Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018: interim reporting requirement

6. Emerging Findings Relating to the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018

Whilst it was not within the scope of the Reporting Requirement to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of the Act, a number of emerging issues were raised in the research about some aspects of the Act which may be of interest or warrant further attention.

As noted in the introduction to the previous Chapter, victims/witnesses in the research were often unaware of the legislation and/or which charges were brought (where relevant) and it was therefore difficult to gather evidence on victims' perspectives on the Act itself. Most of the findings presented in this chapter are drawn from the qualitative research report^[23] (comprising of interviews with 22 victims/witnesses), although efforts are made to report relevant findings from the other reports where appropriate. The findings presented below are therefore tentative.

• Overall, the research findings echo wider views that the Act is a leading piece of legislation which better reflects how victims experience domestic abuse.
• However, some victims felt the Act and its provisions could have been used more, and that there remained a focus on single or/and 'serious' incidents in some cases of ongoing abuse. Difficulties in prosecuting some forms of psychological abuse, particularly in regards to verbal, telephone and online abusive behaviour, were also reported. As the statistical findings in Chapter 4 state, the time lag before DASA crimes could be reported may have contributed to this^[24].
• Some research participants when interviewed felt that provisions in the Act aimed at protecting children (i.e. the child aggravator and NHOs) had been under-utilised^[25]. For example, some parents felt that NHOs were not as expansive as they could be e.g. not being applied to any children or only to some of them. It was reported that that child-contact arrangements were perceived by some victims as influencing decisions around this.

"Yeah, so my mum got 20 years for her non-harassment order, and me and my wee brother got 10 years, and my wee sister got 18 months, because it's his child, so I think the court kind of need to give him a chance." (Child 4, Qualitative Research Report p66)

• Similarly, it was reported that many research participants in the interview-based study felt that abuse of a third party (family, children, friends) and the relational nature of abuse was not always taken account of.
• The interactions between family and criminal courts and how NHOs are applied in the context of child contact arrangements, was identified as an area that could be better understood. Forthcoming research funded by the Scottish Government explores the interactions between civil and criminal proceedings in the context of domestic abuse and child contact in Scotland^[26].
• There were mixed views on NHOs overall, with some victims feeling they offered protection and provided them with confidence that should abuse and harassment continue, there would be a robust criminal justice response (e.g. a custodial sentence), whilst others voiced concerns about the temporary nature of the order and abuse restarting when the order lapsed which was reported to impact on victims' ability to recover and move on.
• There were also concerns from victims in the research about perpetrators not adhering to the conditions of NHOs and reports of continuing abuse whilst NHOs were in effect, sometimes done in such a way as to not breach the NHO, and, after they expire.
• The qualitative research report states that there was limited awareness of the Act and what constitutes criminal behaviour amongst victims and witnesses in the study, and some professionals (as reported by study participants).