Time to exercise caution? Project CARA and out-of-court responses to domestic abuse

Abstract

Domestic abuse (DA) is a high-volume area of police work and the utility of criminal justice intervention has been questioned, especially in relation to cases perceived as low risk. This paper initiates debate on conditional cautions being used by some police forces as an alternative to a criminal charge. We highlight limitations of existing evaluations of the Cautioning Adult Relationship Abuse (CARA) intervention and potential unintended consequences of wider roll-out that remain untested. We suggest continuing to grow the evidence-base for behaviour change while addressing issues around implementation, with a greater emphasis on controlling and coercive behaviour.