Under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, the definition of domestic abuse was revised to:

(2)Behaviour of a person (“A”) towards another person (“B”) is “domestic abuse” if—

(a)A and B are each aged 16 or over and are personally connected to each other, and

(b)the behaviour is abusive

This means that abusive relationships between persons under 16 years of age are not legally considered to be domestic abuse. As a result, support for both survivors and perpetrators of teenage relationship violence are restricted in accessing necessary support. 

Currently, support services for survivors of teenage relationship abuse are few and far between, with Young People's Violence Advisors (YPVAs) being difficult to access, or agencies not having the funding or resources and training to provide this support. Additionally, at present, Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) only accept referrals for over 16s, meaning that younger survivors are unable to be risk assessed and supported by a board of domestic abuse professionals in order to fully safeguard the individual. 

Additionally, most services do not currently have any support services for perpetrators of this type of violence, and are unable to run youth perpetrator education and prevention programmes. 

The new Labour government have made a commitment to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) within a decade. Implementing support for both survivors and perpetrators of teenage domestic abuse will help to tackle the VAWG issues from the earliest stages and help to fulfill this commitment. 

But, in order for this all to be achieved, the UK legal system must first acknowledge teenage relationship violence as domestic abuse by law.