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Home / Sociology » Law » Family Law and Social Work » Brayne & Carr: Law for Social Workers 10e » Student resources » Further reading » Chapter 20

Brayne & Carr: Law for Social Workers 10e

Chapter 20

Domestic violence

We recommend the straightforward user-friendly guide, Domestic Violence: a Guide to Civil Remedies and Criminal Sanctions published in March 2003 and available at www.dca.gov.uk.

Other guides to the law are available on the Women's Aid web site, www.womensaid.org, which additionally provides a great deal of other information to support women suffering violence. There are a number of other web sites which provide useful information on domestic violence.

These include:

www.halt.org.ukA Leeds-based site which provides legal advice to women going through the courts or are thinking about their legal options.

www.rightsofwomen.org.uk Rights of Women is a women's voluntary organization committed to informing, educating, and empowering women concerning their legal rights. You can buy a DIY guide to injunctions from their site.

monitoring-group.co.uk/Seeking%20Help/domestic_violence.htm The Domestic Violence Data Source is an information coordinating system on projects relating to domestic violence within England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland.

Racial harassment

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has a useful web site with links to other organizations involved in combating racism: www.equalityhumanrights.com

For general information the victim support web site is very helpful: www.victimsupport.org.uk - from there you can download their leaflet, Going to Court.

Elder abuse

We have not specifically discussed the problem of elder abuse, although the general information on domestic violence and anti-social behaviour should be useful in this context. You may find the following useful: Elder Abuse No Secrets - Guidance on developing and implementing multi-agency policies and procedures to protect vulnerable adults from abuse. It is available on the Department of Health web site www.dh.gov.uk. The problem received parliamentary attention in Elder Abuse 2nd Report of The Health Select Committee published on 20 April 2004 and available on the Parliament web site at www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm/cmhealth.htm.

Anti-social behaviour

A good general guide to the law is C. Hunter, Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour-Law and Practice in the Management of Social Housing (Arden's Housing Library, Lemos and Crane, 2002).

The Social Exclusion Unit report, Policy Action Team 8, Anti-social Behaviour available on theSocial Exclusion Unit web site www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/social_exclusion_task_force provides a useful examination of government policy, and Manchester City Council's web site www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=98&documentID=2462 provides examples of how one particular local authority is using the powers available to it.

D. Ghate and M. Ramella, Positive Parenting: The National Evaluation of the Youth Justice Board's Parenting Programme (Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, 2002) is an interestingevaluation of the impact of parenting orders on families.

Criticism of anti-social behaviour initiatives include the academic, for instance: P. Papps, 'Anti-social Behaviour Strategies - Individualistic or Holistic?' (1998) 13(5) Housing Studies 639, and C. Hunter and J. Nixon, 'Taking the Blame and Losing the Home: Women and Anti-social Behaviour' (2001) 23(4) Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 1.

There has also been extensive practitioner comment. See for instance:

'Curfew culture is unfair on the silent majority', Municipal Journal, 10 June 2004. Explains why Liberty is challenging child curfews which have been introduced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act.

'What to do about the neighbours', Property People, 15 July 2004. Outlines the powers, duties,
and responsibilities of landlords when dealing with nuisance neighbours.

'Media campaign catches local "yobs" ', Young People Now, 9–15 June 2004. A newspaper 'shop-a-yob' bingo campaign in south-east London and north Kent has resulted in the identification of all 80 young people featured. The campaign used CCTV images of young people, believed to have vandalized buses, as bingo squares and readers who could identify three in a row or four in each corner had a chance of winning a digital camera.

For commentary on the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 see H. Carr, M. Waddington, A. Blair, and T. Baldwin, The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 - a special bulletin (Jordans, 2004).