When ‘domestic violence’ was first introduced into law in 1976, the police could only make an arrest if the victim could show that they had sustained actual bodily harm - something the Court of Appeal recently described as “wholly outdated and hard to comprehend”.
Our understanding of domestic abuse, in all its insidious complexity, has come a long way since then. As the Domestic Abuse Bill completes its journey through Parliament, it is worth reflecting on the new protections that the Government is creating.
First, the Bill recognises that some types of abuse may continue long after the relationship has ended. Victims are protected against coercive and controlling behaviour even if the relationship is over and the couple no longer live under the same roof.
Second, it treats the threat of certain acts as seriously as the act itself. Revenge porn – sharing intimate images of a person online to cause distress – becomes a criminal offence irrespective of whether the photographs are actually posted or even whether they actually exist.
We need to keep pushing to change the culture that tells women that violence and abuse is something you should accept
Third, and perhaps most importantly, the Government has created protections against sexual violence which do not depend on any particular relationship status. Revenge porn, non-fatal strangulation and the prohibition on the rough sex defence – the grim practice of inflicting harm on a sexual partner and claiming later that she asked for it (on which we successfully campaigned with Grazia’s supportlast year) – are all examples.
So it doesn’t matter if the perpetrator is your husband or your Tinder date. If he tries to choke you without your consent, that’s a crime. If he tries to silence or humiliate you by threatening to share intimate images, that’s a crime. And if he deliberately causes you serious harm during sex whether through choking or anything else,he can’t argue that it was your choice. That will be a crime too.
As much as it pains us to write, we know how badly these laws are needed. Countless women have submitted their stories to We Can’t Consent To This in the last 18 months detailing terrifying violence during intimate encounters, which usually went unreported. In a 2019 BBC/ComRes survey of women aged under 40, 38% said that they had experienced unwanted strangulation or other violence during sex. More recently, Everyone’s Invited, the Instagram site dedicated to the anonymous testimonies of young women has told a similar story, particularly about sharing intimate images.
How we arrived at a point where sexual violence has become normalised in this way is depressing in itself. The most common messages we hear from women who’ve experienced this type of assault or abuse is “I just thought it was normal” and “I didn’t think I could report it.” These changes to the law are the beginning of real change for women: they send a clear message to perpetrators that these behaviours are not acceptable. And for women, they provide a clear route to reporting. The law can only ever do so much though – we need to keep pushing to change the culture that tells women that violence and abuse is something you should accept.