Table of Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction ix
1 The nature and extent of domestic violence 1
The nature of domestic violence 1
The power and control wheel 7
Diversity in women's experiences of domestic violence 9
Domestic violence as gender violence 17
Domestic violence as crime 20
Prevalence of domestic violence 23
Conclusion 31
2 Impacts, coping and surviving domestic violence 37
The impacts on women 37
Injuries and ill-health 38
Recovering from the health impacts of domestic violence 44
Why don't women just leave? 46
Implications for practice 54
The impacts on children 56
Children living with domestic violence 64
Post-separation violence 66
The direct abuse of children during contact visits 69
Understanding children's perspectives-implications for practice 73
3 Legal responses to domestic violence 85
The nature of law in liberal democratic theory 85
Feminist perspectives 87
Legal change in the 20th Century 92
Feminist jurisprudence 93
The advantages and disadvantages of civil legislation 98
The criminal law 99
Domestic homicide 101
Family law 104
The Children Act (1989) 105
The law & child contact in cases of domestic violence 107
Child protection (Public law) 110
Conclusions 111
4 Policing, prosecution and the courts 117
Policing domestic violence 117
Innovate policing practice 122
Policing and attrition 130
Further policing initiatives 133
Prosecution and the courts 135
Specialist domestic violence courts 137
New sentencing guidence 140
Conclusions 141
5 Preventing domestic violence 147
The need for primary prevention 147
Perpetrator programmes - tertiary prevention 152
Do perpetratorprogrammes work? 159
Perpetrator programmes, violent fathers and children's safety 162
Conclusions 164
6 Community responses to domestic violence 169
Customary community responses 169
Women's Aid 170
Multi-agency responses 177
Multi-agency practices today 182
Multi-agency risk assessment conferences 183
Conclusion 187
