Barlow, Charlotte

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ArticleCoercive Control cases have doubled, butpolice still miss patterns of domestic abuseBarlow, CharlotteAvailable at http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/39833/Barlow, Charlotte ORCID: 0000-0002-1362-7131 (2018) Coercive Control cases have doubled, but police still miss patterns of domestic abuse. The Conversation .  It is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from the work.For more information about UCLan’s research in this area go to http://www.uclan.ac.uk/researchgroups/ and search for <name of research Group>.For information about Research generally at UCLan please go to http://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/ All outputs in CLoK are protected by Intellectual Property Rights law, includingCopyright law.  Copyright, IPR and Moral Rights for the works on this site are retainedby the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Terms and conditions for useof this material are defined in the policies page.CLoKCentral Lancashire online Knowledgewww.clok.uclan.ac.ukAcademic rigour, journalistic flairCoercive control cases have doubled – but police still misspatterns of this domestic abuseJuly 23, 2018 5.08pm BSTCharlotte BarlowLecturer in Criminology, Lancaster UniversityKelly JohnsonAssistant Professor, Durham UniversitySandra WalklateEleanor Rathbone Chair of Sociology, University of LiverpoolDouble the number of cases of controlling or coercive behaviour in intimate relationships wererecorded in the UK in 2017-18 than in the previous year. The offence became a crime in England andWales in December 2015, but its early implementation was shaky, with very few crimes of coercivecontrol recorded and even fewer successfully prosecuted.Now new figures released by the Office for National Statistics revealed 9,052 offences of coercivecontrol were recorded, up from 4,246 in 2016-17. The new ONS figures could suggest that policeofficers’ understanding and identification of this offence has improved. However, our researchhighlights ongoing issues with police responses to coercive control that go beyond problemsassociated with identifying and recording the offence.Evidence of long term coercive control can be hard for the police to collect. fromwww.shutterstock.comPatterns missedWhen we looked at a random sample of 116 other domestic abuse-related crimes, we found that 87%of these could also have been recorded by the police as as part of the web of abuse that couldconstitute coercive control. This meant there was evidence of repeat victimisation, a pattern ofabusive behaviour and of victim witness statements. These figures suggest there are still considerableopportunities being missed to identify repeated patterns of abusive behaviour that could beprosecuted under the coercive control offence.This is just the tip of the iceberg of problems in the police response to this form of domestic abuse. Arecent Home Office report suggested that nobody is charged in nine out of ten crimes. So even thoughthere have been improvements to police crime recording practices, responding, investigating andsolving cases effectively remains a pertinent issue.Our research identified that just 16% of coercive control cases (over an 18-month period) resulted in acharge, which is particularly low when compared with other domestic abuse-related offences. Forexample, we found that 32% of domestic actual bodily harm cases were charged.We’ve also highlighted further issues with the investigative process. In particular, securing evidence ofcoercive control was a problem for police officers, with many cases resulting in no further action dueto “evidential difficulties”. This is reflective of a broader pattern in domestic abuse cases: new Home Office data on crime outcomes shows that 69% of unsolved domestic abuse-related offences had“evidential difficulties”. This is almost three times the proportion of offences that were not domesticrelated.The Home Office figures also show that the issue of victims declining to prosecute or retracting theirstatement continues to be a significant issue in all types of domestic abuse, as expected. This can be acommon response for victims of domestic and other forms of abuse because of the fear of not beingbelieved or of what the perpetrator may do as a consequence.Outcomes for domestic abuse-related offencesYear ending March 2017 Year ending March 2018Evidential di culties (victimdoes not support action)Evidential di culties (suspectidenti ed; victim supportsaction)Charged/SummonsedOffences not yet assigned anoutcomeOut-of_court (formal andinformal)Investigation complete - nosuspect identi edOther41% 48%24% 22%18% 15%6% 6%6% 4%2% 2%3% 4%Read more: Why it's so hard to prosecute cases of coercive or controlling behaviourHowever, in our research, retraction of this sort was slightly less common in coercive control casescompared to other domestic abuse-related crimes. This suggests that collecting evidence of theoffence is the more problematic issue for police officers.The prevalence of evidence issues may well be a reflection of the difficulties faced by officers indemonstrating experiences of sustained patterns of coercive control within the statements made byvictims. Our research found persistent examples of officers investigating “incidents”, such as assault,as isolated events rather than possibly illustrative of a web of abusive behaviour, as outlined in thecoercive control legislation.Train the policeThe coercive control offence has been subject to critique – both conceptually and in terms of its implications for how such victimisation is recorded and understood more broadly in the UK.An increase in the number of coercive control crimes does not necessarily equate to better policeunderstanding and response to this more recent offence. Officers require further opportunities tolearn about the harms and risk of coercive control, and how to effectively respond and investigate thisoffence.Ongoing austerity measures, persistent budget cuts to policing and a consequent lack of resourcescarry significant implications for victims of domestic abuse and the capacity for police to respondeffectively. Recent reports also suggest that the police are failing to record thousands of domesticabuse crimes. Although the potential reasons for this are unclear, there is still more work to be donein identifying and recording such abusive behaviour.Local and national level investment is required in areas such as police training and resourcing toensure that victims are supported and safe, and that police officers are equipped to deliver a moreeffective response.

Coercive Control cases have doubled, but police still miss patterns of domestic abuse

Barlow, Charlotte Frederica

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