TY - JOUR
T1 - Coercion, Control and Criminal Responsibility
T2 - Exploring Professional Responses to Offending and Suicidality in the Context of Domestically Abusive Relationships
AU - Munro, Vanessa E.
AU - Bettinson, Vanessa
AU - Burton, Mandy
N1 - Funding information: The authors are indebted to the University of Warwick for funding, through a Faculty of Social Science Research Development Award, much of the underlying fieldwork.
PY - 2024/6/1
Y1 - 2024/6/1
N2 - Significant strides have been made in the law’s recognition of harms arising from domestic abuse. In England and Wales, the Serious Crimes Act 2015, and in Scotland, the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, have supported a more holistic understanding of the dynamics of abuse and the means by which coercion and control are deployed to cement and supplant perpetrators’ violence. In this article, we explore what the introduction of these offences means in other situations where questions regarding the impact of abuse upon victims’ agency arise: specifically, where victims commit an offence that might have been compelled by abusive behaviour, or take their own lives in contexts that might indicate perpetrators’ liability for suicide. In particular, drawing on interviews with professionals across both jurisdictions, we highlight the precarity of recognition of the effects of coercive control and the need to engage in more complicated discussions about when and why context matters.
AB - Significant strides have been made in the law’s recognition of harms arising from domestic abuse. In England and Wales, the Serious Crimes Act 2015, and in Scotland, the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, have supported a more holistic understanding of the dynamics of abuse and the means by which coercion and control are deployed to cement and supplant perpetrators’ violence. In this article, we explore what the introduction of these offences means in other situations where questions regarding the impact of abuse upon victims’ agency arise: specifically, where victims commit an offence that might have been compelled by abusive behaviour, or take their own lives in contexts that might indicate perpetrators’ liability for suicide. In particular, drawing on interviews with professionals across both jurisdictions, we highlight the precarity of recognition of the effects of coercive control and the need to engage in more complicated discussions about when and why context matters.
KW - Coercive control
KW - domestic abuse
KW - victims as offenders
KW - duress
KW - self-defence
KW - liability for suicide
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85170575634&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/09646639231198342
DO - 10.1177/09646639231198342
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85170575634
SN - 0964-6639
VL - 33
SP - 392
EP - 419
JO - Social & Legal Studies
JF - Social & Legal Studies
IS - 3
ER -