Can Criminal Justice Responses Empower Women? A Case Study of Domestic Abuse Disclosure Schemes

This paper introduces the Special Section Can Criminal Justice Responses Empower Women? A Case Study of Domestic Abuse Disclosure Schemes. It locates the case study of Domestic Abuse Disclosure Schemes in a wider trend of expanded criminal justice responses to domestic abuse. It then outlines the introduction and format of the Domestic Abuse Disclosure Scheme in England and Wales in 2014, followed by schemes introduced in other jurisdictions. It goes on to discuss the development, uptake and wider contextualisation of the schemes, as well as the emerging body of academic research. Finally, the contributions of the four substantive papers in this Special Section are detailed.