What might ‘successful’ coercive control prosecutions look like?

The Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland is committed to driving up the rates of coercive control convictions. This chapter considers what can be learned from prosecutors in England and Wales concerning the particular challenges presented by these cases. When set against the criminal trial’s usual focus on discrete, incident-specific or ‘transactional’ events, offences concerning ongoing patterns and systems of power seem ill-fitted and consequently present unique obstacles. Whilst the evidential (realistic prospect of conviction) hurdles are known (Bettinson and Bishop, 2015), this chapter identifies a number of further issues facing the pre-charge and trial prosecutor; these include pre-charge disclosure, offence date considerations and trial advocate speeches and examination of witnesses. The chapter locates its analysis in the wider context of the managerial demands now imbued in the prosecutorial role and reflects on prosecutorial strategies that might assist attrition rates. However, the chapter also counsels caution. Prosecutors are reminded that what constitutes a ‘successful’ outcome for a survivor may lie outside of committed and strategic implementation of the substantive criminal law. Ultimately, taking domestic abuse ‘extremely seriously' (Public Prosecution Service, 2022) for survivors may not align with prosecution performance measurements, requiring a cultural shift away from the criminal justice paradigm.