Victims of Domestic Violence Forced To Testify

[AndrewJ]

Totally mess them up. I understand how hard it is and just what they are going through.

[Jules]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

............but will probably save lives

Or cause women to lose them it is a bad idea believe me

[Paul K]

Originally Posted by whyme38

Or cause women to lose them it is a bad idea believe me

It's not just women at risk unfortunately, spousal abuse swings both ways

[Jules]

Yes sorry I should have said that it was thoughtless of me to just say women

[Graham]

Originally Posted by punky

personal freedom from the state is something I value highly (stop laughing Graham )

__________________

As to the subject itself, I don't like the idea of them being "forced" to testify and I definitely agree with the people who are saying that this should be used with great care.

Certainly if such a thing was introduced, there should be adequate provisions and protections eg giving evidence by video link, no adversarial cross-examination and no claiming that "it was all your fault really, wasn't it!" etc.

I also think that if someone is going to have to testify like this the state should be obliged to provide social worker support, a place of safety if needed and other such mechanisms to ensure that it doesn't make the abuse worse.

Originally Posted by Graham

As to the subject itself, I don't like the idea of them being "forced" to testify and I definitely agree with the people who are saying that this should be used with great care.

Certainly if such a thing was introduced, there should be adequate provisions and protections eg giving evidence by video link, no adversarial cross-examination and no claiming that "it was all your fault really, wasn't it!" etc.

I also think that if someone is going to have to testify like this the state should be obliged to provide social worker support, a place of safety if needed and other such mechanisms to ensure that it doesn't make the abuse worse.

I think that pretty much sums up my position.