New guidance on how to prosecute abusive partners for controlling and coercive behaviour has highlighted the phenomenon of love-bombing, a tactic used by suspects to confuse victims and gain more control.
The Crown Prosecution Service’s updated guidance sets out the varied, sophisticated and subtle ways suspects can manipulate their partners to exert control over their lives, and to seek to minimise the likelihood of detection and punishment.
Guidance warns prosecutors about the different tactics a suspect may use to mislead criminal proceedings or weaken a prosecution case.
“Sometimes we see, particularly at the beginning of the relationship, a big showering of love and affection,” Kate Brown, national lead for domestic abuse at the CPS, said. Love-bombing behaviour, intermittently carrying out what appear to be loving acts, such as sending flowers, can constitute a manipulative step, designed to disrupt investigation and prosecution, the guidance reads. Manipulative steps can include altering behaviour when being watched or supervised.
“We do not underestimate the impact of stalking or controlling or coercive behaviour on victims who can be forced to change their daily routines, left in fear of their life and totally consumed by this offending,” Brown said. “These controlling offences can quickly escalate and that is why we’re absolutely committed to prosecuting wherever our legal test is met.”
The term “coercive control” embraces a range of actions intended to intimidate, restrict and control a partner’s behaviour. The offence of controlling and coercive behaviour was introduced in December 2015. To prosecute this offence, the Crown Prosecution Service has to be able to show evidence of a pattern of abuse or behaviour against the victim which stops short of serious physical violence but leaves them in fear. Since 2018 1,816 people, the vast majority men, have been successfully prosecuted for this offence.
Other examples of controlling and coercive behaviour include isolating a person from their friends and family, depriving them of their basic needs, monitoring a person via online communication tools, taking control over aspects of their everyday life – such as where they can go, who they can see, what to wear and when they can sleep – repeatedly putting them down, telling them they are worthless and enforcing rules and activity which humiliate, degrade or dehumanise the victim. In many cases the conduct may seem innocent, the guidance notes, especially if considered in isolation of other incidents, and victims may not be aware of, or be ready to acknowledge, abusive behaviour.
These behaviours can be intertwined with the suspect saying it is in their best interests, and “rewarding good behaviour” with gifts, the new guidance states.
“We’re working with the police to better understand the dynamics of how this offence works. It’s important that there is a high level of understanding that this particular offence is specifically there to capture all this type of behaviour that may not be just a violent relationship,” Brown said.
