Consultation: Reforming law to address domestic abuse & sexual offences

Equally safe is a consultation on proposals including to create specific offences concerning domestic abuse and the introduction of statutory jury directions in sexual offence cases.

The Scottish Government is seeking views on the following five specific issues:

1) The question of whether the current criminal law reflects the true experience of victims of long-term domestic abuse, including coercive control, and whether a specific domestic abuse offence would improve the ability of people to access justice through effective prosecution of domestic abuse;

2) The need for a specific new criminal offence to address the sharing of private intimate images without permission from the subject of the images (often referred to as ‘revenge porn’);

3) The need for jury directions in sexual offence cases to provide guidance on how juries should consider:

• The fact that a significant period of time elapsed between the time the offence occurred and the reporting of the offence to the police;
• The absence of the use of physical force by the alleged attacker or the absence of use of physical resistance on the part of the alleged victim;

4) Changes to the disposals available to a court where a person is found unfit to stand trial due to a mental or physical condition but an examination of facts finds that they did commit acts constituting an offence; and

5) Extension to the extra-territorial effect of the law concerning sexual offences against children to include offences committed elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

You can find out how to respond and download the proposals by visiting: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/4845

The deadline for responses is 19th June 2015.