The legal definition of domestic abuse will now recognise that it goes beyond violence, including victims of emotional abuse and control.
New government legislation means that those who abuse their partners by controlling their access to money and through non-physical coercive behaviour, risk prosecution. Economic abuse includes preventing a partner from working or denying a partner access to his/her own bank account. The move is part of a plan to widen the statutory definition of domestic abuse in the UK.
The draft legislation also bans the practice of abusers examining survivors in a family court (it has already been banned in criminal courts). It will also give survivors special protection when they are giving evidence in court. The bill will also 'create new powers to force perpetrators into behaviour-changing rehabilitation programmes', reports the BBC.
Two million people experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2018. Of these, 1.3 million were women and 695,000 were male. Only 89,091 cases resulted in prosecution.
The government estimated that domestic abuse costs society £66 billion in the year 2017-18, most of which (£47 billion) was a result of the physical and emotional harm. It also includes other factors such as cost to health services (£2.3 billion), police (£1.3 billion) and victim services (£724 million).
