Domestic abuse solicitors

Domestic abuse is usually a persistent and controlling behaviour causing physical or emotional harm. Often and unfortunately, the longer domestic abuse persists, the more severe the behaviour may become over time. Irrespective of the form in which domestic abuse may present itself, it is entirely unacceptable.

Types of domestic abuse

More specifically, domestic abuse encompasses behaviours that are violent, threatening, intimidating, and manipulative, including but not limited to:

• Coercive control: a pattern of conduct aimed at making the victim dependent on or subservient to the abuser.
  • Using children: manipulating or threatening a partner using the children. This could involve threatening to take the children away, using them as messengers, or even directly abusing them to cause emotional harm to the other partner.
• Gaslighting: a manipulation tactic designed to make victims doubt their own reality, isolating them from friends, relatives, or other sources of support.
• Emotional or psychological abuse: the use of tactics that regulate, monitor, and control a victim’s day-to-day activities, eroding their sense of autonomy and self-worth. This can be more subtle than physical abuse but can be equally damaging. Examples include constant criticism, humiliation, degradation, name-calling, guilt trips, and manipulation.
  • Intimidation and threats: using words, actions, or gestures to threaten harm (physically, financially, etc.) or to instil fear.
  • Economic or financial abuse: controlling a partner’s access to economic resources, making the victim financially dependent. Examples are controlling the finances, withholding money, making the partner account for every penny they spend, or preventing the partner from working.
• Physical abuse: violence or restriction of the victim’s freedom of action or infringing upon their basic human rights. This is perhaps the most recognisable form of domestic abuse. It involves using physical force against another in a way that injures or endangers that person. Examples include hitting, slapping, shoving, choking, and using weapons.
• Sexual abuse: any unwanted sexual activity forced on one partner by the other..
• Psychological abuse: employing tactics that induce fear, humiliation, degradation, or punishment, leaving enduring emotional scars.
• Digital or cyber abuse: with the rise of technology, abuse has also gone digital. This form of abuse involves using technology to bully, harass, stalk, or intimidate a partner. Examples include monitoring what the victim does online, sending threatening emails or texts, non-consensual sharing of explicit images, or using GPS to monitor their location.
• Stalking: unwanted and obsessive attention by an individual. Examples include constantly following a person, showing up uninvited at their home or work, sending unwanted gifts, and other intrusive behaviours.
• Spiritual or religious abuse: using a person’s religious or spiritual beliefs to manipulate, dominate, or control them. Examples include preventing the partner from practicing their religious beliefs, mocking their beliefs, or using religious teachings to justify abusive behaviour.
• Isolation: keeping the victim away from friends, family, or other support networks, thereby making them more dependent on the abuser and easier to control.

It’s essential to recognise that anyone, regardless of gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, or race, can be a victim of domestic abuse. Domestic abuse can occur between couples who are married, living together, or dating. If someone believes they or someone they know is experiencing domestic abuse, they should seek help immediately from local support organisations, helplines, or law enforcement.

Yes. The definition of domestic abuse is wide and covers a range of different inappropriate behaviours, including verbal abuse. Domestic abuse does not always have to be physical, and often verbal abuse can be just as harmful or traumatising for victims.

Yes. A common misconception is that domestic abuse only refers to physical violence or harm, when in fact domestic abuse can take many forms including emotional and mental abuse.

Examples of emotional or mental abuse include coercive control, criticism and name-calling (including racial abuse), undermining self-confidence, gaslighting, bullying, stalking, threats, humiliation and intimidation. It can involve an individual being cut off from family and friends by their partner or ex-partner to intentionally isolate them from their support network.

In Scotland, once the details of a crime have been passed to the Procurator Fiscal, it is up to them to decide whether it is in the public interest to proceed with the case or not. Individuals can however let the Procurator Fiscal know if they have any concerns.

Unfortunately, another common misconception regarding domestic abuse is that a person experiencing domestic abuse should ‘just leave’ the relationship. We recognise that it is often not as straightforward as this, and that there many barriers that stand in the way of an individual leaving an abusive relationship. These include:

• Fear of further harm
• Isolation
• Shame, embarrassment or denial
• Trauma and low confidence
• Practical reasons – for example, a consequence of financial abuse is that it can be difficult to have financial independence. Another example is where there are children involved, victims can sacrifice themselves for their children and may feel guilty or responsible if they were to disrupt the family unit by leaving the relationship. Abusive partners can often use children as a tactic to guilt trip a person into staying in the relationship.
• Lack of support
• Love for the individual

The nature of domestic abuse is such that an individual may feel that every aspect of their life is being controlled, making it difficult to leave.

Those who are finding it difficult to leave an abusive relationship can seek legal advice from an experienced family law solicitor to ensure swift action is taken to put protective remedies in place. For further information get in touch with one of our family law team members or learn more about domestic abuse by reading one of our articles – What can you do if you are the victim of domestic abuse.

Additionally, an individual who is finding it difficult to leave an abusive relationship can call Scotland’s Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline on 0800 027 1234 who can help with making a safety plan.

In Scotland, Police Scotland provide a Disclosure Scheme for members of the public to ask the Police if someone has a history of domestic abuse and if so, to disclose that information to them.

The form can be completed by a person who wants to find out information about their own partner, or by a third party asking about someone else’s partner if they think that person’s partner should be told if their partner has a history of domestic abuse. For example, it could also be a friend or family member applying to request that information is shared with the person who could be in a relationship with a person who has a history of domestic abuse.

The purpose of this scheme is to allow people to make informed decisions about whether they wish to be in a relationship with someone who may have a history of domestic abuse. Police Scotland state on their website that it can take 45 days to process an application.

Information and the online form to make a request can be found by clicking here.