Domestic Violence or Abuse
Domestic violence includes psychological, physical, sexual, financial, emotional, “honour violence. Domestic Abuse as an issue for adults with care and support needs is under recognised and under reported.
Domestic abuse includes any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. It also includes so called 'honour’ based violence, female genital mutilation and forced marriage. Domestic Abuse occurs across society irrespective of age, gender, race, sexuality, wealth and geography.
Domestic Abuse can affect both men and women over the age of 16 regardless of gender or sexuality within the context of intimate or familial relationships. Children living in a household where domestic abuse occurs are affected both directly and indirectly and there is a strong correlation between domestic abuse and child abuse.
Domestic violence or abuse can be characterised by any of the indicators of abuse relating to:
• psychological
• physical
• sexual
• financial
• emotional
• coercion and control
• honour based violence and forced marriage
For further information see SCIE: types of domestic violence or abuse [external link].
See ADASS Adult Safeguarding and Domestic Abuse: A guide to support practitioners and managers [external link].
Coercive or controlling behaviour is a core part of domestic violence. The Serious Crime Act 2015 created a new offence of Coercive and Controlling Behaviour in intimate and familial relationships.
Honour Based Violence and Forced Marriage are included in the category of Domestic Abuse.
A forced marriage is where one or both people do not (or in cases of people with learning difficulties, cannot) consent to the marriage and where duress is used. ‘Duress’ includes psychological, sexual, financial or emotional pressure and physical violence.
Forced marriage is a violation of human rights and is seen in the UK as a form of domestic violence and/or child abuse. It may affect girls, boys, women and men from any community or background. However, existing statistics show that greater numbers of women are affected. Forcing someone to marry without their consent is a criminal offence and the police must be consulted in respect of all cases which potentially involve a risk of forced marriage or honour based violence.
If a child is at risk of Honour Based Violence/Forced Marriage then refer to the DSP multi agency guidance Protecting Children and Adults Forced Marriage Practice Guidance [PDF Document] and Honour Based Abuse Practice Guidance [PDF Document].
A significant number of homicides are related to domestic abuse and it is important that agencies are as robust in interventions with inter-familial domestic abuse as intimate/ex-partner relationships. Effective safeguarding is achieved when agencies share information to obtain an accurate picture of risk and then work together to ensure the safety of the adult at risk.
Whilst the adult at risk should always remain at the centre of the safeguarding process and be involved in their own safety planning this does not preclude the sharing of information without their consent in high-risk cases.
The MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference) can assist practitioners with the assessment of risk and safeguarding and the MARAC co-ordinator should be informed of all medium and high-risk cases of domestic abuse involving adults with care and support needs. For further information see Practitioner guidance for referring to MARAC [PDF Document] and the MARAC referral form/DASH Risk assessment tool and Stalking and Harassment Risk Assessment tool available within Domestic Abuse guidance on DSP website [word document].
For additional guidance on multi-agency response to domestic abuse involving adults with care and support needs, which includes information on Claire’s Law, Elder Abuse, Operation Encompass see:
DSP web page - Domestic Abuse – Safeguarding [DSP link]
DSP Domestic Abuse - Safeguarding Children and Adults with Care and Support Needs Practice Guidance [PDF Document] County Durham & Darlington Multi-Agency Domestic Violence and Abuse Procedural Flow Chart (July 2019) [PDF Document]
Adolescents -Darlington Multi-Agency Child/Adolescent to Parent/Carer Violence and Abuse (CAPVA) Procedural Flow Chart (July 2019) [PDF Document]