Australia has bestowed upon us a bounty of cultural gifts: Kylie Minogue, the death and resurrection of Harold Bishop, coffee that doesn’t taste like week-old ashtrays. But the tables of influence could soon turn in a significant way as Australian politicians seek counsel from Scotland on potentially life-saving legislative reform.

Last year the Scottish Government made coercive control a criminal offence, setting what’s been labelled a "gold standard" for protecting women and children (and, yes, some men) from this insidious – and pervasive – form of domestic abuse. This directly inspired the passing of a similar law in Hawaii in September, and last week federal politicians in Australia invited Scottish Women’s Aid chief executive Dr Marsha Scott to speak at a parliamentary inquiry on the matter.

These discussions couldn’t come at a more pressing time. Australia is one of several countries to have reported an uptick in domestic abuse incidents during the coronavirus pandemic. Scotland has also seen a 7.6 percent year-on-year increase in this type of crime, with one recent Scottish Government paper reporting how perpetrators’ tactics have increased in frequency and intensity because Covid restrictions make it easier for abusive and controlling behaviour to go unobserved by friends and family. Some abusers have even used threats of being infected by the virus to exert power over their victims. It’s grim.

We are lucky to live in a country where the law recognises the full spectrum of abuse and its many ghoulish guises, and seeks to protect those who fall prey to it. Right now, a new Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Bill is under consideration which, if passed, will allow police to issue a protection notice against a suspected perpetrator. The person believed to have committed the abuse will have to leave the victim’s home, even if it’s where they live too, and will be banned from re-entering. It means women and children won’t face a second trauma of homelessness after being subjected to domestic tyranny. For once, the power will be theirs.

Still though, we are extending help only to those able to ask for it. Domestic abuse is vastly under-reported and this is especially true of coercive control; according to UK charity SafeLives, victims are less likely to report it to the police compared to those who have experienced stalking, harassment or physical violence.

For women too scared to report their experience of abuse, access to safe and affordable social housing is of paramount importance. Between April 2019 and March 2020, local councils received 4,832 applications from people who left their previous address due to violence or abuse. Alison Watson, director of Shelter Scotland, estimates 37,100 social homes are needed over the next five years to meet our nation’s needs. If victims of abuse don’t have money for a new place to stay (and don’t forget financial abuse is a common feature of coercive control) and social housing isn’t available, where do they go?

Societal attitudes need to change too, as illuminated by the brilliant BBC Three documentary Is This Coercive Control? In this programme, which was added to iPlayer a few months ago, a group of men and women aged 18-30 are brought together by journalist Ellie Flynn to watch a dramatisation of a heterosexual relationship and discuss along the way whether they find the behaviour on show problematic.

I watched through tears this realistic portrayal of a controlling partner. As is so often the case, alarm bells ring faintly at first – jealousy from the male partner about his girlfriend’s friendship with a colleague – but the volume turns up slowly until the female has been robbed of her money, friends and sense of self. The young people grapple with what they perceive to be the nuances of this type of relationship; some blame the woman, others accept the man’s behaviour is abhorrent but don’t believe it’s illegal. Yet it absolutely is.

Documentaries like this should be shown in schools. My education about relationships started and ended with learning how to put a condom on a banana, and I don’t even fancy bananas.

A teacher pal tells me this is changing, and that teens at some Scottish schools are now enrolled in programmes such as Mentors in Violence Protection (MVP) where they learn about gender-based emotional, physical and sexual abuse and what constitutes a healthy relationship. One MVP student commented, “I didn’t realise many of the red flags in relationships were actually red flags. I know now what to avoid and challenge if I ever come across it in a relationship.”

This is why our "gold standard" legislation, while laudable, is only part of the solution. A law is only as effective as the society that understands it.

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