How children impact Domestic Abuse prosecutions

I intend to undertake doctoral studies to explore how children impact DA prosecutions. There is a significant gap in our knowledge about how children experience DA proceedings.

Understanding how children interact with criminal prosecutions, in which their abusive parent is the subject, could provide an answer to the question of why so many parent victims remove themselves from proceedings.

If we can better understand the child's role, we can devise strategies for the criminal justice system and other public bodies, such as schools, to support children better.

Some international quantitative studies have shown that children may increase a mother's likelihood to engage in prosecution due to a desire to protect their child from further abuse.

On the other hand, due to the abusive partner's control over resources such as financial resources, the mother may be forced to abandon prosecution to ensure their children are fed and housed.