Law Weblog

Domestic violence proposals for reform

Monday 29 March 2004 at 10:37 pm | In News | Post Comment

March 2004, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer delivered a speech at the Barbican Centre outlining proposals for reform.

“There are an estimated 600,000 incidents of domestic violence each year. But at the same time, it’s estimated that there are only 7,000 criminal prosecutions.”
“Other estimates suggest that 95 per cent of victims suffer for more than 6 months before seeking help and around half suffer for more than 5 years.”
“Women on average are attacked 35 times before they seek help against the perpetrators of domestic violence. And two women are killed every week in domestic violence incidents.”
“And yet only 19,000 victims of domestic violence are seeking non-molestation orders or occupation orders through the civil courts.”

He proposes changes to the law some of which are:

*improving the law on non-molestation orders
*making common assault an arrestable offence
*sentencing changes including manslaughter by reason of provocation, particularly in domestic settings

Full speech here