Legalization Of Domestic Violence

Superior Essays
ADomestic violence as a definition has developed significantly over time, previously this behaviour was limited to just physical violence, however the current definition has branched out to include emotional, financial, sexual and psychological abuse. The Home Office defines this as being ‘any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse.’ There is no doubt that the law has evolved over time to generate an increased awareness of domestic violence, whilst also offering a wide range of resources and protective measures for the victims. One of the main focal points stemming from the Family Law Act 1996 , is the topic of forced marriage and forced marriage protection orders. This in turn brings …show more content…
Since the introduction of the forced marriage unit in 2005, the number of cases have been steadily declining. From 1,485 cases in 2012 to 1,220 in 2015 proves that criminalisation has had an impact on how many people came forward considering there was a 9% decrease in domestic cases from 2014-2015 . The number of offenders point to a possible major deterrence factor through criminalisation, and emphasises the government’s serious approach. The Law Society was in favour of criminalisation as this would provide certainty to victims and once again send a strong deterrence signal to those plotting against their family members. It would also ensure victims who are coerced have means of legal remedies, where courts facilitate the prosecution of forced marriages . This article points out that others agree that criminalisation would be much more workable or tangible for those suffering, because they ‘would know they that they have recourse to this criminal act.’ Also information, including advice on forced marriage has become widely available, ranging from charities to non-governmental organisations. Criminalisation is a major shift in policy and helps to spread awareness to the general public by highlighting the signs of someone being forced into a marriage, it stresses that this is culturally unacceptable and can’t be justified through religion . Not only this, but the new law empowers victims or family members to actually make a complaint, focusing on their rights and a more victim centred approach. Throughout the past 15 years feminist ideologies, including equality and rights are becoming widespread, and attached to forced marriage is a number of other potential crimes such as rape, forced pregnancy and also sexual violence. The international

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The reason being is because if you can discover the deep root, you have a better chance of stopping or drastically decreasing the crime. As previously established one of the deep roots of domestic violence are the want or need of an individual to have power or control over their spouse. However according to the Joyful Heart Foundation, Most of the domestic violence cases start off with someone controlling their victim without force but further on down the road lead to violence and abuse. It is also stated that most domestic violence perpettrators have violence tendencies. (Joyful heart foundation) One of the most important deep root issues, I believe, is the fact that abuse is learned behavior.…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Learning about domestic violence has helped me to expand my knowledge regarding this subject. Domestic violence includes grabbing, hitting, kicking, shocking, and even saying demeaning words. Domestic violence can be defined in two terms social and legal. Most of the time domestic violence refers to violence between married or couples who live together, but domestic violence can also include violence against household members, children, and relatives. Over the years the laws of domestic violence have changed, now there is more security for the victims and a rougher penalty for the offender.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With this epidemic, we as a country need to find a way to help these victims and stop domestic violence. Physical violence is pretty explanatory and is where your spouse is inflicting or attempting to inflict physical injury. Sexual abuse is coercing or attempting to coerce any sexual contact without consent, or even…

    • 1783 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The “Its On Us” campaign was created for people to take a pledge and speak out against sexual assault and to know recognize cases of it. The priorities that should be pursued is that if a case is suspected to be one of domestic violence, that it should be considered a serious offense and not just assault. This would include making harsher laws to help deter the violent behavior. The actions that social workers should take is to advocate to Congress that domestic violence is a serious issue and that the definition should expand to things that occur under domestic violence such as stalking and sexual assault. Lastly, what social workers need to continue to do is ask for harsher laws to deter violent behavior and advocate that programs reach out to younger youth so that they can stop and call out any type of violence enacted in…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Actions such as sexual intercourse should be embraced and come naturally. Events such as these may cause a lack in confidence which will instill the embarrassment and fear in the domestic violence victim. While the forms of physical abuse may appear to be more regrettable, the scars of verbal and psychological mistreatment are profound. Often times the abuser is not immediately or ever physically violent; “The thing that people don 't get is that domestic violence is incremental. Before physical abuse starts, there 's the mental and emotional intimidation and manipulation.…

    • 1223 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Legalizing Prostitution

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As stated in the previous paragraph, studies of places who have it legalized show improvements to trafficking. As for disease transfering, laws could be made in America that protect prostitutes from harmful diseases. According to Legalizing Prostitution Could Reduce HIV Infections Nearly In Half, it states, “Because prostitutes fear getting caught by law enforcement, they rush the process along with clients and often don’t take the time to discuss protecting against STDs. Further compounding the problem is the fact that these sex workers are often stigmatized, and don’t get the care they need from health workers.” This shows that one of the main reasons sex workers get diseases is because of prostitution being illegal. In Brazil, prostitution has been legalized.…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The laws put into place play a big role in the attitudes and thoughts of citizens. They also help adjust and correct everyone’s attitude towards different types of behaviors. Now that a law has passed legalizing same sex marriage, it goes against people’s original moral values. Moral values are defined as “of, relating to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical: moral attitudes” (Dictionary.com). It has weakened the public’s view on traditions and weakened their views on sexual morality.…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a consequence of this offence the Government should implement concealing for victims and their families as these issues could be very traumatic for all parties involved. Possible areas that should be addressed in this particular issue would be the protection of the victims or Forced Marriage. Whether it is protection for their family or community or whether its protection from an abusive partner. Our government needs to provide further education on the issue of Forced Marriage for young people whether this is happening in schools or community sentences. The Government also needs to supply services for the public to learn more about Forced Marriage where it is happening, that it can happen to anyone and how to help.…

    • 1577 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Criminologist can contribute knowledge to the above social factors “by listening to the concerns and priorities of survivors of violence and thinking carefully about the persistent gender, class, and racialized inequalities that lead to violence” (Dragiewicz, 2014). Targeting this information can assist with creating policies and other preventive measures. Critical feminist see the need for more social programs to reduce the harm caused by violence and abuse. Although criminologist still see a need for our legal system in some form. Past criminological research on domestic violence and law has focused on arrest policies and protection orders, not considering the reasons behind the violence, the social factors, policing or other factors that play a role in domestic violence cases.…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Mandatory Arrest

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages

    An improved law in the case of domestic violence is the mandatory arrest law, before the law was changed when there was a call for domestic violence law enforcement would travel to the location of the disturbance and try to mediate and separate the couple. “As a result, there have been several incidents where spouses would get seriously injured or killed by their abusers, in response victim advocates have lobbied and now mandatory arrest laws have been implemented.” (Find Law). Since the law has been reformed to mandatory arrest, police departments across the country have data stating that mandatory arrest is more effective than the previous procedure as mediation and separating the pair. The mandatory arrest law works well for law enforcement because the officers are taking action to eliminate the threat of the aggressor from the victim, by doing so the aggressor and the victim can be separated and cool down, also by removing the aggressor from the location the victim may not be intimidated and would be willing to file charges…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays