The Victims and Courts Bill: How You Can Help Survivors

The Victims and Courts Bill is meant to improve how victims are treated by the criminal justice system. But right now, some of the most traumatised victims - survivors of rape and domestic abuse - are still being criminalised or silenced.

We're backing vital amendments to the Bill that would help resolve some shocking injustices:

Survivors of rape are being cross-examined about previous abuse to suggest they are lying - despite no evidence.
Survivors of domestic abuse can be prosecuted for crimes they were coerced into committing or for using force in self-defence against their abuser - with no meaningful legal defence.

Black and minoritised women and migrant women are disproportionately impacted by failures in the criminal justice system when they report rape, sexual violence and other forms of violence. Migrant women are criminalised upon their arrival in the UK as migrant women and their experiences of violence are not recognised by the system, including their knowledge and experience of institutional racism within the police, language barriers, and lack of suitable, tailored support. The Bill makes no references to the disparities experienced by these women.

Together, we can stop this. Help us demand that the justice system stops treating survivors like suspects and addresses racial injustice.

In Summary: The Three Amendments

Amendment 1: Protect rape survivors from character assassination in court

Problem:
Survivors are being cross-examined about unrelated previous sexual violence to suggest they are lying. When a victim-survivor of rape reports the offence to the police, any previous disclosure of sexual violence they've made in the past can be used against them as evidence of their 'bad character' - even if it's completely unrelated to this case. This is often done without warning, retraumatising survivors and misleading juries.

Solution:
Amend section 100 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to limit when such ‘bad character’ evidence can be used - ensuring only truly relevant evidence is admitted. The Victims and Courts Bill can help provide judges with clearer guidelines on when a previous disclosure is admissible in the current case.

Amendments 2 and 3: Introduce statutory defences for survivors of domestic abuse coerced into offending or who use force in self-defence against their abuser

Problem:
Gaps in law and practice mean that women’s experience of abuse is often not properly taken into account when they are themselves accused of offending. Whereas householders have additional legal protection where they act in self-defence against an intruder, no such protection is available to victims/survivors acting in self-defence against their abuser. And unlike victims of trafficking, victims of domestic abuse who are coerced into offending have no effective defence in law. Black, minoritised and migrant victims/survivors face additional barriers to accessing justice and support. Their vulnerability and experience as victims/survivors is often overlooked, and assumptions are made, based on prejudice, that they are instead perpetrators.

Solution:
The Lord Chancellor can address this injustice by legislating to provide effective defences for victims of domestic abuse who act in self-defence against their abuser, or who are coerced into offending. The amendments to the Victims and Courts Bill that will be tabled this autumn by Tonia Antoniazzi MP and Naz Shah MP would provide effective defences. Implementation of the defences must include guidance, training and accountability mechanisms to address disparities experienced by Black, minoritised and migrant victims/survivors.

Please note, further background information, including references, can be found below.

What You Can Do

Write to your MP

Use our template letter to urge your MP to support both amendments. [link to template letter on My WI].
Please let us know when your MP responds. These simple legal changes would transform the justice system for survivors.

Spread the word

Share our social media posts to raise awareness and pressure MPs.

Instagram: @womensinstitute
Facebook: The WI

Further Background

Amendment 1: Protect rape survivors from character assassination in court

In May 2025, the government introduced a new Victims and Courts Bill, which aims to protect victims and improve their access to justice. The WI is a member of the End Violence against Women Coalition, which is working with Rape Crisis England and Wales to use the Bill to put an end to ‘Bad Character’ evidence.

When a victim-survivor of rape reports the offence to the police, any previous disclosure of sexual violence they've made in the past can be used against them as evidence of their 'bad character' - even if it's completely unrelated to this case.

This means that if a woman has ever been raped or sexually assaulted before in her life, by a completely different perpetrator, it can be used against her to undermine her account of the offence she is reporting. This is often sprung on her after the trial has already started- sometimes without warning and when she is already in the witness box!

This is a harmful and re-traumatising legal practice that should be stopped. Many women will experience multiple incidents of sexual violence over their lifetime, and this is a defence strategy used to present the jury with an unfair or twisted narrative that the survivor is untruthful, when there is no evidence of this.

We need the Victims and Courts Bill to provide judges with clearer guidelines on when a previous disclosure is admissible in the current case. This means amending section 100 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to state that there must be a proper evidential basis to assert that the previous disclosure was false.

You can read End Violence against Women Coalition’s full briefing here.

Rape Crisis England and Wales have further information about the campaign here.

Amendments 2 and 3: Introduce statutory defences for survivors of domestic abuse coerced into offending or who use force in self-defence against their abuser

Coercive control is an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim.

In July 2025 the Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), a leading lawyer-led charity, published the report ‘Doing his job for him’: how the criminal justice system fails victims of coercive control who are accused of offending, which presents the accounts of seven victims of coercive control who have been unfairly criminalised as a result of their own experience of abuse. The report illustrates fundamental failings in the criminal justice system and recommends several reforms in law, policy and practice that would help ensure victims of coercive control are protected, not punished.

All the survivors’ accounts detail common features of coercive control and its devastating impact on them and their families. As the accounts make clear, criminal justice responses which fail to protect victims/survivors and serve to punish them can effectively extend the perpetrator’s abuse. This compounds the damage already caused to the victim/survivor, leading to long-lasting additional harm.

The accounts uncover multiple failings in the criminal justice process, including:

Underlying failures by criminal justice practitioners to understand and successfully prosecute coercive control.
Lack of any effective defence for victims of coercive control who are accused of offending.
Police failures to gather, review and pass on evidence of coercive control experienced by suspects who are also victims.
Failure by criminal justice practitioners to take account of the additional barriers to justice faced by Black, Asian, minoritised and migrant victims/survivors who are accused of offending.

CWJ makes 11 recommendations for reform, including the introduction of an effective defence for victims of coercive control who are coerced into offending, a joint police and CPS protocol for gathering, passing on and taking account of evidence of coercive control where a suspect in an offence may also be a victim and improvements in training and guidance to increase understanding amongst all criminal justice practitioners of the impact of coercive control and trauma on victims and how this can relate to offending, with a specific focus on Black, Asian, minoritised and migrant victims/survivors. This builds on CWJ’s earlier research, which illustrates that victims of domestic abuse who use force against their abuser are unlikely to be able to rely on self-defence and more likely to plead guilty or be convicted.

CWJ is working with a coalition of expert organisations to press for reforms in law, policy and practice to prevent the unjust criminalisation of victims of domestic abuse – including Advance, Agenda Alliance, Hibiscus, Northumbria Centre for Evidence and Criminal Justice Studies, Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse, Women in Prison, Women’s Aid and Working Chance.

Those of us who advocate for the rights of women must continue to call out racism within systems that deny women access to support and justice. If racial injustice is not identified in our efforts to uphold the rights of all women, then Black and minoritised and migrant women will continue to be disadvantaged.

You can watch CWJ’s series of short films where survivors of domestic abuse share their stories of criminalisation here.

References:

National Domestic Abuse Helpline: 0808 2000 247

Bilingual Live Fear Free Helpline (Wales): 0808 8010 800

(24/7 confidential free phones providing help and advice about violence against women and domestic abuse)

Clare’s Law: gives any member of the public the right to ask the police if their partner has a history of domestic violence or violent acts that may pose a risk to them. You can visit your local police station or call 101.