A Sheffield woman has started a new petition to give tougher sentences to domestic abusers.<\/p>\n
Currently there is no specific criminal offence of ‘domestic abuse’ – although crimes committed in cases in cases of domestic abuse include harassment, sexual assault and false imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Victoria Miguel – the creator of the petition – said in her change.org post that: “Sentences [that] domestic abusers are given are too low”.<\/p>\n
A new domestic violence law targeting ‘coercive control’ was began in 2015, which sought to target actions of ‘serious harm or distress’ that would otherwise go unpunished.<\/p>\n
However, the maximum sentence for this is five years in prison.<\/p>\n
In South Yorkshire, 65% of legal decisions resulted in a charge for domestic abuse related crimes in 2020 – according to a report from the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner.<\/p>\n
The average across England and Wales was 73%.<\/p>\n
Ms Miguel said: “Some [offenders are] receiving quite low sentences for horrific crimes –\u00a0 domestic abuse is rarely a one-off incident, it is likely to become more frequent and serious the longer it continues”.<\/p>\n
34,864 incidents related to domestic abuse were recorded in South Yorkshire by police in the same year – which is around 25 instances per 1000 people.<\/p>\n