Meeting of the Parliament 28 January 2016
It is with interest that I speak about the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Bill, which aims to bring Scottish law up to date with changes in society’s view of domestic abuse and with technological changes, to reflect our improved understanding of the issues.
Members talked about non-consensual sharing of images. I add my voice to the calls for the bill to cover the sharing of intimate images that are not necessarily sexual. Images can be shared in an instant, and a great deal of damage can be caused by the reckless sharing of images. That should be provided for in legislation.
I do not think that young people should be exempt from being charged under the proposed new laws. Dealing with offenders would provide support for victims, who would often themselves be young people. I am sure that the court would take the person’s age into consideration.
I want to add to the debate the view that it is important to consider the various aspects of domestic abuse and not focus only on partner abuse or abuse of a physical nature. In order to get gender equality, we should consider the practicalities of placing in the bill a broader definition of abuse that includes emotional abuse, control of money and control of movement. In addition, people in some minority communities live in extended families. Therefore, the abuse might be carried out by someone other than a partner. Sadly, I have observed cases in which several family members were involved in exerting extreme levels of control over another family member.
Another development in our understanding concerns the fact that domestic abuse need not always involve men abusing women. There can be abusive same-sex relationships, for example, and I heard a story about a mother-in-law beating her new daughter-in-law for burning a roti, which is a chapatti in English. There is also violence towards and coercion of male family members. For example, around 20 per cent of people asking for help from the forced marriage unit are male.
I support the principles of the bill, but we need to widen the definition of abuse in the bill, particularly with regard to domestic abuse. We need to ensure that we are talking about not only partners and photography, but families and how family members can be affected by each other.
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