Analysis

Young abuse witnesses failed

The criminal justice system is currently “ill-equipped to respond to the enormity of the challenge” of meeting the needs of domestic abuse survivors, including children, according to the domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales Nicole Jacobs.
Domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs has outlined 12 recommendations
Domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs has outlined 12 recommendations

In her January 2025 report, Shifting the Scales: Transforming the criminal justice response to domestic abuse, Jacobs commends the government's commitment to halving violence against women and girls over the next decade and sets out what she argues are the “systemic changes that must be made to unlock the progress required to meet these commitments”.

Reforms to policing are long overdue, with a case in point being that approved professional practice fails to recognise the victim status of child witnesses, despite this being legally defined under the Domestic Abuse Act, 2021.

Estimates suggest that more than 827,000 children in England and Wales are present in a household with partner abuse over 12 months, according to 2024 analysis by Foundations, the What Works Centre for Children and Families, which has urged the government to commit £50mn towards “finding out what works to prevent and support child victims”.

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