Domestic Abuse Cases Research Articles

Family Courts in England & Wales: A population-level evidence base about court users who experience domestic abuse

ObjectivesThe caseload of family courts in England and Wales includes a growing share of domestic abuse cases. To increase knowledge about such cases, the research uses new administrative datasets and linkages. Trends between 2011-2021 are examined in the context of policy and operational changes. MethodThe complete set of family court cases is held in HM Courts & Tribunals Services (HMCTS) systems. Some family court data are collected by the Children and Families Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), insofar as courts refer the case to Cafcass. Using their new linkage, we conduct a descriptive analysis of domestic abuse cases in England and Wales over the ten years from 2011. This project is one of the first to gain approval from HMCTS to use their de-identified family court data. ResultsThe data linkage allows to describe how court users approach domestic abuse matters, drawing distinctions between: emergency cases; lack of legal representation in court (litigants in person); repeat applications; presence of children in the household. Furthermore, the data show how courts respond through case management, timeliness of decisions and legal outcomes made. The policy context reveals how court users adapted to changes in eligibility for civil legal aid and to changes over how courts operated under lockdown measures. ConclusionData linkage research is providing an evidence base at population level about court users in England and Wales who experience domestic abuse. This can help inform practice to support families, and policies to ease overburdened courts and avoid returns to court.

Dentists' knowledge about domestic violence against women: A questionnaire-based study.

Dentists are the first healthcare professionals to identify cases of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) with head and neck injuries. The aim of this study was to assess dentists' knowledge regarding behavioral and physical findings in female victims of DVA. The study included 558 volunteer dentists who completed a two-part questionnaire designed to assess their knowledge and awareness of DVA against women. The first part of the questionnaire inquired about the participants' demographic data, including age, sex, specialty, and the duration of professional practice. The second part assessed 15 statements on a 5-point Likert scale, concerning both behavioral (5/15) and clinical aspects (10/15) of DVA. For each statement, if a minimum of 70% of respondents selected the same option, it was interpreted as being agreed upon by the participants. The level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Most of the participants were between the ages of 31 and 40 (29.1%). The study sample was predominantly female (70.4%), with 57.2% of the participants being married. The statement "Abused women tend to avoid eye contact" had the highest agreement rate (70.6%) for the behavioral assessments. However, the participants were mostly "undecided" on the remaining 4 statements in this section. In contrast, the agreement rate for 5 statements related to the clinical assessment of head, neck and intraoral injuries exceeded 70%. One-fifth of the behavioral assessment statements and half of the clinical assessment statements were negatively correlated with the age of the participants (p < 0.05). The findings of this study indicate that dentists can recognize and diagnose DVA symptoms to a certain extent. However, they may encounter difficulties in identifying the suspicious behavior that is indicative of DVA.

Behind Closed Doors: The Persistence of Domestic Violence in Contemporary Indian Society

Introduction: Domestic abuse is a significant contributor to the nation's misdemeanor index, with destructive behavior in personal relationships where one person attempts to exert control and influence over another. This can occur in dating, marriage, or conjugal relationships and can lead to physical, psychological, or sexual harm. This work aims to explain the underlying reasons for domestic violence, which include various factors such as individual, relational, community, legal, and governmental elements. These components contribute to domestic abuse and its effects on the victim's emotional and physical well-being in daily life. The report also discusses the different forms of domestic violence, including physical, emotional, mental, sexual, economic, and teasing abuse. Objective: To assess domestic violence and its relation to human rights. Methods: The study was conducted in selected areas of Noida, Uttar Pradesh by two data collectors. A total of 60 women were selected using a convenience sampling technique. The questionnaires were checked for completeness, cleaned manually, and entered into SPSS version 25.0 for further analysis. Descriptive statistics were carried out, and associations between dependent and independent variables were checked. Results: The majority of the women (34 or 56.6%) experienced moderate domestic violence, 16 (26.6%) experienced severe domestic violence, and 10 (16.7%) experienced mild domestic violence. The education status of the women was found to be significantly associated with the level of domestic violence, with a p-value of less than 0.05. Conclusion: Urgent action is required to strengthen efforts to reduce violence and improve the availability of information on domestic abuse cases. These statistics are crucial for effectively combating domestic violence against women in India.

Representation of Victim and Perpetrator in Adelina Lisao’s Abuse Case in Malaysian Online News Articles

This research analyses the representation of victim and perpetrator as social actors and its argumentation strategies from Malaysian online news articles surrounding the tragic case of Adelina Lisao, an Indonesian domestic worker who lost her life in Malaysia due to abuse by her employer. Employing a qualitative research approach, the data is systematically collected with keywords to identify relevant news articles pertinent to the case: "Adelina Lisao” and “Ambika Shan”. This research utilises the Social Actor’s Network (SAN) and the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework, specifically the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), to examine 39 online news articles about the case from the most popular Malaysian news website in 2023, Malaysiakini. The findings revealed that Adelina Lisao was mostly represented as a passive receiver of the abuse, while Ambika Shan’s role as a perpetrator was mostly backgrounded. The findings contribute to a better understanding of how social actors are portrayed on online websites and the argumentation strategies within the context of domestic worker abuse cases in Malaysia. Thus, it acknowledges the importance of language in online news discourse in shaping public perceptions, particularly regarding domestic workers in Malaysia as evidenced by the representation of victim-perpetrator dynamics in such cases.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Family Relationships

The COVID-19 pandemic was one that changed the lives of people across the globe in every aspect. Particularly, the restrictions on meeting people and the confinement to homes was the greatest impetus for these lifestyle changes. The changes in family dynamics that stemmed from isolation were among the top significant disruptors. Based on a literature view derived from academic and gray literature, this paper explores topics such as the impacts of proximity and separation, parent-child and partner dynamics, birth rates and resulting maternal mental health, and the spike in domestic abuse cases, also known as the dark or shadow pandemic. The dark pandemic raised questions about more accessible and affordable options for victims, such as shelters, and can help incentivize changes, especially in pandemic or isolation contexts. Additionally, proposed solutions include better access to therapy that need not be in person but assures the same quality. In the case of child abuse, it was found that potential responses include easier access to help in the case of social and physical confinement, even outside of the context of a pandemic.

The Ethics of Continuing Harm

The literature on the ethics of defensive harming frequently addresses imminent threats and threats of future harm; but it rarely addresses threats of continuing harm. Real-world cases of kidnapping, slavery, and domestic abuse can include threats of continuing harm. In cases such as these, the harm the victim suffers—and therefore proportionate defensive harm—depends upon both the magnitude and the duration of the harm threatened. Because continuing harms are, by definition, less than lethal, there is a prima facie sense in which using lethal force to defend against threats of continuing harm is disproportionate. In this paper, I develop a conception of threats of continuing harm and apply that conception to individual cases of self-defense and to just war theory. Ultimately, I argue that violations of a victim’s right to freedom or autonomy can justify lethal defensive harm, but only if the harm threatened is of a sufficient duration.

Evaluation of an acute trust Domestic Abuse Coordinator role: Impact findings and a budget impact model.

Domestic Abuse Coordinators (DACs) work strategically across National Health Service (NHS) hospital and other off-site clinical settings to support clinical staff in domestic abuse enquiry and response, and to co-lead the development and implementation of effective clinical policies and procedures for the management of domestic abuse and the support of survivors. Drawing on data from a large NHS acute trust in central London, we analyse the impact of the DAC role in increasing the rate of referrals of high-risk domestic abuse cases, and generate plausible estimates of the budget impact of the DAC role in respect of costs accrued to NHS trusts. Using eight quarters of clinical data and an interrupted time series design, we find that evidence that implementation of a DAC role is linked with an increase in the rate of high-risk referrals of between 18% and 21% per quarter, indicating improved responses to victim-survivors at highest risk of imminent harm. Under a range of reasonable assumptions, initiation of the DAC role is shown to be cost-saving to an employing acute trust. Future work should seek to quantify the direct impacts to survivor health and wellbeing of the implementation of the DAC role.

A New Self‐Defence Framework for Domestic Abuse Survivors Who Use Violent Resistance in Response

This article criticises the government's rejection of proposals by the Prison Reform Trust that would have extended self‐defence in householder cases to victims/survivors of domestic abuse. The authors argue that the Prison Reform Trust proposals should be enacted, and further supported by novel complementary reform of the option to retreat, and the exclusion of intoxicated mistaken belief in self‐defence claims. Specifically, the authors advance a statutory rebuttable presumption regarding the option to retreat in cases involving domestic abuse, namely, an assumption that the victim/survivor was not realistically able to retreat safely, unless it is proven otherwise. The authors also examine the appropriateness of the policy decision to exclude intoxicated mistaken belief in all self‐defence cases and advocate for its removal. It should be replaced with a requirement that all mistaken beliefs must be reasonable regardless of the presence of intoxication. Procedural recommendations are also advanced, including amendment of the Crown Court Compendium to include judicial directions on self‐defence which adopt a social entrapment approach in domestic abuse cases, and supported by the admissibility of non‐medical expert evidence on the nature and impact of coercive control.

Data linkage research to explore the growing share of domestic abuse cases in family courts

ObjectivesThe caseload of family courts in England and Wales includes a growing share of domestic abuse cases. To increase knowledge about such cases, the research uses new administrative datasets and linkages to describe trends between 2011-2021 and to supplement the information already available from family court national statistics.&#x0D; MethodThe complete set of family court cases is held in HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Services (HMCTS) systems. Some family court data are collected by the Children and Families Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), insofar as courts refer the case to Cafcass. By using their new linkage, we can conduct a descriptive analysis of domestic abuse cases in England and Wales over the ten years since 2011. This project is one of the first to gain approval from HMCTS to use their family court data. Access to de-identified versions of all datasets is through the SAIL Databank trusted research environment.&#x0D; ResultsThe data linkage builds a more complete picture of the individuals involved, exploring their age group, gender and ethnicity. The new datasets allow to describe how court users approach domestic abuse matters and to draw distinctions between different types of cases: emergency situations; individuals being unrepresented in court (litigants in person); repeat applications; requests for different types of legal measures against the domestic abuse; and presence of children in the household. Furthermore, the data show how courts respond through case management, timeliness of decisions and legal outcomes made. We explore how different types of individuals and cases are associated with legal outcomes, and how the added understanding at population-level can focus and support discussions about the use of family courts to address domestic abuse.&#x0D; ConclusionData linkage research is providing an evidence base at population level about court users in England and Wales who experience domestic abuse. This can help inform practice to support those families and policies to ease overburdened courts who see the same families and domestic abuse issues return to court.

‘How can you capture what is hidden?’ Police body-worn cameras and coercive control

In December 2015, the criminal offence of coercive control was introduced in England and Wales. Occurring at a similar time was the increased widespread usage of police body-worn cameras (BWCs) in domestic abuse cases, with many UK based police forces and international jurisdictions, such as Australia and the US, encouraging their mandatory usage. Using empirical data gathered in one police force area in the south of England, this article examines the extent to which coercive control is able to be captured by BWCs, exploring police officer and victim/survivor perceptions and experiences. The findings highlight concerns with the extent to which BWCs are able to capture the hidden nature of coercive control and the ways in which the footage could have unintended consequences for victim/survivors, particularly minoritised women.

How did UK social distancing restrictions affect the lives of women experiencing intimate partner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic? A qualitative exploration of survivor views

BackgroundIncreased numbers of domestic abuse cases were reported at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people experiencing abuse faced barriers to seeking support with service closures affecting the sector. Available evidence suggests women are overrepresented in the reported cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) and we aimed to learn more about how their lives were impacted by social distancing restrictions.MethodsWe conducted an online qualitative interview study, using reflexive thematic analysis. Interviews were conducted between April 2021 and March 2022. 18 women in the UK with past experiences of IPV provided informed consent and participated in this study.ResultsDuring the analysis, we identified five themes relating to the impact of lockdown restrictions on participants’ lives, including: (1) Lockdown meant being confined to a place where abuse was escalating, (2) Barriers to accessing support, including “cancelled” services and missed opportunities to intervene during interactions in lockdown with frontline workers. (3) Increased feelings of fear, isolation, and loss of control, particularly during the early stages of the pandemic from the combination of abuse and pandemic-related changes to daily life. (4) Some forms of support were more accessible during the pandemic, such as provision of online psychological support and social groups. Participants also accessed new forms of support for the first time during the pandemic, in some cases sparked by posts and content on social media about abuse awareness. (5) For some, psychosocial wellbeing transformed during the pandemic, with several participants using the word “freedom” when reflecting on their experience of simultaneously escaping abuse and living through the COVID-19 pandemic.ConclusionsIn this study, we explored the views of female survivors of IPV in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results highlight the importance of combined public awareness campaigns and community intervention points for victims to safely seek help during social distancing restrictions. Having the time and space to reflect on healing after escaping abuse was described by women in our study as a benefit from their lives in lockdown, which is a factor that could be incorporated into future initiatives developed to support people subjected to violence and abuse.

DETECTION OF ELDER ABUSE IN JAPAN NOT COVERED BY THE ELDER ABUSE PREVENTION LAW IN COMPARISON WITH WHO DEFINITION

Abstract The Elder Abuse Prevention Law mainly defines “elder abuse” inflicted by caregivers. Elder abuse by non-caregivers is therefore rarely covered by the law. We investigated domestic elder abuse reported in Matsudo City, Chiba, Japan, to determine the number of domestic elder abuse cases excluded from legal protection but constituting elder abuse defined by WHO. From April 2017 to March 2020, the municipal elder protection services agency received 525 reports of domestic elder abuse. We studied the effective records of 497 of these cases. 299 cases were confirmed elder abuse cases defined by the law, with 198 excluded. However, 176 out of the 198 excluded cases constitute elder abuse defined by WHO. In these 176 cases, abuse was perpetrated by non-caregivers. Due to the current formation of the law, this abuse went undetected and unprotected. We think amendment of the law is required to protect these excluded cases.

Investigating public awareness, prevailing attitudes and perceptions towards domestic violence and abuse in the United Kingdom: a qualitative study

BackgroundReported cases of Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) have increased since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns. Understanding the general public’s view about DVA is vital, as it would help develop targeted interventions and effective public policies to tackle this rising problem in society. Our qualitative study investigated the public awareness, attitudes and perceptions towards DVA, and explored mechanisms to tackle DVA in the community setting in the UK.MethodsThe research team conducted personal interviews with 29 community dwelling adults who responded to study invitations and adverts on social media. We used a topic guide to ensure consistency across the interviews, which were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically to detect emergent themes concerning DVA.ResultsAll respondents were aware of the concept of abuse. Thirty-eight percent declared either having experienced DVA directly or that they knew someone close to being abused. More than half of the respondents were not aware of existing DVA supportive services in the UK. Overarching themes generated from the contextual analysis included contributing factors for DVA, challenges and barriers facing victims and proposals for future interventions.ConclusionsCommunity dwelling adults have a good understanding of the impacts of DVA, but many fail to recognise specific instances or events in their daily lives contributing to DVA. Raising public awareness, particularly in children through the school curriculum, highlighting existing support services and introducing the routine use of short screening tools for DVA in health and social care settings can increase awareness, early identification and signposting to effective interventions. Sustained, multi-level community facing interventions are recommended to reduce stigma and fear associated with DVA.

‘You’re having us on … that’s what it felt like.’: Frontline Workers Navigating the Introduction of Moral Commitments to Domestic Abuse Support within a Statutory Homelessness System

That domestic abuse is a human rights infringement has become recognised at policy, practice, and legislative level globally. Homelessness services are critical in averting and mitigating harm to those who have experienced domestic abuse. The British homelessness system achieves this, in part, through offering a legal right to housing in some circumstances. The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 integrates a human-rights based understanding of domestic abuse yet reduces legal rights to assistance. Based on analysis of interviews with fifty-two homelessness workers and twenty-four applicants I argue that moral commitments cannot compensate for legal rights; rather, they deresponsibilise homelessness services for addressing domestic abuse. I show (1) that workers saw cases where homelessness arose from domestic abuse as functionally beyond the remit of homelessness services (2) that empowered women were understood as undeserving by the system and (3) that workers saw domestic abuse cases as a broad and undefined threat to resources.

Trend in 167 cases of minors witnessing violence: The role played by COVID-19 pandemic.

BackgroundThere currently is no evidence that COVID-19 has had an impact on the rates of psychological abuses occurring when a minor witnesses interpersonal violence.AimOur aim was to describe the accesses of the last four years to the Emergency Department of a tertiary hospital (Careggi University Hospital—Florence, Italy) due to this issue and then to evaluate whether the COVID-19 has had an impact on this trend.MethodsWe collected data regarding cases of abuse in which at least a minor had reportedly witnessed the event. Medical records stored between January 1, 2018 to January 1, 2022 were analyzed, extracting sex, age and nationality of the victim; sex of the perpetrator and relationship with the victim; known previous episodes of abuse in the medical history of the victim; setting of the abuse (domestic vs. non-domestic); type of abuse (physical, psychological, sexual); whether the perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol/drugs; whether the victim was hospitalized; prognosis of the victim; number, relation with the victim and involvement in the abuse (as co-victim) of the minor(s) who witnessed the abuse.ResultsA total of 167 eligible cases were registered. 69% of victims had previous episodes of abuse. The perpetrators were all known and mainly males (96%).The abuses were mainly domestic (79%). In 74% of the cases only a type of violence was perpetrated. In 12% of the cases, the minors were also victims of physical abuse. No statistically significant relationships were found between the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes in the number of cases of domestic abuse (p = 0.07), physical abuse (p = 0.62), psychological abuse (p = 0.83) or sexual abuse (p = 0.88). However, during the institutional lockdown in Italy (March-May 2022) only two cases occurred – a number that did not allow period-specific statistical inference.ConclusionsEmpowering the hospital policies specifically aimed at identifying and protecting the victims of violence/witnessed violence remains a critical goal from both a public health and medico-legal point of view.

Theorising victim decision making in the police response to domestic abuse

The paper provides a conceptual argument for the importance of understanding victim decision making in responding to cases of domestic abuse. It applies core elements of decision-making theory to illustrate how victims may undergo different forms of thinking, could be affected by bias, consider gain and loss differently, and suffer from decision inertia. Suggestions are provided on how this perspective could be used in practice to deliver a victim empowerment approach in policing. However, the paper also expresses the importance of the theory’s limitations, especially around external validity, and suggests that research across various disciplines is critical to determine whether the perspective could be placed onto an empirical footing.

Tracking Repeat Victimisation After Domestic Abuse Cases Are Heard With and Without Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs) in an English Magistrate’s Court

Research QuestionDo cases heard in a specialist domestic abuse (SDA) court on days when Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs) are present to engage with victims, compared to cases heard on days when no IDVAs are present, result in more convictions, or less frequency or severity of repeat victimisation?DataThis analysis included all 559 trials in one SDA court from June 2016 to December 2018, including 514 unique victims. IDVAs were present on the starting day of 84% of the trials, leaving 16% (90) cases to start on days when no IDVAs were present.MethodsThe treatment and comparison cases were compared for similarity of 23 characteristics, with only one difference of over 20%. The analysis proceeded as appropriate for a Level 4 (Sherman et al., Preventing crime: What works, what doesn’t, what’s promising: A report to the United States Congress, National Institute of Justice, 1997) quasi-experimental comparison between the treatment and comparison cases.FindingsIPA trials in the IDVA treatment group were 12% less likely than those in the comparison group to result in a conviction (RR=0.88, 95% CI 0.74-1.05). Trials in the IDVA treatment group had a 96% higher risk of being followed by a repeat domestic abuse incident in the 18 months after trial than trials in the no-IDVA comparison group (RR = 1.96, 95% CI 1.19–3.23). Treatment group victims experienced a mean harm score for repeat victimisation in the 18 months post-trial eight times higher than the comparison group (80 compared with ten).ConclusionsThe provision of Independent Domestic Violence Advisors in a specialist domestic abuse court was clearly correlated with higher rates of repeat victimisation, as well as higher levels of harm in repeat offences and lower rates of conviction. This correlation could well be causal, but only a randomised controlled trial can rule out that possibility.

The Socio-Cultural Church: A Determinant of Women’s Rights in Nigeria

Debates about women’s rights and the challenges of social exclusivity, gender inequality and human insecurity, are front-burner issues in discourses on the sociopolitical and socioeconomic landscapes in Nigeria. Despite constituting about fifty percent (50%) of the population of most modern societies, women are traditionally shortchanged at negotiation tables. This premise is fundamental to evaluating the threats posed to viable debates on the rights of women as ‘minority’ groups in society. Unfortunately, the church under the influence of the socio-culture, inadvertently establishes their pared positions through the misinterpretation of some doctrinal bases of Christianity, which allow rationality give way to ‘more superior’ extrapolations that hamper in-depth introspections on reasons for biblical positions and consequences of actions. Riggs’ fused-prismatic-diffracted model of society describes the processes capable of sustaining this dire situation as embedded in ‘non-administrative criteria’. Data for the study were collected using semi-structured questionnaires and unstructured interviews. Purposive and random sampling procedures were utilized in deriving the sample population from Christian-only populations. Pearson’s Bivariate Correlation, multiple regression analysis and theme-coding were employed to analyse the questionnaire and interview responses. The findings revealed that the socio-culture is a major determinant of the interpretations of biblical positions and teachings by churches, thereby upholding church agency as contributory to the rise in gender inequality, discrimination and domestic abuse cases in Nigeria. Strategies for abdicating the risks of domestic abuse and mitigating the impacts on women’s rights in Nigeria, were proffered.

Domestic Violence Against Married Women During the COVID-19 Quarantine in Saudi Arabia.

Background Before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, cases of domestic abuse and aggressive behaviour between Saudi married couples were increasing annually, a topic of growing concern both socially and medically. With the forced indoor confinement enacted as a containment measure, international studies regarding domestic abuse indicated an almost unanimous increase in prevalence. This cross-sectional national study aimed to assess the change between the pre-and intra-pandemic prevalence of abuse in Saudi Arabia. Material and methods Anonymous data were gathered using a web-based Arabic version of the World Health Organization (WHO) multi-country instrument measuring violence against women residing in Saudi Arabia. The previously validated questionnaire included a series of multiple-choice questions related to demographic information, family infrastructure, experienced situations of abuse, and the severity and form of abuse during the quarantine period, from March 23, 2020, to June 21, 2020. Associations were tested using a two-tailed Pearson's Chi-square test and odds ratios. A binary multivariate logistic regression was used to identify the independent factors associated with domestic violence. Results In total, 2254 participants were included in the present study. The majority (n=2129, 94.7%) were Saudi nationals. The highest proportion (n=1022, 45.3%) was in the 30 to 40 years age group. The self-reported prevalence of domestic violence before COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine was 25.4% and 16.6% during the confinement, indicating an overall decrease of 8.8% in the reported cases. Regarding the type of violence, of the 315 (16.6%) women who endured violence since the confinement, the majority (n=301, 95.6%) experienced multiple forms of violent abuse, 264 (87.7%) suffered from psychological/emotional violence, 114 (37.9%) from physical violence, and 50 (16.6%) from sexual violence. Of the group who experienced multiple forms of violence, 120 (39.9%) reported an increase in the frequency and perceived intensity of the violence since the confinement. The only variable that directly increased the likelihood of suffering domestic violence had more than three children [OR = 1.59, P = 0.018].Conclusions Contrary to trends observed in other countries, the national prevalence of abusive conduct towards married women showed a marked decrease during the quarantine period-more children directly correlated with a higher reported frequency of being abused. Further studies in neighbouring countries with comparable societies and structures must be conducted to assess the validity of our findings in the context of the global trends of violence in the marital home.

Experiences of domestic abuse within the South Asian community

The Black Lives Matter social movement has once again raised important societal issues around structural and racial inequalities. These issues stem from our political and social structures, which are argued to be a continuance of colonial rule and which allow injustice to amplify. There are many who continue to suffer and are often overlooked, namely victims of domestic abuse within the South Asian community. The Domestic Abuse Bill (DAB) is currently going through the Parliamentary process. It is argued that the DAB is flawed due to an absence of provisions and support for minority ethnic groups, namely the South Asian community. Previous scholarly research has documented the prevalence of honour-based abuse within the South Asian community. Despite the unique nature of abuse, this is not acknowledged in the DAB. The purpose of this paper is to uncover the unique experiences of domestic abuse within the South Asian community by thematically analysing two Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs). The findings will be discussed using aspects of ultra-realism, namely special liberty, and benign neglect. These findings will form the basis of reasoning behind amendment suggestions for the DAB. Following the thematic analysis of the two DHRs and critical literature review, three recommendations were formed: 1) Removal of ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’, thus providing funding to all, despite immigration status; 2) Provide education to police officers and GPs regarding domestic abuse and how it often differs depending on culture, namely the South Asian community; and 3) Implement neighbourhood committees across Britain that have a working relationship with the police to identify cases of domestic abuse within this South Asian demographic.