Integrated Domestic Abuse Courts (IDACs) and similar court models: literature review
Summary of evidence on Integrated Domestic Abuse Courts (IDACs) and similar models in the UK and internationally.
Footnotes
3 Letter from the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, 18 June 2025
4 Grey literature is literature produced outside of usual academic publishing routes, by a wide variety of stakeholders including academics, government, practitioners, business, and industry. It can be produced in print and electronic formats, usually not controlled by commercial publishers.
5 Systematic Reviews bring together, synthesize, critique and evaluate all existing research on a topic to provide an overall impression of the extent, nature, and quality of evidence in relation to a particular question.
6 Snowballing in this context, also known as citation chaining, is the process of searching the references and/or the citations of articles from the initial search to identify other relevant material.
7 Summary-level cases are typically court proceedings for less serious criminal offences. The charges for these appear on a ‘complaint’. These cases call before a justice of the peace or a sheriff sitting without a jury, see: Jargon buster | Scottish Sentencing Council
8 This definition is based on that of the Ontario IDVC and New York IDVC, reviewed for the previous research and were deemed to be most relevant to the Scottish context, see Practice Direction regarding the Integrated Domestic Violence Court at 311 Jarvis Street, Toronto - Ontario Court of Justice and Integrated Domestic Violence (IDV) Courts | NYCOURTS.GOV
9 Details of the draft paper and wider improvement work are set out in the following letter to the Criminal Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament: Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs on the criminal/civil justice interface relating to domestic abuse
10 PRACTICE DIRECTION 12J – CHILD ARRANGEMENTS & CONTACT ORDERS: DOMESTIC ABUSE AND HARM – Justice UK
11 Boznia & Herzegovina; England & Wales; France; Italy and Spain.
12 A Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (Marac) is a local meeting where representatives from statutory and non-statutory agencies meet to discuss individuals at high risk of serious harm or murder because of domestic abuse. The meeting provides a safe environment for agencies to share relevant and proportionate information about current risks, after which the Chair will summarise and ask agencies to volunteer actions to reduce risk and increase safety through the development of a tailor-made action plan. SafeLives-Marac-Overview-June-2024.pdf
13 Government action to protect children from abusive parents - GOV.UK
14 In Scotland, it is recognised that family mediation may not be appropriate when there has been domestic abuse, sexual violence or gender based violence: Scottish Women's Aid -Evidence-on-ADR.pdf.
15 A call over is a very short procedural event in the court’s case management system where the court will review the status of the case to ensure the matter is progressing efficiently towards a solution.
17 A Guide to Child Welfare Reporters in Scotland | Weightmans
18 Section 8 of the Children Act 1989 provides the legal framework for family courts to issue orders concerning children. This includes the Child Arrangements Order which determines with whom a child will live and spend time.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
Contact
Email: Justice_Analysts@gov.scot