Challenging criminal justice responses to violent acts towards women resulting in pregnancy loss

• In Event: Emerging Issues in Gender-Based Violence

Abstract

Violence towards pregnant women is a serious concern. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to intimate partner violence and abuse as pregnancy is a time when such violence begins or escalates. The impact of physical violence can be loss of the pregnancy. In such instances the woman has arguably experienced harm in addition to the physical violence and injuries suffered: as she has lost a potentially wanted pregnancy and thus a future child. Consequently, criminal justice has a role in the criminalisation of perpetrators of such violence. One approach to criminalising violence towards pregnant women that results in pregnancy loss that should be avoided is that which constructs the foetus as a victim of the violence. This approach has significant consequences upon the rights and liberties of pregnant women. Furthermore, it negates the woman’s visibility as a victim of such violence, focusing on the death of the foetus, rather than the injury and loss experienced by the woman who has been attached. Such concerns are reflected in utilisation of the crimes of child destruction and procuring a miscarriage, as evidence from recent case law illustrates. Consequently, in this paper we advocate for existing non-fatal offences against the person legislation to be utilised in such situations, so highlighting the violence against a woman and the grievous bodily harm the pregnant woman experiences due to the pregnancy loss, potentially in addition to other sustained injuries.

Authors

• Emma Milne, Durham University

• Julian Lynch, Cornwall Street Barristers