Without getting into the party politics of the issue - and of course making comments on the case itself as the trial is beginnig again, but why is marital coercion only available for wives, and not husbands. The law is "Marital Coercion pursuant to section 47 of the Criminal Justice Act 1925."
It was a law I had never heard but then it came out that only wives can use it. The background to the law is covered here.
There is an argument to be had about whether the law should exist at all, but the fact that it does and is only for wife's is staggering in a society that claims to be about equality. What is also staggering, but never surprising, is that no one in the media has actually made the connection that this law is sexist.
Considering the level of domestic abuse/partner abuse against men which shows that one in three victims are male and 600,00 men are victims each year must mean marital coercion is an issue for husbands as well as wives.
If the law is to remain on the statute book, then it has to apply to husbands as well. Silence from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission as ever, I think there needs to be a complaint made to them.
Posted by Skimmington
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