Domestic abuse is undergoing the same revolution as mental health

Over the past ten years, mental health has gone from being one of those problems that no-one liked to talk about to something politicians tussle over to show they are the most committed. There is still a stigma floating around certain conditions, and people are still struggling to access the basic treatment that they need. But it is clear that society is growing better at understanding these illnesses – and is becoming angrier that there is not better provision for caring for them.

That same slow shift is now starting with domestic abuse. Like mental illness, its victims have often been dismissed as either being flawed or in some way bringing the crime upon themselves. There was a narrow understanding of what abuse meant, and what both perpetrators and victims might look like. ‘Why doesn’t she just leave?’ is still far more common a saying than ‘why doesn’t he stop?’ But one of the clearest signs of the way things are improving is that government is taking the matter very seriously.