when they are at risk.
High
profile police campaigns on women's safety are very welcome, as
are moves towards accurate recording of domestic violence
incidents. However, the place where it is most important that
the correct message is given is in dealing with the man who has
just assaulted his partner and the woman who has just been
assaulted. More training is required, and in particular,
training aimed at addressing attitudes about how men and women
should relate to each other.
On the
comparatively rare occasions when men are taken into custody,
women are often not informed about what is happening and when
they are going to be released. For some women, this is an
inconvenience, for others it can put their lives in danger.
Women need information so that they can make their own choices
about their safety and the safety of their children. They are in
the best position of anyone to do this, they know the man best,
and what he is capable of.
It
should not be too difficult to introduce a system whereby women
are informed before men are released from custody, giving them
time to take steps to ensure their safety if need be.
On the
even rarer occasions when men are charged with offences relating
to domestic abuse, again the woman is often left uninformed
about what is happening, and can find that proceedings have been
dropped when perhaps she finally felt ready to have her day in
court.
Women
find this very distressing, particularly when they are told that
there is not enough evidence. This feels to them as if their
statement is being disregarded, as if their word is not
significant enough.
Men
often use the fact that proceedings have been dropped in further
abuse, telling women that they couldn't get them through the
courts in spite of trying, that there's no point trying that
again, because nobody will listen to them.
The
delay in bringing cases to court also causes difficulties for
women. Obviously, having to share a home with a person against
whom you are expecting to have to give evidence in court is
stressful. The longer the situation goes on, the greater the
stress. By the time the man has to appear in court, the
relationship may have gone through many changes, and the woman
may feel unable to face participating in the prosecution of her
partner.
Similarly, women are often unaware of court processes, and men
often lie to them about what has happened - for example saying
that they have pled guilty and been let off when they have
actually pleaded not guilty and will be tried some time hence.
Another tactic they use is to plead not guilty, so that a trial
date will be set some time in the future, so that the woman will
be worrying about having to go to court, and then on the day,
when they have made sure that the woman has to be in the court
building at the same time as them, they plead guilty.
How can
we make this situation better for women? At present, women are
often left feeling disempowered by their involvement with the
courts, by not being consulted and kept uninformed.
Fiscals
could inform women at all stages about what is happening and
about what decisions have been made and why. In particular, when
proceedings are being dropped they could explain why in a way
which leaves women feeling a valued part of the process.
Some
type of 'fast track' system for prosecuting cases of domestic
violence could also be considered, so that women are not kept
under the threat of having to give evidence against their
partner for an intolerable period of time. A special case can
surely be made for domestic violence related offences, given the
particular difficulties the main prosecution witness faces
through her relationship to the accused.
Support
for women who have to give evidence in court is an area where
significant improvements could be made. There are many practical
difficulties, such as how to get to court, what to do about
childcare, which could surely be overcome fairly simply. Women's
safety while in the court building is another aspect which
should be addressed, ensuring that she does not have to
encounter either her partner or his supporters.
This is
also an issue for children and young people who may be asked to
appear as witnesses. We know that children are in the same or
the next room in 90% of cases of domestic abuse.
And, as
anyone who has ever given evidence in court knows, you can be
kept hanging about for hours, which can cause great stress if
you are worried about getting home in time for children after
school. All these points could be resolved without great
expenditure, and would immediately improve women's experiences
of the criminal justice system to a considerable extent.
A
scheme currently being piloted in Hammersmith & Fulham may in
time mean women do not have to give evidence against their
violent partners. 999 calls will be recorded, and police
officers will write detailed arrest reports and take photographs
of the scene to build a strong case that does not rely on the
woman giving evidence. Men convicted will be put on re-education
programmes and registered on a computer.
Similar
schemes in North America have resulted in a ten-fold increase in
arrests over one year, and the number of domestic violence
related murders has halved. Home Office Minister Alun Michael
had said that the model will be adopted across the UK if it is
found to be successful. Taking the onus off women to provide the
main prosecution evidence against their partners would be a very
positive change. Perhaps a Scottish local authority would like
to run a Scottish pilot scheme on the same lines to see how it
would translate into our legal system.
Another
aspect of how women who have been abused experience the criminal
justice system is through diversion from prosecution. It may
seem inappropriate to include diversion in this context, as it
removes domestic violence perpetrators from the criminal justice
system before they go to court.
But
diversion is a alternative to prosecution and therefore is an
integral part of how the criminal justice system disposes of
offenders. It is claimed that diversion is not a disposal, but
it is a possible outcome just like fiscal fines or warnings and
must be considered as a disposal.
Therefore, I think it is worth considering diversion here, not
least because fiscals make the decisions about who to divert
from prosecution.
We in
Women's Aid have long argued that diversion is not a suitable
option for abusive men precisely because it allows them to
escape a criminal sanction for their crimes. Personal assault is
a crime of such gravity that it should be dealt with only by the
Sheriff Court, which deals with offences not usually suitable
for alternatives to prosecution. This therefore takes it out of
the category of cases suitable for diversion i.e. cases dealt
with by the district court, so called "minor" offences.
Currently 15 local authorities in Scotland are running diversion
schemes, and the other 17 are being strongly lobbied by the
Scottish Office to do so also.
Some
local authorities have argued that domestic violence
perpetrators should not be included in diversion schemes, but
the Scottish Office has remained adamant that no categories of
offender can be excluded.
Many of
the benefits of diversion for the district court system and the
offender are obvious - it frees court time, it saves money for
local authorities who fund the district courts, it prevents the
perpetrator from having to appear in court, from having a
criminal record as a result of his offence and does not require
him to undertake a prolonged programme looking at the full
extent of his abusive behaviour.
Are
there any benefits for the partner of the domestic violence
perpetrator? Once again, she sees society fail to sanction the
man who assaulted her. He has not had to face up to the fact
that he has committed a serious crime, but she has to face up to
the fact that her assault is not regarded by the criminal
justice system as a crime worth prosecuting.
Diversion schemes have not been set up in consultation with
Women's Aid - issues about women, children and young people's
safety while men are on diversion may not have been fully
considered. Similarly, protocols about how to consult women
without further endangering them may not have been fully thought
out.
For some
women, diversion may seem like a better option in the short term
if they are frightened of the effect of a punitive sanction on
their partner. However, for most women in the long term,
diversion does not provide them with increased safety and it
does not give them the message that society deplores what has
been done to them: quite the reverse, in fact.
Women
who have been abused have nothing to gain, and a lot to lose,
from diversion.
As far
as we in Women's Aid are concerned, diversion is not a suitable
option for domestic violence perpetrators, so I will not suggest
how change could be implemented to improve women's experience of
diversion, other than, yet again, to ask that local authorities
are allowed to exclude domestic violence perpetrators from
diversion schemes.
It was
our opposition to pre-court diversion in cases of domestic abuse
which led to possibly the most innovative attempt to implement
change in how the criminal justice system deals with this crime,
and a change in which Scotland has led the rest of Britain and
indeed the rest of Europe.
While
we were saying repeatedly that diversion was not a suitable
option, we kept being asked what we thought should be done
instead. As we had also been critical of fines and ordinary
probation orders in the past, we could not suddenly become
enthusiastic about these disposals.
We were
aware of work in America, in particular of the Domestic Abuse
Intervention Project in Duluth, Minnesota, and began to promote
that as a model of good practice - a re-education programme for
abusive men which required them to take responsibility for their
abuse and learn other ways of relating to their partner.
The
important element of sanction was there - both the requirement
to appear in court and the possibility of an alternative
sentence on failure to comply with the programme.
Issues
about the safety of the women, children and young people
involved were fully taken into account and the work shared with
the local women's shelter services a feminist analysis of the
roots of men's violence ie that it results from inequalities
between men and women in society and will not be eradicated
until these inequalities are eradicated.
The two
Scottish programmes for abusive men, CHANGE and the Domestic
Violence Probation Project, from which we'll be hearing more
later this morning, were set up on the Duluth model, and Women's
Aid was involved from the outset with both. Although CHANGE no
longer runs programmes for men, the DVPP continues to work with
domestic violence perpetrators.
Despite
the doubts which, it is fair to say, some in Women's Aid have
had about work with violent men, many women have welcomed this
option. Women often say to us that they still love their
partner, they just wish he would stop abusing them. Few people
are all bad, even abusive men, and women can still value aspects
of their partner, even after treatment which many would find
unforgivable.
Women's
experiences of this criminal justice sanction are quite
different, in that they are given the choice of being involved
in a way which they feel safe with, and kept informed
throughout. It is not always possible to guarantee women,
children and young people's safety while men are undergoing the
programme, but the issues have been thought through in
consultation with Women's Aid, and protocols are regularly
reviewed.
Although there have been exceptions, generally women have felt
more valued as a central person in the proceedings with men's
programmes, and have been given a place in which to express
their views.
Some
women have been less happy with their experiences of men's
programmes, perhaps sometimes because their expectations of
radical change were too high. From the research which compared
the men's programmes with other disposals, we know that some men
will change because they can see the value of doing so, some
will change because they will get something out of changing and
some will never change. For the women whose partners are in the
first group of men, this work has had a very positive effect.
At present
there is only one men's programme in Scotland, so there are only
a very few women who can benefit from this work. From our point
of view in Women's Aid, we see men's programmes as being useful
in that they may bring about change in some men. This is
of value not only for the current women partners of these men,
but also for any future partners, as we know many men abuse
serially. Men's programmes are not the whole answer to domestic
violence, but they are part of the answer.
However, in Women's Aid we are still concerned about resources
being put into men's work, which we accept come from sources
which would not be available for work with women, children and
young people, at a time when resources for our work are being
subjected to continuing cutbacks.
Women's
work in Scotland is increasingly badly resourced - 36 out of 39
local Women's Aid groups experienced a cut in funding last year,
and some groups' continued existence is in jeopardy at present.
It has always been an accepted tenet of the pro-feminist work in
Duluth and elsewhere in North America that men's work does not
take place unless women's work is adequately resourced. Perhaps
the funders of criminal justice services could argue this case
with social work and housing on our behalf.
Other
disposals available to sentencers also affect women. Fines can
have a serious impact on women and children, as men tend to make
sure they have enough money available to them to do whatever
they choose, so the rest of the household have to bear the
reduction in spending money. As a result, women and children are
effectively paying the fine, being punished for having been
abused.
Women
are very aware of this, and often speak about it in exactly
those terms, that they are taking the punishment for what was
done to them. They see this as very unfair, not surprisingly.
They also compare fines imposed for assaults on them with those
imposed for other types of crime, such as shoplifting or Road
Traffic Act offences. They are dismayed to find that often these
other crimes seem to be taken more seriously, as they attract
higher fines. A colleague told me recently about attending court
with a woman whose partner was being sentenced for an assault on
her and a driving offence. The assault attracted a fine of £50;
the driving offence got £350.
It does
not give women much faith that the criminal justice system cares
about what has happened to them when they see crimes against
property receiving higher penalties than crimes against them.
Ordinary probation orders are not seen by women as a serious
punishment, rather they are viewed as a 'soft option'. Women
know how few incidents of violence come to the attention of the
criminal justice system, so they know that it is comparatively
unlikely that further offences while on probation will result in
an increased penalty. Ordinary probation orders do not cause
much inconvenience to men, and can seem quite indulgent to women
- he gets a chance to talk to a social worker about his
problems, but there is no place for her to talk about her
issues, once the Social Enquiry Report has been completed.
And
Community Service Orders are also not highly thought of by women
- they find it galling that their partners are obliged to do
gardening or decorating for other people, when they won't do
these things at home.
Many
women long for their abuser to be given a custodial sentence.
Generally, they are disappointed in this, as it is a less common
disposal. People sometimes say that women do not want their
partners to be sent to prison, as they have then been deprived
of the family's breadwinner and have to rely on benefits while
he is inside.
However, abusers often use control of the family's finances as a
means to abuse women, who can have less money to manage on than
they would receive on benefit. You may not get much on Income
Support, but at least you know what you will get each week, and
no-one will come and take what you've got left.
Prison
can provide a breathing space for women and children, a period
of time when they know they cannot be physically abused. Men can
continue to exert power and control over women and children even
from prison, through letters and phone calls, so there can still
be abuse carrying on. However, the relief that the knowledge
that there can be no further assaults for a while brings is
tremendous. In addition, a custodial sentence gives women and
children the chance to leave safely, if this is what they wish
to do.
Again,
the length of the sentence imposed can seem insulting to women,
if it is much less than other crimes attract. To be realistic,
we do not expect that all domestic violence perpetrators should
be sent to prison for lengthy periods, as there would not be
room for any other offenders. However, it is reasonable, I
think, to suggest that more men could be sent to prison for
longer.
This
has been a brief overview of how women experience the criminal
justice system at present. Of course, children and young people
also experience domestic abuse, and develop their own awareness
about how the system deals with the abuse of their mother. It is
often children who phone the police when their mother is being
assaulted, they have expectations of protection and safety being
provided, which is too often not the case.
Women
who are assaulted by their partners are entitled to expect the
criminal justice system to protect them and their children. At
the moment, this is not happening for all women, all the time.
It is
possible to implement positive change which will increase
women's safety without compromising their right to make choices.
This is a challenge which we must all rise to. Women, children
and young people who have experienced domestic abuse deserve
nothing less.
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