New changes to the law now make these 10 things illegal in a relationship
New laws on domestic abuse now make emotional abuse within a relationship illegal.
By Claire Schofield
Published 2nd Apr 2019, 14:52 BST
Updated 2nd Apr 2019, 14:58 BST
New laws on domestic abuse now make emotional abuse within a relationship illegal
Changes to Scotland’s Domestic Abuse Act came into force on 1 April 2019, making psychological abusive behaviours a crime in Scotland. The new legislation is aimed at tackling all aspects of domestic abuse, rather than being strictly limited to physical violence, with offenders now faced with up to 14 years in prison for coercive and controlling behaviour.
New laws surrounding revenge porn make it illegal for someone to share intimate photographs of you with anyone, whether that is on or offline. It is illegal for someone to share intimate photographs of you with anyone else.
Even if they are the breadwinner, the law says one partner cannot stop the other from accessing money and should not give them punitive allowances.
Constant insults from a partner might not be typically thought of as domestic abuse, but under the new law, persistent name-calling, mocking and other forms of insulting behaviour are now illegal.
If your partner isolates you from the people you love whether monitoring or blocking your calls or emails, telling you where you can or cannot go, or preventing you from seeing friends or relatives it is against the law.
Your partner might not physically assault you, but if they are doing enough to frighten you, they are committing an offence. This can include making angry gestures, breaking things, punching walls and much more.
Whether your partner is saying they will tell people details about your health or sexual orientation, repeated threats to reveal personal and private information is a form of abuse.
A relationship should be a partnership, with neither partner having control over the other. The Crown Prosecution Service says these include rules which humiliate, degrade or dehumanise the victim'.
Your partner taking control over any part of your life is highlighted in the new law, including restricting who you see and where you go. Controlling what you wear or how you look could also now be grounds for prosecution.
This can include putting you down in front of a child, using a child to spy on you, being abusive in front of a child, or threatening violence towards a child to control or frighten you.
Sometimes known as 'gaslighting', this form of abuse can involve lying, manipulating situations or people, or denying that things have happened to stop you from being able to trust yourself and your judgement of a situation.
