Our Executive Chairman responds to the Home Office's consultation on domestic abuse

The SCYJ (Standing Committee on Youth Justice) has a large and distinguished membership of professionals in the field who work together to provide constructive policy responses and to contribute to debates about best practice in the field of Youth Justice.

Restorative Solutions are part of this group, and our Executive Chairman, Gary Stephenson has recently contributed to a formal response to the Home Office's new consultation around youth and domestic violence called Transforming the Response to Domestic Abuse.

SCYJ has some concerns around the consultation and the measures proposed within it, especially when it comes to their impact on 16 and 17 year old children when they are the alleged and / or convicted perpetrators of domestic violence.

• The document fails to take account of the fact that many child perpetrators of domestic abuse are both vulnerable and victims themselves of domestic abuse either directly or indirectly.

• The consultation fails to recognise that sixteen and seventeen year olds are legally children and must therefore be treated differently to adults moving through the criminal justice system. There are no specific child-focussed responses included within the consultation.

• The document fails to consider how to support children who are victims of abuse to attempt to help them and to help prevent them becoming abusive themselves.

• The SCYJ is concerned that these proposals may lead to the increased criminalisation of children because more are likely to be caught and penalised. 

You can read the full response to the consultation here.