1. What the Law Actually Defines as Domestic Abuse
Section 1 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 gives the UK its first statutory definition. Behaviour is domestic abuse where both people are aged 16 or over, they are “personally connected” to each other, and the behaviour is abusive. Section 1(3) lists what counts as abusive: physical or sexual abuse; violent or threatening behaviour; controlling or coercive behaviour; economic abuse; and psychological, emotional or other abuse. The Act adds, in terms, that “it does not matter whether the behaviour consists of a single incident or a course of conduct”.
Two features of the definition are routinely missed in copy. First, economic abusehas its own statutory meaning in section 1(4): behaviour that has a substantial adverse effect on a person’s ability to acquire, use or maintain money or other property, or to obtain goods or services. Second, section 1(5) provides that behaviour can be abusive “towards” a victim even where the conduct is directed at another person — the Act gives the example of the victim’s child. Both points matter for accuracy under Clause 1 of the Editors’ Code.
“Personally connected” is defined separately at section 2: people who are or have been married or civil partners; who have agreed to marry or entered a civil partnership agreement, whether or not it was terminated; who are or have been in an intimate personal relationship; who have, or have had, a parental relationship in relation to the same child; or who are relatives. Domestic abuse is therefore not confined to partners living together. This guide summarises the framework for context only; it is not legal advice, and reporters covering active proceedings should take independent legal guidance on restrictions.
2. Coercive Control Is an Offence, Not a Metaphor
Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 makes it an offence to repeatedly or continuously engage in behaviour towards a person you are personally connected to that is controlling or coercive, where it has a serious effect on them and you know or ought to know that it will. It carries up to five years’ imprisonment on indictment. The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 removed the previous requirement that the two people live together, which extended the offence to ex-partners and family members who have separated.
Controlling or coercive behaviour
A pattern of acts designed to make a person subordinate or dependent — isolating them from support, monitoring their movements, regulating everyday conduct. Report it as the pattern the evidence shows, not as a one-off row.
Economic abuse
Statutorily defined at s.1(4) Domestic Abuse Act 2021 as a substantial adverse effect on the ability to acquire, use or maintain money or property, or to obtain goods or services. It is not a soft synonym for “money trouble”.
Post-separation abuse
Abuse frequently continues, and risk frequently peaks, after a relationship ends. Framing a case as “over” because the parties have separated misstates both the risk and, often, the law.
3. The Anonymity Gap
There is no automatic reporting anonymity for a domestic abuse victim as such. This is the single most common misconception in this beat, and it cuts both ways: reporters assume a protection that does not exist, or assume they are free to name someone when a different statute has already bitten.
Where the allegation involves a sexual offence, section 1 of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992 applies automatically from the moment an allegation is made and lasts for the complainant’s lifetime. Section 1(3A) spells out the matters presumed likely to identify: name, address, the identity of any educational establishment attended, the identity of any place of work, and any still or moving picture. Many domestic abuse prosecutions include a sexual offence count, so check the charge sheet rather than the headline. See Sexual Offences Anonymity.
Otherwise the route is discretionary. Section 46 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 lets a party apply for a reporting direction for an adult witness aged 18 or over, other than the accused, where the quality of their evidence or their level of co-operation is likely to be diminished by fear or distress about being identified by the public. The court must weigh the interests of justice and the public interest in avoiding a substantial and unreasonable restriction on reporting. Directions are not automatic and are open to representations from the press: see Section 46 Adult Witness Anonymity.
Do not mistake special measuresfor anonymity. Section 62 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 amended the 1999 Act so that a witness is eligible for assistance where the offence is a sexual offence, an offence under sections 1 or 2 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, or any other offence where it is alleged the accused’s behaviour amounted to domestic abuse; section 63 does the equivalent for family proceedings. Screens and live links change how evidence is given. Neither section creates any restriction on what may be published.
4. Safety-Critical Detail and Jigsaw Identification
In most sensitive rounds, identification is a dignity question. Here it is frequently a physical safety question, because the person the coverage may lead to the victim is often actively looking for them. Practice 8.2 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code states that information disclosing the location of a person’s home or family should not be revealed without permission unless it is warranted; the same risk analysis should govern print and online copy, where a location can be rebuilt from fragments.
Assess the whole published package rather than each detail alone: a refuge town, a street, a school, an employer, a distinctive job, a car, a court list entry, a photograph with a recognisable background, or image metadata. Legal freedom to publish is not the same as safety. Where a detail carries risk and adds nothing the reader needs, cut it; where it is genuinely load-bearing, say why in the editorial note and take the decision at a senior level. Note too that the ability to withdraw a detail later is limited: syndication, aggregation and screenshots outlast a quiet amendment.
5. The Editors’ Code Clauses That Bite
IPSO enforces the Editors’ Code of Practice, the current version of which came into effect on 1 January 2025. No clause is headed “domestic abuse”, so the obligations arrive through several clauses at once.
Clause 1 — Accuracy
Covers headlines not supported by the text. “Crime of passion”, “snapped” and “domestic dispute” framings are accuracy failures where the evidence shows a sustained pattern of abuse.
Clause 2 — Privacy
Respect for private and family life, home, physical and mental health, and correspondence. Editors must justify intrusion, and the clause expressly covers photographing people where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Clause 3 — Harassment
No persistence in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing once asked to desist, and journalists must identify themselves and whom they represent if requested. IPSO can also circulate a privacy notice to the industry on a person’s behalf.
Clause 4 — Intrusion into grief or shock
Enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion and publication handled sensitively. There is no public interest exception to this clause.
Clause 9 — Reporting of crime
Relatives or friends of a person accused or convicted should not generally be identified without consent unless genuinely relevant. In domestic abuse cases those relatives are very often the victims and the children.
Clause 11 — Victims of sexual assault
The press must not identify, or publish material likely to identify, a victim of sexual assault unless there is adequate justification and it is legally free to do so. Also carries no public interest exception.
IMPRESS-regulated titles are bound by the IMPRESS Standards Code instead. Its Privacy clause requires publishers to take all reasonable steps not to exacerbate grief or distress through intrusive news gathering or reporting, and to give reasonable consideration to a request from someone already identified who asks to be anonymised. Its Justice clause requires publishers to preserve the anonymity of victims of sexual offences except as permitted by law or with express consent. See the Editors’ Code guide.
6. Broadcasters: Ofcom Section 8
Section 8 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code contains a single Rule — 8.1, that any infringement of privacy in a programme, or in obtaining material for one, must be warranted — followed by “practices to be followed” numbered 8.2 to 8.22. Where consent is referred to in Section 8, it means informed consent. Failure to follow a practice breaches the Code only where it results in an unwarranted infringement of privacy, but Ofcom will look at whether the practices were followed.
- ›8.2 — information disclosing the location of a person’s home or family should not be revealed without permission unless warranted
- ›8.3 — people caught up in news events retain a right to privacy, including in later programmes revisiting those events
- ›8.16 — no footage or audio of those suffering a personal tragedy, even in a public place, where it infringes privacy, unless warranted or consented to
- ›8.17 — people in a state of distress should not be put under pressure to take part or give interviews, unless warranted
- ›8.18 — take care not to reveal the identity of a person who has died, or a victim of a violent crime, until next of kin have been informed
- ›8.19 — reduce distress when examining past events involving trauma, and so far as reasonably practicable inform surviving victims and immediate families of programme plans
- ›8.21 and 8.22 — consent requirements for under-sixteens and “vulnerable people”, a category the Code says may include people who have been traumatised
Section 7 (Fairness) applies alongside Section 8 wherever a person is directly affected by the programme. See the Ofcom Broadcasting Code guide.
7. Language, Framing and Fatal Cases
IPSO’s External Resources page directs journalists to Level Up’s UK media guidelines for reporting domestic abuse deaths, which are endorsed by both IPSO and IMPRESS and were reissued in a second edition in 2024. They set out an AIDA framework: Accountability, naming the perpetrator’s choices as choices rather than a loss of control; Images, avoiding photographs that sexualise the victim or centre the perpetrator, including the “happy couple” picture; Dignity, focusing on who the victim was and not only how she died; and Accuracy, reflecting the pattern of coercive control rather than treating a killing as an isolated incident.
Where a death has occurred, a domestic homicide review under section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 may follow. The section defines it as a review of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by a relative, someone they were or had been in an intimate personal relationship with, or a member of the same household, held with a view to identifying the lessons to be learnt. Reviews are being renamed “domestic abuse related death reviews” by section 19 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, but as at August 2026 legislation.gov.uk records those amendments as not yet applied, so section 9 still reads “domestic homicide review”. Use the term the document itself uses and check which is in force before writing that the law has changed.
8. Approaching and Interviewing a Survivor
IPSO’s public information on domestic abuse tells survivors plainly that it is their decision whether to speak, that journalists must identify themselves and their publication if asked, and that the Code requires a journalist to stop contacting or photographing them once asked to desist. Treat that leaflet as the baseline the person you are approaching may already have read; where a case is in court, it also warns them that reporting may happen whether or not they take part.
Practically: agree a safe contact method and safe times before anything else, and assume a device may be monitored. Take consent as informed, specific and revocable up to publication, and revisit it rather than reading co-operation as agreement. Give the person control over pace and subject matter, and do not press for graphic detail the story does not need. Where a support organisation is involved and the person consents, work through them — Women’s Aid, Refuge, the ManKind Initiative, Savera UK and Zero Tolerance all operate media contacts and several publish their own media guidelines. For the underlying method, see Reporting on Trauma.
9. Signposting Support
Signpost support at the foot of any domestic abuse story, in the same way responsible suicide coverage does. Verify the number against the operator’s own site before it goes in the file — helpline numbers and opening hours change, and a dead number in an archived story is worse than none. The two below were checked live on the operators’ own websites on 16 August 2026.
National Domestic Abuse Helpline — 0808 2000 247
Run by Refuge and described on nationaldahelpline.org.uk as freephone and open 24 hours. The site also carries tech-safety advice and a quick-exit control, which is worth noting when you link to it.
Men’s Advice Line — 0808 8010327
Run and managed by Respect (registered charity 1141636) for male victims of domestic abuse and those supporting them, including trans and non-binary callers. Freephone, published on mensadviceline.org.uk as Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm.
Where a story concerns Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, or a specific community, add the relevant national or specialist service rather than relying on an England-and-Wales default. In an emergency, the advice is to call 999.
10. Red Flags
- ⚠Publishing a refuge location, new address, school, employer or routine that could let a perpetrator find someone
- ⚠Assuming a domestic abuse victim has automatic anonymity, or assuming they have none without checking for a sexual offence count
- ⚠Treating special measures in court as though they were a reporting restriction
- ⚠“Crime of passion”, “snapped”, “tragic love triangle” and “domestic dispute” framings that erase a pattern of abuse
- ⚠Naming a defendant’s relatives without consent where they are in fact the victims (Clause 9)
- ⚠Running a “happy couple” photograph that centres the perpetrator, or an image that sexualises the victim
- ⚠Publishing a story with no support signposting, or with a helpline number nobody verified
- ⚠Contacting a survivor on a device or account an abuser may be able to see
11. Pre-Publication Checklist
Ethics & Safety Tools
Work through the trauma-informed method before approaching a survivor, and use the Ethics Flowchart to test whether an identifying detail is safe and justified.
13. Common Mistakes
- ›Assuming an anonymity that does not exist: No statute anonymises domestic abuse victims as a class. Anonymity comes from a sexual offence count under the 1992 Act, an under-18 restriction, or a discretionary s.46 reporting direction — check which, if any, applies.
- ›Reading special measures as a reporting restriction: Sections 62 and 63 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 govern how evidence is given, not what may be published. Screens and live links do not stop you naming a witness, and their absence does not mean no restriction exists.
- ›Publishing a location no reader needed: A refuge town, a street, a school or an employer can be the detail that ends a person’s safety plan. Ofcom practice 8.2 is explicit about home and family location, and the same logic should govern print and online.
- ›Describing a single incident where there was a pattern: Coercive control under s.76 Serious Crime Act 2015 is by definition repeated or continuous conduct, and s.1 Domestic Abuse Act 2021 covers both a single incident and a course of conduct. Say which the evidence shows.
- ›Treating the man as the only possible perpetrator: The statutory definition is neutral as to sex and covers relatives and former partners. Male victims and abuse in same-sex relationships are under-reported; the ManKind Initiative and the Men’s Advice Line are on IPSO’s own external resources list.
Related Guides
Primary Sources
- Domestic Abuse Act 2021, s.1 — definition of domestic abuse
- Serious Crime Act 2015, s.76 — controlling or coercive behaviour
- Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992, s.1 — automatic lifetime anonymity
- Editors’ Code of Practice — in force from 1 January 2025
- Ofcom Broadcasting Code, Section 8 — Privacy (rules 8.1 to 8.22)