When Domestic Abuse Stops Being Exceptional
EVERYDAY BUSINESS™
When Domestic Abuse Stops Being Exceptional
SAFECHAIN™ Intelligence Hub
By Samantha Avril-Andreassen
Founder, SAFECHAIN™
The Most Important Sentence in Family Justice
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner's 2025 report, Everyday Business, may prove to be one of the most significant safeguarding documents published in the United Kingdom in recent years.
Not because it revealed something entirely new.
But because it quantified what survivors, researchers, domestic abuse services, and safeguarding professionals have been saying for decades.
The report found evidence of domestic abuse in:
87% of reviewed case files;
73% of observed hearings.
The conclusion was stark:
Domestic abuse is not an unusual feature of family proceedings.
It is the "everyday business" of the family courts.
This single finding should force every institution connected to family justice to reconsider how it understands risk, vulnerability, participation, and safeguarding.
Because if domestic abuse is present in nearly nine out of ten cases, then the system is no longer dealing with exceptions.
It is dealing with the norm.
The Exceptional Case No Longer Exists
For decades, family justice has often been structured around an implicit assumption.
The assumption is that domestic abuse may be present in some cases.
The Commissioner's findings challenge that assumption entirely.
If abuse appears in 87% of files, the question is no longer:
"Is abuse present?"
The question becomes:
"How is abuse affecting participation, disclosure, decision-making, safeguarding, housing, finances, and outcomes?"
The burden of proof shifts.
Abuse is no longer the exception requiring special treatment.
Abuse becomes the context within which most decisions are made.
That changes everything.
The Governance Problem
The significance of the report extends far beyond family courts.
Because family courts do not operate in isolation.
Every case interacts with:
banks;
mortgage lenders;
housing authorities;
police;
healthcare providers;
social care;
schools;
employers;
insurers;
regulators.
If domestic abuse is the everyday business of the courts, then it is also the everyday business of the institutions that encounter the consequences of court proceedings.
A mortgage arrears case may be a domestic abuse case.
A homelessness case may be a domestic abuse case.
A debt case may be a domestic abuse case.
A safeguarding failure may be a domestic abuse case.
A mental health crisis may be a domestic abuse case.
The report forces institutions to confront a difficult reality:
The effects of abuse do not end when the relationship ends.
Coercive Control After Separation
One of the most important findings of the report concerns coercive and controlling behaviour.
The report highlights continuing concerns that coercive control remains misunderstood, minimised, or treated as less serious than physical violence.
This matters because coercive control rarely ends at separation.
In many cases it evolves.
Control becomes:
litigation;
procedural complexity;
financial pressure;
disclosure asymmetry;
housing instability;
repeated applications;
institutional exhaustion.
The abuse changes form.
The impact remains.
The system often records the visible event.
It struggles to identify the continuing pattern.
When Abuse Becomes Administrative
SAFECHAIN™ has consistently argued that safeguarding failures increasingly occur through systems rather than individuals.
The Commissioner's findings reinforce that concern.
Domestic abuse does not always continue through direct contact.
Sometimes it continues through process.
A missed disclosure.
A procedural imbalance.
A housing decision.
A financial enforcement action.
A safeguarding referral that never reaches the next institution.
A vulnerable person required to navigate multiple systems simultaneously.
No single decision appears catastrophic.
Collectively, they create continuing harm.
This is what SAFECHAIN™ describes as institutional fragmentation.
The Participation Question
Perhaps the most important question raised by the report is not whether domestic abuse exists.
The report has already answered that.
The question is whether survivors can participate effectively once abuse has occurred.
Can they:
understand proceedings?
instruct representatives?
obtain evidence?
challenge allegations?
navigate disclosure?
maintain housing?
preserve financial stability?
remain psychologically capable of engagement?
If not, then participation itself becomes impaired.
This is where safeguarding and procedural justice intersect.
A person who cannot participate effectively cannot truly access justice.
The Future of Safeguarding
The phrase "Everyday Business" should become a watershed moment for institutional reform.
If domestic abuse is present in the overwhelming majority of family court cases, safeguarding frameworks can no longer be built around assumptions of rarity.
Domestic abuse must become a foundational design principle.
Not an add-on.
Not a specialist pathway.
Not a secondary consideration.
A foundational principle.
This means:
trauma-informed justice;
participation integrity;
domestic abuse-informed housing policy;
financial safeguarding frameworks;
vulnerability-responsive banking;
institutional coordination;
accountability mechanisms capable of tracking continuing harm.
The challenge is no longer identifying whether abuse exists.
The challenge is building systems capable of responding when it does.
The SAFECHAIN™ Conclusion
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner's report does more than provide statistics.
It exposes a structural reality.
If domestic abuse is present in 87% of case files and 73% of hearings, then domestic abuse is not a side issue within family justice.
It is the operating environment.
The institutions that continue to treat it as exceptional will continue to produce exceptional failures.
The institutions that recognise it as everyday business may finally begin building systems capable of delivering everyday protection.
About SAFECHAIN™
SAFECHAIN™ is a safeguarding governance framework designed to strengthen participation, accountability, institutional coordination, and vulnerability-responsive decision-making across justice, housing, healthcare, financial services, and public administration.
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