Scratching the Surface: Victim‑Blaming and Bias in Family Court Judgments, shares findings of an analysis of 91 published family law judgments in England and Wales to determine the prevalence and nature of victim-blaming language in these courts. It identifies concerning evidence of victim-blaming language and attitudes—often directed towards mothers.

Family courts in England and Wales play a critical role in safeguarding children and victim-survivors of domestic abuse. Yet longstanding concerns from survivors of abuse, reinforced by emerging research, has shown that these courts can be environments where gender bias, harmful stereotypes, rape myths, and victim-blaming cause retraumatisation and negative outcomes for children and victim-survivors. Private children law proceedings are mostly kept out of public view, meaning that the true scale of gender bias has been difficult to assess.

Despite recent reforms, transparency remains limited: only a small proportion of judgments are published, meaning we must rely on appeals to reveal concerning attitudes in first‑instance decisions, transcripts are inaccessible and family court users are legally prohibited from sharing information about their case. This report can only begin to “scratch the surface” of the bias and victimblaming reported by victim-survivors who have used the family courts. However, the findings should act as a catalyst for further research and policy focus on bias and victim-blaming in our family court system. 

Read the report here