Reforming the Landscape for Women who Kill their Abusers in Scotland

Abstract

Using Scotland as a case study, this paper identifies key areas in which there could be potential reform for women who kill their abusive partners. The study focuses on two particular areas: the use of specialised courts and the use of expert evidence on coercive control. The paper concludes that there exist multiple avenues of reform with the potential to improve women’s experiences of the criminal justice system. However, for these to be utilised, there must be clear recognition that cases of this type are domestic abuse cases. As such, they should be considered firmly within current national domestic abuse policy rather than continuing to sit outside existing frameworks.

Keywords

• domestic aduse
• domestic violence
• specialised domestic abuse courts
• scotland
• expert evidence