We are raising this petition to ask the British Home Secretary, Theresa May, to change the statutory guidance issued to UK Police Authorities covering the offense of Coercive and Controlling Behaviour to reflect the true gender and sexuality-neutral nature of domestic abuse crime.

Anyone can be a victim of domestic abuse. Men and women. Old and young. Rich and Poor. All races and sexual orientations. It could be someone you care about. It could even be you.

On December 29th 2015 Domestic Abuse through coercive and controlling behaviour became an offence in the United Kingdom through the introduction of Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015.

The law as written is gender neutral, referring to abusers and victims as "A" and "B" which also covers non-intimate and LGBT relationships. However, when promoting campaigns throughout their areas, Police Authorities across the UK consistently use a gendered and heterosexual approach when depicting domestic abuse.

In short, posters and victim support documentation overwhelmingly show images portraying women and children as the victims of male abusers.

This is simply not the case.

According to The Office of National Statistics 2013/14 Crime Survey for England and Wales, in 2014 1.4 million women reported having been victims of domestic abuse, and so did 700, 000 men. That means 33% of all victims were male - and that's not even taking into consideration that some respondents would have been suffering abuse in non-heterosexual or non-intimate relationships.

So why is the image of a man abusing a woman so consistently used?

In defending this gendered approach to awareness campaigning, Police Authorities and media outlets routinely refer to the Home Office Statutory Guidance document about Controlling or Coercive Behaviour in an Intimate or Family Relationship published in December 2015.

This states in sections 20 to 22 on page 7 of the document:

The gendered nature of controlling or coercive behaviour

20). While all legislation is gender neutral, and men can also be victims of this offence, statistics consistently show that women and girls are disproportionately affected by crimes of domestic violence and abuse.

21). In 2014/15, 92.4% of defendants in domestic abuse flagged cases were male. Where recorded, the proportion of female victims has remained steady at 84%, since 2010-11 (CPS Violence Against Women and Girls Crime Report 2014/15).

22). Controlling or coercive behaviour is primarily a form of violence against women and girls and is underpinned by wider societal gender inequality. This can contribute to the ability of the offender to retain power and control, and ultimately the ability of the victim to access support and leave safely. It is, therefore, important to consider the role of gender in the context of power and control within a relationship when identifying controlling or coercive behaviour in heterosexual relationships.

So, why are these numbers so different from the data gathered by the Office of National Statistics?

The reason is because they are based on reported crimes that have been taken all the way to prosecution, as stated in the Violence against Women and Girls Crime Report 2013-2014.  

The ONS itself cautions against using reported crime data in this way. It states:

"In accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, statistics based on police recorded crime data have been assessed against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and found not to meet the required standard for designation as National Statistics." 

So, why is this data being used by the Home Office to issue guidance for the policing and investigation of domestic abuse?

Quite simply, it shouldn’t be.

One reason these two sets of numbers differ so vastly is undoubtedly because domestic abuse by females against male victims is massively underreported. It is also a serious and very real problem in LGBT relationships, as well as in non-intimate family relationships.

The current focus on policing domestic abuse and coercive control as a gendered crime ignores vast numbers of victims.

This isn't about Men vs. Women. It is not about feminists vs. anti-feminists. It is about ALL victims of domestic abuse receiving the same level of protection, policing and investigation.

The law requires it, as laid out in the Serious Crime Act 2015 and the Equality Act 2010 Section 29 Paragraph 2 which states:

(a) A service-provider (A) must not, in providing the service, discriminate against a person (B) as to the terms on which A provides the service to B.

We applaud the changes to UK law that recognise coercive and controlling behaviour as a crime.

By changing just three paragraphs of the Home Office’s brand new statutory guidance document we can help give all victims of domestic abuse a voice, and the confidence to know it will be listened to; whoever they are.

It is fully within the home secretary's power to change the guidance as laid out in Section 77 of the Serious Crime Act 2015.

Please, tell Theresa May to change the statutory guidelines so Police Authorities across the country can get it right.

Thank you.