ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the issues of domestic abuse in the context of English law and policy, but similar issues will be experienced in other jurisdictions. Physical violence is prohibited by the criminal law, generally occurs in discrete ‘incidents’ and generally leaves marks on the body which provide objective evidence that violence has occurred. Domestic violence advocates have, however, developed a broader conception of domestic violence based on women’s lived experience of violence, consisting of a range of tactics designed to exercise power and control over the victim and to engender fear of the perpetrator and compliance with his rules. Physical violence is prohibited by the criminal law, generally occurs in discrete ‘incidents’ and generally leaves marks on the body which provide objective evidence that violence has occurred.
