Major new research will examine how mothers are being prosecuted when children are harmed in the context of domestic abuse.
Dr Charlotte Bishop, from the University of Exeter Law School, has secured funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to lead a new project examining the impact of the "failure to protect" offence.
It was introduced under Section 5 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 to enable prosecutions where it was unclear which adult had caused a child's death. However, concerns have since been raised that it is being used disproportionately to prosecute mothers, particularly those who are themselves experiencing domestic abuse.
The law allows for prosecution when a parent was, or ought to have been, aware of a risk to a child and failed to take "reasonable steps" to prevent harm.
However, what counts as "reasonable steps" is open to interpretation, particularly in situations shaped by coercive control and systemic disadvantage, raising questions about how this is understood by prosecutors, judges, juries, and other professionals.
Despite its potentially profound consequences for mothers and families, the offence has received limited scrutiny from legal scholars and those working to help prevent domestic abuse. There is also limited understanding of how intersecting inequalities - such as poverty, racism, disability, or mental illness - have shaped the experiences of mothers charged with this offence.
Dr Bishop's project will examine how criminal justice and other professionals interpret maternal responsibility for male-perpetrated violence against children, and the extent to which broader structural factors are considered.
Importantly, the research will also explore how these prosecutions cannot be understood in isolation from family court processes and child protection systems. Mothers may face conflicting pressures: remaining in abusive relationships can be seen as a "failure to protect", while leaving can expose children to unsupervised contact with abusive partners or increase risks of serious harm. The project will examine how these tensions shape women's actions and how they are judged.
The project will combine analysis of prosecution patterns and outcomes with detailed examination of professional narratives in legal judgements and statutory reports. It will also involve participatory workshops with domestic abuse victim-survivors, leading to the co-creation of a short film to communicate findings to wider audiences.
Dr Bishop said: "I'm delighted to have secured funding to carry out work on a deeply important and under-examined issue. These cases often involve women who are themselves victims of abuse, yet are held criminally responsible for failing to prevent harm in situations shaped by coercive control and systemic failures.
"The consequences are profound. When mothers are prosecuted or imprisoned, the impact extends far beyond the individual case, affecting children, families, and communities over the long term.
"While the government has committed to halving violence against women and girls, I believe Section 5 prosecutions continue to misdirect responsibility, punishing mothers rather than preventing harm. This research will examine how responsibility is understood in these cases, and whether the law is taking sufficient account of the realities women face, including the conflicting pressures created across criminal justice, family law, and child protection systems.
