Domestic Abuse, Victims and the Law

The gap between what the law and legal processes deliver for victims of domestic abuse and what they actually need has, in some instances, arguably widened. This book provides the reader with a thorough understanding of the remedies available to victims in the civil, family and criminal law. It contends that expectations of the legal remedies have increased as the number and scope of remedies has proliferated. It further examines how legal responses to domestic abuse have evolved over the past decade and explores how the victim?s rights narrative and associated litigation, which has become prevalent in legal discourse and criminal justice reforms, has shifted expectations and impacted domestic abuse policy and law. The book presents a valuable addition to the literature in drawing on a discourse familiar to those with an interest in human rights, demonstrating its impact on a substantive area of law of great significance to both family and criminal lawyers and anyone with an interest in domestic abuse and legal responses.

Acknowledgements
Table of Cases
Table of Statutes
Chapter 1: Defining ‘abuse’: the nature of the problem
Chapter 2: ‘Rights’ based claims
Chapter 3: Civil Law Remedies- How are they working now?
Chapter 4: Family Law-Child contact the risk of harm
Chapter 5: Policing and Prosecuting- new offence, old problems?
Chapter 6: Defences and Mitigation- the persistence of narratives of woman blaming
Chapter 7: Hybridisation of legal responses
Chapter 8: The Limitations of Legal Responses and Law Reform
Bibliography
Index

Mandy Burton is Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Leicester, UK. She has published extensively on domestic abuse and the law, including articles, books and reports commissioned by UK government departments and public bodies with the aim of informing policy and improving practice in cases involving vulnerable victims.