No women should ever be sent to prison for enduring domestic abuse

Imagine being punished for the abuse you’ve endured. For women who are survivors of domestic abuse and find themselves caught in the criminal justice system, this is their reality. In my work at Women in Prison, a national charity working to end the harm of the justice system on women’s lives, sadly I hear such stories on a regular basis.  

A service manager in our Manchester women’s centre recently told me her probation caseload includes 23 women, 20 of whom have experienced domestic abuse. This isn’t an anomaly. It’s the norm.  

The link between domestic abuse and women’s involvement in the criminal justice system is stark, yet it remains overlooked and misunderstood, leaving survivors caught in a cycle of abuse and punishment. Or if they’re able to break that cycle, they’ve lost so much they have to rebuild their lives from the ground up.

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Far too often, women are criminalised for actions stemming directly from their abuse. Coerced into offending, acting in self-defence, or facing malicious accusations as part of a pattern of coercive control, survivors are seen as perpetrators rather than victims.

Elizabeth (not her real name) shared her experience with me: “My boyfriend was a drug dealer who abused me financially, sexually, emotionally, and physically. When we’d go out, he’d say, ‘You’re carrying the drugs.’ I was scared to say no. I was arrested and given a custodial sentence. I don’t ever want to see women going to prison after experiencing what I went through.”

Sadly, Elizabeth’s experience is all too common. Three in five women in prison report being survivors of domestic abuse. Research shows that women’s offending is often tied to experiences of abuse and coercion. The landmark Corston Report which looked into women in the criminal justice system and was published 17 years ago, identified these connections. Yet, the criminal justice system has failed to act on this knowledge. 

Survivors are still being arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned without proper consideration of the abuse they’ve gone through.

Take self-defence, for example. It remains notoriously difficult for women to argue self-defence in court when their actions result from trauma and fear after experiencing abuse. We also see that pre-sentencing reports – an essential tool designed to provide context to offending – that detail women’s experience of abuse are often not taken into account during sentencing.  

We cannot continue punishing survivors for their experiences of abuse. Together with over 100 experts, MPs, activists, researchers, lawyers and organisations, Women in Prison is calling for the government to take urgent action through an open letter published this week.

We’ve seen promising commitments from the government, including to reduce the women’s prison population through a recently announced women’s justice board, and clear recognition that prison is not a safe or appropriate response for women. What we need now is to see those commitments translated into action.  

The 100 plus co-signatories of our open letter are calling for the government to end the criminalisation of domestic abuse survivors, and for support rather than punishment. Their approach must address the overlapping inequalities Black, Asian, migrant and minoritised women face, as well as those criminalised because of trafficking or sex work.  

The government’s election commitment to halve violence against women and girls is commendable, but it must be linked up with women’s justice measures. By prioritising domestic abuse in the Women’s Justice Board strategy, we hope we can prevent survivors from being criminalised in the first place.

As I write this, women are sitting in prison cells for offences that stem directly from the abuse they’ve endured. This is not justice. It’s a failure of our society to support those at risk.

A justice system that supports survivors rather than punishes them isn’t a pipe dream—it’s within our grasp. With bold action, we can create a society where no survivor is ever sent to prison for enduring abuse.

Lucy Russell is head of policy and public affairs at Women in Prison.

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