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Domestic abuse is next month set to become a specific offence in Jersey law, with “longstanding coercion and control” in a relationship being punishable, and a new register of offenders established.
The island’s first Domestic Abuse Law has now been proposed for debate by Home Affairs Minister Gregory Guida after a number of months of consultation.
Although Jersey has historically been a safe place to live, around 15% of all crime reported to the States of Jersey Police is associated with domestic abuse.
In 2015, a group comprising of police and other agencies that focus on domestic abuse worked on 145 high-risk cases. By 2019, this had risen to 215, a 48% increase. Last year, this had fallen to 159 cases, although reported crime overall fell during the pandemic.
2019 also saw high-risk referrals to Jersey Domestic Abuse Support increase by 22%.
Existing statutory and customary law in Jersey is able to deal with some of the consequences associated with domestic abuse, such as assault and criminal damage, but it is not able to tackle the underlying behaviours, such as longstanding coercion and control.
The proposed law defines ‘domestic abuse’ as a specific offence, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine, and recognises the wider patterns that characterise many abusive relationships.
It will also allow for more serious punishment if a child is involved or if someone is pregnant.
In order for a crime to be classed as ‘domestic abuse’, both parties must be aged over 16, they must be ‘personally connected’, meaning they are – or have been – in a relationship, are to be married, share a child, be related, or one provides care to the other.
A domestic abuse offence is committed where the perpetrator, more than once, either commits an offence of violence, harassment or neglect against the victim, or where the perpetrator behaves in a coercive and controlling way, by isolating the victim from normal social interaction, regulating their activities or making the victim dependent on them.
The offence requires that either “physical or psychological harm” to be caused to the victim by the actions of the perpetrator, or that such harm was likely to occur.
Picture: The law will take into account the cumulative effects of neglect and control.
In considering “harm”, the courts must look at the cumulative effect of all the behaviour, not just take each action separately.
That concept is a fundamental component of the offence and is intended to recognise the reality of living continually in an abusive relationship where ‘flare ups’ may be rare, but the cumulative effects of neglect, control and psychological abuse take an enormous toll on the victim and cause significant harm.
The perpetrator will have a defence if their behaviour was reasonable in the circumstances, or if they hold a ‘genuine and reasonable belief’ that they are acting in the victim’s best interests, even if that turns out to be mistaken.
This is intended to deal with situations in which a person is ‘coerced or controlled’, but it is genuinely for their own good. An example might be a concerned person stopping their partner gambling by restricting their access to shared funds, or well-meaning efforts to stop self-destructive behaviour.
A key part of the new law is that courts will have the power to make DAPOs, which are intended to safeguard victims and prevent a person who has committed an offence associated with domestic abuse from committing further such offences.
They will act to constrain the behaviour of the perpetrator, and might provide that they cannot contact or approach the victim, or cannot be near the victim’s home. Where the parties still live together, it can be used to ensure that the victim retains freedom of movement and association.
People receiving a DAPO, who have to be 18 or over, will need to inform the police where they live, and keep the police updated when they move, to ensure that their behaviour can be monitored.
Where a court judges that it is ‘necessary and proportionate’ to reduce the risk of further abusive behaviour by an offender, it may require that the person be subject to ‘notification requirements’.
This means that the person must keep the police informed of any change of address, or if they use another name. The court must specify how long the notification requirement will be in place and there are provisions for appeals against the imposition of notification requirements, or against a refusal to do so.
Notification requirements may be varied or revoked by a court if the circumstances of the person change.
The notification part of the new law is based on similar provisions contained in Jersey’s Sex Offenders’ Law, which created the island’s Sex Offenders Register.
It will allow the police to run a similar system to track domestic abusers, which was a core recommendation of the Domestic Homicide Review ‘In Respect Of the Death of Pamela’, who was a woman in her late 40s who was murdered in England in 2016.
The new law also serves as a codification of the ‘Clare’s Law’ system, which permits the police to disclose ‘proportionate and necessary’ information about domestic abusers to persons who apply, and goes further by allowing proactive disclosure.
The widely adopted Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme is named after Clare Wood, a woman murdered in England in 2009 by a former domestic partner who police knew to be dangerous.
The DVDS gives members of the public a formal mechanism to make enquiries about an individual who they are in a relationship with, or who is in a relationship with someone they know, where there is a concern that the individual may be violent towards their partner.
The Domestic Abuse Law is due to be debated on 25 April.
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