CHILDREN living with a perpetrator of domestic abuse live “with bated breath for his or her next verbal or physical assault, with psychological problems akin to anxiety, regressive behaviour, anger, and other symptoms of depression, leading well into maturity”, the non-affiliated Baroness Chisholm told the Lords in a take-note debate on eliminating domestic abuse and supporting victims and survivors.
“All of us, I’m sure, can remember watching Punch and Judy on the beach, or reading Andy Capp, where domestic violence was seen as humour. Thank goodness, to most of us, that shouldn’t be the case today,” she said. It was “a heinous, devastating crime”. There had been a reported 2.4 million victims last yr.
Baroness Hazarika, a Labour peer, observed: “At the moment, it seems like the entire system, from the family courts to the police, the criminal justice system and the kid maintenance service, exists to grind women down and exhaust them with all of the bureaucracy and expense, and to punish them time and again.”
The Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, commended a Northumbria Police project that had been placing domestic-abuse specialists in its emergency-call rooms since 2022. She also raised the case of Holly Newton, a 15-year-old stalked and murdered by her ex-boyfriend in Hexham, which had been deemed to not be domestic abuse, as each victim and perpetrator had been under-16s.
“What consideration have the Government given to lowering the age limit to incorporate those under 16 within the definition of domestic abuse?” she asked. “What steps are the Government taking to be certain that teenagers receive high-quality education on healthy relationships and spotting signs of violence and covert coercion?”
The Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, suggested: “Upstream prevention is significantly better than helping victims and survivors downstream. Although men might be victims, as we have now noted, it is especially women that suffer from this crime; so how can we tackle the misogynistic and sexist views that may lead to those horrific crimes?”
Lord Hanson of Flint, Minister of State on the Home Office, responded: “We are still, sadly, nowhere near where we should be.” Access to housing was an actual priority for the Government, he said. “Victims also need holistic, wraparound services.”
