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ISSUES: Marriage
Chapter 1: Marriage
Criminalising forced marriage has not
helped its victims
An article from
The Conversation
.
By Aisha K. Gill, Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Roehampton
I
n the year since forced marriage was criminalised in
the UK, only one conviction has taken place. In June,
a 34-year-old man was jailed for forcing a 25-year-old
woman to marry him under duress. Merthyr Crown Court
in Wales heard that the man – who was already married to
someone else – repeatedly raped his victim over a period
of months, threatened to publish footage of her having a
shower and told her that her parents would be killed, unless
she agreed to become his wife.
The defendant was put on the sex offenders’ register and
sentenced to 16 years in custody, to be released under an
extended licence for another five years afterwards. This is
an important case, which will raise questions about whether
these offences – which also included rape, voyeurism and
bigamy, alongside forced marriage – could have been
prosecuted under the existing criminal law.
Before forced marriage was criminalised, the Forced
Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 enabled courts to issue
protection orders against those who attempt or conspire
to force someone into marriage. Between November 2008
(when the Act came into force) and September 2014, there
were 762 applications filed for forced marriage protection
orders. During this same period, 785 forced marriage
protection orders were issued (some of which may have
been interim orders, issued during other proceedings).
Last year, the Government’s Forced Marriage Unit provided
support and assistance for 1,267 possible cases of forced
marriage. It is troubling, then, that there has been only one
conviction since June last year under the 2014 Act.
An adversarial system
Laws are only effective when properly enforced. Those who
believe the new sanctions will eradicate forced marriage
overlook the fact that criminal prosecutions require a high
standard of proof. This standard will have a dramatic effect
on the rate of successful prosecutions.
Failed prosecutions, and cases that do not proceed to
prosecution may result in victims being discredited or
shamed within their family and community, while those at
fault may feel exonerated. This raises the risk that victims
will suffer isolation and further abuse, because their family
and community are likely to ostracise them, or even seek
revenge.
The adversarial British criminal justice system requires that
victims and witnesses give evidence in court, and submit to
being cross-examined. The rules of the court require that the
prosecution must disclose all their evidence to the defence.
This includes highly sensitive information gathered by the
police, local authorities and other organisations when a
complaint is made by a victim or information provided by a
third party about a forced marriage.
If the case proceeds to court, the victim and any witnesses
may, in some cases, face the sharing and discussion of this
information in public. Apart from placing them at risk of
harm, the impact of being made to participate in difficult,
and often lengthy, public proceedings is likely to be
significant. These practicalities demand further reflection
from those who make the law.
Access to justice
Even if prosecution is successful, victims may still endure
other challenges, and require extensive support from
different services. For one thing, it’s often the case that the
victims of forced marriage, and those at risk, need assistance
from specialist support services, in order to access justice in
the first place.
Research by Rights of Women reveals that many victims of
forced marriage cannot afford to pay for the legal assistance
they require. For instance, foreign nationals may require
immigration advice and assistance, while British citizens may
need advice regarding family law remedies like marriage
annulments, or contact with their children.
Cuts to Legal Aid have had a negative impact on victims’
ability to obtain vital legal advice. As forced marriage cases
are often extremely complex in a legal sense, it is crucial
