Search

Few criminological studies have specifically set out to research responses to domestic abuse in rural communities. A small number of recent studies have arrived at the problem from a health and/or social geography perspective lending weight to the increasingly apparent significance of space and culture in rural domestic abuse. This article contributes to this research agenda, focusing on the ways in which police and other agencies respond to domestic abuse within the spatial context of rural England and victim-survivors’ experiences of such responses. The article outlines empirical work with a police partner based in the North of England. The study involved a case file analysis of police data and interviews with police officers, partner agency representatives and victim-survivors. We discuss the ways in which apparent heightened gendered conservatism and the ‘cloak of silence’ leads to difficulties in the identification of domestic abuse in rural communities and argue the importance of engaging in holistic and multi-agency approaches when responding to domestic abuse in remote and inaccessible rural communities.

In December 2015, the criminal offence of coercive control was introduced in England and Wales. Occurring at a similar time was the increased widespread usage of police body-worn cameras (BWCs) in domestic abuse cases, with many UK based police forces and international jurisdictions, such as Australia and the US, encouraging their mandatory usage. Using empirical data gathered in one police force area in the south of England, this article examines the extent to which coercive control is able to be captured by BWCs, exploring police officer and victim/survivor perceptions and experiences. The findings highlight concerns with the extent to which BWCs are able to capture the hidden nature of coercive control and the ways in which the footage could have unintended consequences for victim/survivors, particularly minoritised women.

The limits of inter-agency understandings of risk in the context of intimate partner violence are well documented. Informed by Hester’s (2011) ‘three planet’ analogy and using empirical data in one police force area in the south of England, this paper offers an exploration of intra-agency operations, focusing on police risk assessment practices. Exploring the policing risk lens and the victim-survivor journey together, findings highlight police operate with at least three risk assessment moments (call hander, front-line and Safeguarding Hub) and point to the tensions that result when failing to centralise victim-survivors’ own assessment of their risk. Using complexity theory, this paper examines the complex interplay of risk that occurs when the victim-survivor risk journey intersects with the policing aspect of the criminal justice process.

This article reports on a qualitative study in the UK of women as co-offenders, their pathways into crime and offending motivations. What was found in the analysis of the women’s narratives was that whilst co-offending relationships were a central pathway into offending, this often intersected with other circumstances in the women’s lives, including drug addiction, socio-economic circumstances and ‘significant life events’. These findings suggest work with this cohort of women must recognise the complexities and contexts of co-offending to understand and accurately represent women’s experiences.

This article reports on a qualitative study in the UK of women as co-offenders, their pathways into crime and offending motivations. What was found in the analysis of the women's narratives was that while co-offending relationships were a central pathway into offending, this often intersected with other circumstances in the women's lives, including drug addiction, socio-economic circumstances, and ‘significant life events’. These findings suggest that those working with this cohort of women must recognise the complexities and contexts of co-offending to understand, and accurately represent, women's experiences.