Prosecuting Domestic Assault: Victims Failing Courts, or Courts Failing Victims?

Abstract

The attempted prosecution of domestic assault gives rise to considerable frustration within the ranks of the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), a frustration attributed to victims’ tendency to withdraw their co‐operation with the prosecution effort. The authors report on an empirical investigation which, while it confirmed the high withdrawal rate, also identified routine charge reduction to s.39, trivialisation of the woman’s experience in accounts of the violence presented to the court, and use of the conditional discharge as the preferred sentencing option. Despite an expressed willingness to take domestic violence seriously, police, CPS and courts still view these cases through the lens of ‘the couple’ or ‘the family’. This is justified by the high rate of victim withdrawal, but equally it provides no encouragement to women to sustain their commitment to an arduous and possibly dangerous enterprise.

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