Why The Government’s Domestic Abuse Bill Needs To Tackle Emotional Tech Abuse

Beth is a student in her early twenties. She is also a survivor of emotional tech abuse. When she broke up with her ex-boyfriend he used social media to harass and stalk her, as well as her family and friends. When she would block him, he would just set up new accounts.

‘When I first got together with him he didn’t even have a phone’, Beth recalls, ‘I thought he was a massive technophobe until we broke up. Suddenly he started all these social media accounts and used them as a harassment tool. He sent me a suicide note via Facebook messenger along with graphic images of self-harm. I later found out that he just found the images online. I went round the next day and he was just sitting there on his Xbox’.

Beth’s ex-boyfriend would ‘regularly’ turn up at her place of work as she was finishing a shift. ‘I’d find 50 messages from him on my phone’ she remembers, ‘after reporting him to the police, the online harassment stopped. But the paranoia stayed for a long time’.

Over time, Beth felt increasingly more isolated. She distanced herself from social media which, as we all know, in today’s world means cutting yourself off from pretty much everything.

Today Beth is safe and moving on with her life. She has left home and gone to study at university, she still speaks about her experience with the support of domestic violence charity Refugebecause she wants to let other women know that they’re not alone.

Sandra Horley, CBE, chief executive of national domestic violence charity Refuge, told The Debrief ‘leaving a violent partner takes incredible strength and resilience. We hope Beth’s bravery and courage to open up about her experience inspires others to seek support’. Beth’s story, sadly, is one of hundreds of thousands of stories of domestic violence and emotional abuse. According to the Office for National Statistics around 1.2 million women experienced domestic abuse in the year 2016/17. It is so common that one in four women will go through it at some point in their lives.

**READ MORE: Facts About Women Around The World **

Today, on International Women’s Day, the government announces a consultation which will eventually lead to a Domestic Violence And Abuse Act. They are calling a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity for new laws and stronger powers to put safety and support for survivors at the heart of’ domestic violence legislation.

Though this news has been long-awaited (Theresa May announced that she would personally oversee it early last year and while she was Home Secretary she was the one who made Coercive and Controlling Behaviour an offence) it is very significant. Why? Because this is the first time that there will be a statutory definition of Domestic Abuse which recognizes the many forms it can take – psychological, physical, sexual, economic and emotional.

Until now there have been pervasive misconceptions about domestic violence and abuse – for instance, the idea that you could easily spot a domestic violence survivor because she will bear the physical scars of her abuse. Of course, this is true in some cases but not all. The perpetrators of domestic violence may also control their victim’s access to money, track their every move or police who they can and cannot contact by controlling their access to a phone or the internet.

So why, you might be wondering, are the government announcing a consultation today and not the legislation itself? Put simply, they say that this is a complex matter and, to that end, they want people to have their say before the bill is drafted.

That said, what they are proposing will have a huge impact on those who have suffered or are suffering at the hands of a perpetrator. The proposals include: New Domestic Abuse Protection Orders to allow police and courts to act earlier and more effectively when abuse is suspected; the creation of a Domestic Abuse Commissioner to stand up for victims, monitor the provision of domestic abuse services, and hold the Government to account; tougher sentences for domestic abuse cases involving children; reflection on the role of technology in domestic abuse, both in how it can be a tool used to abuse victims, and how it can be used to support and protect victims; and finally people found guilty of domestic abuse could be forced to attend alcohol and drugs rehabilitation programmes and electronically tagged to help protect their victims.

Theresa May said in a statement that in the year ‘we celebrated the centenary of achieving votes for women…the fact there are still thousands of people suffering from domestic abuse shows how much work we still have to do’. She added ‘domestic abuse takes many forms, from physical and sexual abuse, to controlling and coercive behaviour that isolates victims from their families and has long-term, shattering impacts on their children. The consultation we are launching today includes a number of proposals which have the potential to completely transform the way we tackle domestic abuse, providing better protection to victims and bringing more perpetrators to justice’.

The news has been met with cautious optimism by domestic violence support charities who remained concerns about cuts to funding for refuges across the country which are essential for those fleeing from abuse.

Katie Ghose, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, told The Debrief ‘the Domestic Abuse Bill is a unique opportunity to make a real difference to survivors’ lives. We are delighted that the government has listened to our concerns by recognising that there must be sustainable funding for refuges to put an end to the current post-code lottery of support available, which leaves women and children with nowhere to turn and puts lives at further risk. These life-saving services are not an optional extra but an essential piece of the jigsaw in our response to domestic abuse; the support that refuges and community services provide, from drop-in centres to counselling, legal advice and helplines, is often the key to survivors accessing help from the police and other agencies’.

Ghose added that the ambition of today’s proposals would be ‘undermined if there is not a long-term, sustainable funding plan for refuges in place. We are calling on the government to give survivors a cast-iron guarantee that they will not go ahead with planned changes to how refuges will be funded, which threaten these life-saving services with closure’.

For stakeholders like Women’s Aid it is important that the scope Domestic Abuse Bill, when it does become law, extends beyond the criminal justice system. ‘We know that many women do not feel able to report abuse to the police’, Ghose said ‘so we need a Bill that makes domestic abuse everyone’s business. It must reach beyond a criminal justice response to include policies on housing, education, health, immigration and the welfare system to name but a few, so that all survivors and their children get the support they need, when and where they need it’.

As things stand, according to statistics from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, local authorities across England have cut their spending on domestic violence refuges by nearly a quarter since 2010. According to Women’s Aid, 17% of specialist women’s refuges were forced to close between 2010 and 2014, they report that on just one day in 2017, 94 women and 90 children were turned away from refuge. 60% of all referrals to refuges were declined in 2016-17, normally due to a lack of available space.

Responding to the government, Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, told *The Debrief *in a statement:

‘Any measures to combat domestic violence are welcome however this Tory Government have spent the last eight years cutting the very services those fleeing abuse rely on’.

‘Domestic violence is one of the toughest crimes to police effectively and it’s become much more difficult because of the Tories’ cutting 21,000 police and support for women’s refuges’.

She added, ‘there is much more this Government could and should do’

You can submit your views and experiences about the proposals to the government here

Follow Vicky on Twitter @Victoria_Spratt

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.