Actual Bodily Harm Research Articles

Gender and Sentencing in Lithuania: More Mercy for Women?

This article focuses on the structure of female and male crimes and gender disparities in sentencing in Lithuania, which present a significant gap in criminological research. Using Lithuanian court decisions on five types of offenses—murder, grievous bodily harm, actual bodily harm, drug distribution, and theft—we attempt to answer whether women are punished more leniently than men. Our research demonstrates that gender is a significant factor only in some sentences. Only the length of a prison sentence showed a statistically significant difference. When the importance of legal and extralegal factors in imposing prison length is compared, legal factors are found to be more significant predictors. The prison sentence length was mainly affected by the presence of a prior conviction, additional charges, and mitigating and aggravating circumstances. Although the average prison sentence for men in cases of grievous bodily harm and drug distribution was significantly longer than for women, the regression models developed for each offence type revealed that neither gender nor other extralegal factors appeared to be significant in determining the length of the prison sentence. The results allow us to argue that future research should focus more on analyzing extralegal factors and judges’ motives in discretionary sentencing decisions.

English Law of Consent to Harm: Outline and Case Summaries

This paper outlines the English law of consent to criminal harm. Through case summaries, it explains the rules regarding consent to assault, battery, actual bodily harm (ABH), and grievous bodily harm (GBH). Relevant cases date from 1934 to 2019. Quotations from the cases, including famous judicial pronouncements, are incorporated into the discussion. The outline and case summaries are intended to succinctly and accurately explain the law. Consent can legalise acts that would otherwise amount to assault or battery. ABH and GBH cannot lawfully be consented to, according to a general rule. However, the law recognises exceptions for sport, dangerous exhibitions (daredevils), horseplay, surgery, tattooing and piercing, religious ritual (flagellation or circumcision), and knowingly risking the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases. The law explicitly disallows consent to sadism and street fighting. The courts have also suggested that consent by its nature must be free and informed, not made in an atmosphere of fear, desperation, deception, or by one who lacks legal capacity. In particular, fear and desperation can mean that apparent consent is “mere submission” and not legally real. Finally, the paper offers readers a one-page summary of the case law.

English Law of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861: Outline and Case Summaries

This paper outlines important provisions of England's Offences Against the Person Act 1861. This Victorian statute is still the operative authority for non-fatal offences against the person of greater seriousness than assault or battery. These include assault occasioning actual bodily harm (section 47), maliciously wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm (section 20), and intentionally wounding or causing grievous bodily harm (section 18). The paper provides summaries of important cases dealing with each of these provisions. It also defines and distinguishes each of the levels harm addressed by the statute: actual bodily harm (ABH), a wound, and grievous bodily harm (GBH). Finally, the paper offers readers a one-page summary of the cases and a one-page chart explaining the hierarchy of harm among the non-fatal offences (including assault and battery) using case law. This paper aims to elucidate a confusing area of law through case summaries. Relevant cases date from 1849 to 2014. Quotations from the cases, including famous judicial pronouncements, are incorporated into the discussion. The outline and case summaries are intended to succinctly and accurately explain the law.

Consent and the ‘Rough Sex’ Defence in Rape, Murder, Manslaughter and Gross Negligence

When women die at the hands of men, a not infrequent defence is that she consented to, or initiated, the beating, strangulation and penetration which contributed to her death. While strangulation has been a typical method of killing in male on female intimate partner homicide 1 for many decades (‘thou little recognised), what has changed is men’s excuses for their violence. Excuses such as ‘She made me lose my self-control in an argument’ or ‘She was unfaithful to me’ are being supplanted by ‘She consented to rough sex’. 2 Since the dead cannot speak, nor is there any property in the dead, the defendant’s tactic of impugning the deceased’s character cannot be easily rebutted, and he, while maligning her in this way, may profit from a lighter sentence. Law reformers, politicians, academics and activists 3 are pressing for legal reform to shut down this misogyny. On 16 June 2020, during the Public Committee stage of the Domestic Abuse Bill, 4 cls 4 and 5 were approved. Clause 4, ‘No defence for consent to death’, provides ‘(1) If a person (“A”) wounds, assaults or asphyxiates another person (“B”) to whom they are personally connected as defined in section 2 of this Act causing death, it is not a defence to a prosecution that B consented to the infliction of injury. (2) Subsection (1) applies whether or not the death occurred in the course of a sadomasochistic encounter’. Clause 5, ‘No defence for consent to injury’, provides ‘(1) If a person (“A”) wounds, assaults or asphyxiates another person (“B”) to whom they are personally connected as defined in section 2 of this Act causing actual bodily harm or more serious injury, it is not a defence to a prosecution that B consented to the infliction of injury or asphyxiation. (2) Subsection (1) applies whether or not the actual bodily harm, non-fatal strangulation, or more serious injury occurred in the course of a sadomasochistic encounter’. These two new clauses would prevent the alleged consent of the victim from being used as a defence to a prosecution in intimate partner homicides and non-fatal assault which result in s 47 assault occasioning actual bodily harm, Offences Against the Person Act 1861, or more serious injury. Additional new clauses including, proposing that consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions would be required, in the case of death, to accept a charge to anything less than murder (cl 6); the requirement to consult with the family of the deceased regarding charges (cl 7); the prohibition of reference to sexual history of the deceased in domestic homicide trials (cl 10); anonymity of victims of domestic homicide (cl 11); and anonymity of domestic violence survivors (cl 14); the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Alex Chalk), while sympathetic, said there were difficulties with the clauses in their present form. 5 Of the proposal to make non-fatal strangulation 6 (cl 8) a standalone offence, he considered that ‘creating a new offence could limit the circumstances covered, and create additional evidential burdens’. 7 These motions reflect the several debates since October 2019, when MPs, Harriet Harman and Mark Garnier, introduced the ‘No defence for consent’ amendment to the second reading of the Domestic Abuse Bill. 8 Since men also plead the ‘sexual consent defence’ on ‘first dates’, which may fall outside the definition of ‘domestic abuse’ as set out in the Bill, 9 a loophole also recognised by Alex Chalk at the Public Committee stage, 16 June 2020, this too will be addressed. 10 The murder of Grace Millane, in New Zealand 11 in 2018, murdered on a ‘first date’ provides such an example.

Getting Away With Murder? A Review of the ‘Rough Sex Defence’

Several high-profile murders of women killed during alleged consensual sex ‘gone wrong’ have led to widespread calls for reform to prevent the use of what has been termed the ‘rough sex defence’. Concerns about the use of this ‘defence’ are located within broader concerns about the high rates of domestic abuse and fatal violence against women. Lobbyists, campaign groups and members of parliament have drawn attention to the increase in this ‘defence’ featuring in criminal cases in England and Wales and have consequently proposed two amendments to the Domestic Abuse Bill (2020), namely a statutory prohibition of consent as a defence to actual bodily or more serious harm, including death, and introducing additional scrutiny in charging decisions by requiring the Director of Public Prosecutions to authorise charges of manslaughter (rather than murder) in cases involving rough sex/sadomasochism (SM). This article provides a critical analysis of the use of rough sex/SM in female homicide cases and proposed legal reforms and concludes that the proposed reforms would fail to capture many of the ‘rough sex’ cases that have come before the courts in recent years and may not have the intended effect. We consider potential alternative approaches.

BDSM, body modification, transhumanism, and the limits of liberalism

BDSM, body modification, transhumanism, and the limits of liberalism

Huntington\u2019s disease: a forensic risk factor in women

BackgroundHuntington’s disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant, neurodegenerative disorder. Associated cognitive deficits including impulsivity and disinhibition are the same factors that also predispose to forensic risk. Men tend to be perpetrators of more severe violent behaviours than women and women are less likely than men to be arrested for violence. This finding is not applicable in the case of women with Huntington’s disease and explored in the three clinical cases of women with HD and their forensic histories that are subsequently described.Case presentation‘A’ was admitted from court following a charge of arson and reckless behavior, with increasing severity and frequency of self-harm and attempted suicide. This case demonstrates someone who had previously presented to psychiatric services on multiple occasions for various reasons, culminating in a serious criminal charge of arson due to psychiatric symptoms associated with HD.‘B’ was arrested and imprisoned after having been charged with actual bodily harm (ABH) for assaulting her partner and young daughter then breaking her bail conditions. Although she was gene positive for HD she had no neurological symptoms of the disease. B was given leave but needed to be recalled to hospital by police. Six weeks later the medical recommendation for a court imposed hospital order was overturned as B presented and articulated her case so convincingly in court. This case demonstrates that even in the absence of psychiatric history or movement disorder there may be substantial forensic risk indicated by subtle underlying cognitive deficits due to changes in executive function affecting the frontal lobes.‘C’ was admitted to acute psychiatric services after being found wandering in traffic wanting to die. She had been diagnosed with HD in the previous year and had a long criminal record on a background of alcohol dependency. Following transfer to a specialist psychiatric unit, she engaged well with a neurobehavioural levels system which rewards desirable and appropriate behaviours and she responded well to a highly structured environment resulting in discharge to a community placement.ConclusionsThese three case studies aim to highlight the need to raise awareness of the increased forensic risk in women with HD. Although criminal behaviour is less frequently observed in women than men and usually violence is less severe in women, HD may cause or contribute to criminal behaviour that can be violent in nature in women who are gene carriers for HD even in the absence of movement disorder, psychiatric symptoms or overt cognitive deficits. Assessment and earlier treatment in appropriate hospital settings may successfully contain and modify behaviours leading to reduced levels of risk and recidivism in this vulnerable patient group.

Murder and actual bodily harm in Itaborai, Brazil: analysis at different scales.

An ecological study aimed at analyzing homicide rates and actual bodily harm was conducted in Itaboraí, in the years 2010 to 2011. The entire municipality was used in the study covering critical and non-critical areas. The data came from the Information System for the Public Security Institute in Rio de Janeiro state. The territories were identified and defined by referring to studies on illegal occupations of areas. The snowballing method was used for the social recognition of poor conditions. The morphological differentiation of urban and housing standards marked the locations. The areas were georeferenced, and the problems were located geographically and organized according to their corresponding critical area. We calculated the municipal rates using population estimates from IBGE. For the critical areas, we obtained estimates of the number of households multiplied by a factor equal to the average household density in the corresponding census tract. There was a decrease in homicide rates and a rise in actual bodily harm in Itaboraí. We also found that there was an increased risk of bodily injury in critical areas with the worst living conditions, suggesting the existence of social inequalities that make certain social spaces more vulnerable to incidents involving violent injuries.

Lesser Included Offences, Alternative Offences and Accessorial Liability

In this essay I shall examine when an alternative offence and also a lesser-included offence is available for an accessory. Particular reference will be made to the offences of manslaughter and murder. It shall be argued that the decision in R v Jogee and Ruddock v The Queen is wrong as far as it holds that an accessory can be liable for manslaughter when the principal has been convicted of murder, because it is necessary to prove that the accessory intended the principal to perpetrate the actus reus of the relevant offence with the requisite mens rea for that offence. In such a scenario the accessory does not intentionally assist or encourage the more serious offence (murder), so she cannot be derivatively liable for it, and the principal does not perpetrate the less serious offence (manslaughter), so there is no offence of manslaughter for the accessory’s liability to derive from. The accessory only attempts to assist or encourage the principal to engage in conduct that has the potential to form the conduct element of constructive manslaughter. Such a conviction would rest on a presumption of participation in a result crime, when no result was in fact caused by the non-perpetrated crime (manslaughter), but instead the result was caused by an alternative more serious crime (murder), which was in fact perpetrated. If the principal had done the actus reus that the accessory intended (i.e. unlawfully inflict actual bodily harm), the victim most likely would not have been killed and it is pure speculation to suggest that the victim could have been killed by actual bodily harm as opposed to the act of grievous bodily harm or an act of intentional killing, which in fact killed the victim. It shall be argued that in such cases it is best to prosecute the putative assister or encourager under ss 44 or 45 of the Serious Crime Act 2007, for attempting to assist or encourage a potential aggravated assault.

Exorcism, Religious Freedom and Consent

The ruling in R v Brown that consent could not be a defence to actual bodily harm or more serious injury unless a recognised exemption applied has been much criticised. When considered exclusively in light of adult sexual activity, such criticisms may appear extremely persuasive. However, the issue of assault within exorcism reveals that there are other contexts in which the arguments appear more complex. This article examines the criminal law relating to consent and exorcism and asks how we should deal with the interplay between the general and the specific when it comes to formulating legal policy.

Painful TV

There is a new and profitable market for the infliction of real pain on television, most notably in the British reality television shows ‘Balls of Steel’ and ‘Dirty Sanchez’, which involve two men, known as the ‘Pain Men’, who deliberately inflict consensual pain on each other in order to entertain their television audience. The law says that the consent of the ‘victim’ to an infliction of actual bodily harm does not usually prevent criminal liability of the ‘perpetrator’. The leading case authority is R v Brown where bodily harm was inflicted for sadomasochistic pleasure. In the words of Lord Templeman, ‘[The] violence of sadomasochistic encounters involves the indulgence of cruelty… Society is entitled and bound to protect itself against a cult of violence. Pleasure derived from the infliction of pain is an evil thing’. Have the ‘Pain Men’ committed crimes? It could be argued that consensual infliction of bodily harm ‘for entertainment’ should be exempted from prosecution as a ‘lawful activity’ (like boxing, horseplay or bravado). Channel 4 argued that the ‘Pain Men’ were exercising their right to freedom of expression which is protected under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. One must therefore consider the impact of the Pain Men’s activities on public health and public morals with reference to the trend towards liberalism in the UK television culture.

The effects of liquor licensing restriction on alcohol-related violence in NSW, 2008-13.

To estimate the effect on assault of a series of legislative reforms that restricted the trading hours and trading conditions of licensed premises in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. We examine the effects of the legislative reforms introduced between July 2008 and January 2012 using time series structural models. These models are used to estimate the underlying long-term dynamics of the time series of police recorded domestic and non-domestic assaults occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) and assaults occasioning grievous bodily harm (GBH) in NSW between January 1996 and December 2013. The effect of the legislative changes is captured by including terms in the models which reflect a smooth step change in the number of assaults. The reforms introduced between July 2008 and January 2012 were associated with a fall in levels of ABH and GBH assaults. The joint effect of all the interventions on ABH lasted until July 2013, accounting for a reduction of -31.27% over that period [parameter estimate -0.38 with 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.65, -0.10)]. The same set of interventions had a greater effect on GBH assaults; achieving a -39.70% reduction over a shorter period of time July 2008 and July 2012 (parameter estimate -0.51 with 95% CI = -0.69, -0.33). Legislative reforms introduced in New South Wales, Australia between July 2008 and January 2012 to restrict trading hours and trading conditions of licensed alcohol premises appear to have reduced the number of police-recorded assaults of ABH and GBH by 31.27% and 39.70% respectively.

Brief interventions for reducing violence: a rapid review of evaluations and recommendations

BackgroundInterpersonal violence among young men is a major public health problem in Scotland, UK. Treatment for violent injury might represent a teachable moment to provide a brief intervention for reducing violence. To inform development of such an intervention, a review was undertaken to examine existing models of brief intervention, and to assess evidence of their effect. MethodsWe searched three databases (Web of Knowledge, PubMed, and PsycINFO) for articles published in English before March 11, 2013, using the following criteria: violence (Violen* OR Agress* OR Assault* OR Homicide OR Murder OR GBH OR Grievous Bodily Harm OR ABH OR Actual Bodily Harm), intervention (Interven* OR Program* OR Initiative), intervention length (Brief OR Rapid OR Short), and sex of participants (Male* OR man OR boy* OR men). After removal of duplicates, 553 articles were retrieved. Titles and abstracts were independently appraised with prespecified inclusion and exclusion criteria by three authors resulting in 50 full texts. Articles were most commonly excluded for describing interventions that were group-based or part of a long-term programme. Full texts were reviewed by the first author, identifying eight distinct brief interventions for reducing violence. FindingsThe key findings of the review included: the use of brief motivational interviewing for engaging with at-risk participants; the value of social norms approaches for correcting peer norm misperceptions; the benefit of working with victims of violence in medical settings (particularly oral and maxillofacial surgeries); the importance of addressing alcohol in violent encounters; the advantages of computer-therapist hybrid models of delivery; and the need for adequate follow-up evaluation as part of a randomised controlled trial. InterpretationThe review was a valuable exercise in assessing the existence of brief interventions for reducing violence and summarising their key characteristics. It was, however, constrained by the potentially overly restrictive search criteria, which limited the number of included interventions and follow-up data for some interventions, thereby preventing assessment of effectiveness. Nonetheless, brief interventions are potentially useful in the prevention of interpersonal violence among young men. The findings of the review will inform the development of a brief intervention for reducing violence with young men in Scotland who have sustained injuries through interpersonal violence. FundingViolence Reduction Unit (Police Scotland).

To Buy or Not to Buy? Vulnerability and the Criminalisation of Commercial BDSM

This paper examines the interaction of law and policy making on prostitution, with that of BDSM (bondage and discipline, sadism and masochism). Recent policy and legal shifts in the UK mark out prostitutes as vulnerable and in need of ‘rescue’. BDSM that amounts to actual bodily harm is unlawful in the UK, and calls to decriminalise it are often met with fears that participants will be left vulnerable to abuse. Where women sell BDSM sex, even more complex questions of choice, exploitation, vulnerability, power and agency might be thought to arise. Does the combination of activities take two singular behaviours into the realm of compound harm? Are those who sell BDSM doubly vulnerable in a way that would justify criminal intervention? This paper argues that in imposing categories of vulnerability, the state engages in the heteronormative construction of risky sexual subjects who must be rehabilitated, responsiblised or punished. Through an examination of existing empirical studies on BDSM, the paper offers a feminist critique of the potential criminalisation of commercial BDSM and calls for more research on the lived experiences of those who buy and sell BDSM.

To Buy or Not to Buy? Vulnerability and the Criminalisation of Commercial BDSM

This paper examines the interaction of law and policy-making on prostitution, with that of BDSM (bondage and discipline, sadism and masochism). Recent policy and legal shifts in the UK mark out prostitutes as vulnerable and in need of ‘rescue’. BDSM that amounts to actual bodily harm is unlawful in the UK, and calls to decriminalise it are often met with fears that participants will be left vulnerable to abuse. Where women sell BDSM sex, even more complex questions of choice, exploitation, vulnerability, power and agency might be thought to arise. Does the combination of activities take two singular behaviours into the realm of compound harm? Are those who sell BDSM doubly vulnerable in a way that would justify criminal intervention? This paper argues that in imposing categories of vulnerability, the state engages in the heteronormative construction of risky sexual subjects who must be rehabilitated, responsiblised or punished. Through an examination of existing empirical studies on BDSM, the paper offers a feminist critique of the potential criminalisation of commercial BDSM and calls for more research on the lived experiences of those who buy and sell BDSM.

Expert evidence on trial

SummaryThe complex nature and consequences of fraud are illustrated by the case of ‘Dr’ Barian Baluchi, who held himself out to be a consultant neuropsychiatrist before being convicted of deception, actual bodily harm and procuring registration by making false declarations. Under the proposed UK Criminal Evidence (Experts) Bill, psychiatric experts in fraud cases are likely to find the admissibility of their evidence tested against statutory criteria. Where they rely on test results, they will need to know the validity of the methods and show that they have taken proper account of the degree of precision or margin of uncertainty affecting the accuracy or reliability of their results. Proposals to reform the law on unfitness also have implications for psychiatric assessment in fraud cases. It will now be even more important for psychiatric opinion evidence to be demonstrably sound and of such evident strength that there is no issue as to its admissibility and the judge can presume evidentiary reliability.

Visual feedback of individuals' medical imaging results for changing health behaviour

Feedback of medical imaging results can reveal visual evidence of actual bodily harm attributable to a given behaviour. This may offer a particularly promising approach to motivating changes in health behaviour to decrease risk. Applicable behaviours include smoking cessation, skin self-examination, sun protection behaviour, dietary intake, physical activity and medication usage. The current review assembles and evaluates the evidence concerning the behavioural impact of showing and explaining images, in order to determine whether their communication is an effective intervention approach. To assess the extent to which feedback to individuals of images of their own bodies created during medical imaging procedures increases or decreases a range of health behaviours. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, The Cochrane Library, Issue 3 2009), MEDLINE (1950 to 14 September 2009), EMBASE (1980 to 14 September 2009), CINAHL (1982 to 9 October 2009), PsycINFO (1806 to 14 September 2009) and reference lists of articles. We also contacted authors of selected papers, and searched the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database on 1 October 2009 for grey literature. Randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials involving adult (18 years and over) non-pregnant individuals undergoing medical imaging procedures assessing risk of disease or of an existing condition, for which personal risk may be reduced by modification of behaviour. The sole or principal component of included interventions is visual feedback of individuals' medical imaging results, defined as individuals being shown, and having explained, source images (still or moving images) of their bodies generated by the procedure. Two authors searched for studies and independently extracted data from included studies, with disagreements resolved by consensus and a third author acting as arbiter. The risk of bias of included studies was assessed and reported in accordance with the guidelines in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. We conducted a narrative synthesis of the included studies, dividing them into clinical and non-clinical population groups and presenting major characteristics and results. Where the studies were sufficiently similar in terms of population, inclusion criteria, interventions and/or outcomes, we pooled the data statistically. We included nine trials involving 1371 participants. Overall, results were mixed. Regarding five trials in clinical populations, three assessed smoking cessation behaviours, all featuring arterial scanning procedures to assess cardiovascular risk, and reported a statistically significant effect favouring the intervention, producing a pooled odds ratio (OR) of 2.81 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.23 to 6.41, P = 0.01). One of these trials also measured physical activity and reported no statistically significant difference between the groups. A further trial measured skin examination behaviour following a skin photography procedure for assessing moles, and reported a statistically significant increase in favour of the intervention, with an OR of 4.86 (95% CI 1.95 to 12.10, P = 0.0007). The final clinical population trial measured a range of dietary intake and medication usage behaviours and featured an arterial scanning procedure assessing cardiovascular risk, and reported no statistically significant effects.Among the four trials in non-clinical populations, all featuring ultraviolet (UV) photography to highlight UV-related skin damage, a statistically significant result favouring the intervention was found in one trial for reducing tanning booth use, producing a mean difference (MD) of -1.10 (95% CI -1.90 to -0.30, P = .007) and one trial reported an outcome on which the control condition was favoured, with an MD of 0.45 (95% CI 0.04 to 0.86, P = 0.03) on intentional hours spent in the sun. In two further trials, no statistically significant behavioral effects were reported regarding time spent in the sun or sun protection behaviours.There was no evidence of significant adverse effects in the included trials, although this was not well reported. Due to the limited nature of the available evidence and the mixed results that were found, no strong statements can be made about the effectiveness of communicating medical imaging results to change health behaviour. Only three trials in clinical populations were similar enough in term of setting, intervention and outcome to allow meta-analysis. We suggest, however, that targeted interventions using medical imaging technologies may be effective in certain contexts, or as applied to certain behaviours, but that this should be considered on an intervention by intervention basis, and not assumed as a general principle.

Strategies for Creating a Bilingual Legal Dictionary

This paper explores the strategies that should be employed when processing legal terminology in a bilingual legal dictionary. The viability of a bilingual law system depends on the consistent use of standardized Chinese terms in courts and their ease of use by general users. Semantic equivalence of a term, however, is not achieved through a literal translation of an English term, and how a term is defined in both statute law and case law must also be taken into consideration. This paper argues that instead of targeting only legal practitioners, the bilingual system of Hong Kong should also aim at educating the public in the general concepts of law and in the use of Chinese legal terminology. A case study demonstrating how to process a legal expression—‘assault occasioning actual bodily harm’—is presented in this paper.

Criminal and professional ‘guilt’

The Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) Fitness to Practise (FtP) panel hears evidence about alleged poor practice on the part of midwives and nurses, and is a crucial feature of the UK government's plans for professional regulation (cf. Health and Social Care Act 2008). The NMC's disciplinary function is organized very much along the lines of the General Medical Council (GMC), which oversees medical practitioners. Criminal convictions are automatically notified to the relevant regulatory body: the ‘FtP hearings and decisions’ section on the NMC's website shows that in July 2009 a number of convictions were considered by the NMC in relation to the competence and conduct of NMC registrants. These included cannabis cultivation, actual bodily harm, child pornography, and false accounting, among others. However, an acquittal in a criminal case does not mean that the regulatory body will not take any action against a practitioner. A recent medical case in the Court of Appeal highlights this. Although it concerned a doctor, the same process would be applied had it involved a midwife or nurse.

A retrospective audit of the extent and nature of domestic violence cases identified over a three year period in the two district command units of the police service of Northern Ireland

The work load of forensic medical officers (FMOs) who provide medical cover for the Coleraine and Limavady district command units (DCU) of the police service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in dealing with domestic violence was investigated over a three year period from 1st April 2003 to 31st March 2006. A total of 128 cases involving domestic violence were identified during this three year period. There was a significant increase from 4% (32/791) in the first year to 6.6% (56/851, p<0.01) in the number of cases of identified domestic violence in the second year which dropped to 4.2% (40/956) in the third year. Victims were identified in 38% of these domestic violence cases with 62% being identified as assailants. It was noted that there was a significant difference in the proportion of male assailants (96.2%) from female assailants (3.8%). Fifty-four percent of victims were noted to have injuries in accordance with the more serious injury categories of assault of actual bodily harm (AOABH) and grievous bodily harm (GBH). Domestic incidents occurred at the home in 91% of cases, with the FMO being the primary contact in 97% of cases. Alcohol was implicated in 56% of all domestic violence cases recorded.