Testing the DAPO: Hidden Risks of Preventive Coercion and the Urgent Need for Public Debate
Description
Testing the DAPO:
Hidden Risks of Preventive Coercion and the Urgent Need for Public Debate
In England, a pilot programme is quietly testing unprecedented legal instruments — the DAPN and DAPO — under the DAA 2021. Presented as protective measures, they authorise coercion and surveillance on individuals who have neither been accused nor convicted of any crime. These measures include restrictions on liberty, eviction from the home, 24-hour monitoring, polygraph testing, and supervision, alongside reputational and social consequences. The instruments are planned to affect an estimated 2.3 million people annually, with parliamentary statements promising to “transform the lives of all Britons,” dividing time into a “before” and “after.” Despite this scale, public attention has remained remarkably muted.
Unlike traditional criminal law, which addresses tangible threats, these instruments operate on hypothetical risks, potentially penalising any action or inaction. The system’s safeguards have been eroded through rhetoric, emotional appeals, and procedural ambiguity, creating a legal environment in which due process is effectively suspended.
Drawing on empirical experience and quasi-experimental engagement with the system, this article analyses the evolution of preventive coercion from the Family Law Act 1996 and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 to the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
It highlights the incompatibility of such coercive measures with courts, police, and prosecution services, and stresses the need for international legal scrutiny to prevent normalisation of a law in which fear replaces guilt and people’ fundamental rights are systematically undermined.
Notes
Unique Legal Phenomenon: Preventive Coercion in British Law
This article continues to examine the preventive coercion domain, a unique and autonomous feature of modern British law. Preventive coercion is preventive because measures are imposed without an alleged offence or evidence of harm, justified as preventing potential risk; it is coercive because these measures produce real consequences — restrictions, stigmatisation, behavioural control, and potential criminal liability — outside the framework of a judicial trial.
This unique and unprecedented form of legal intervention in the context of world legal history operates through the issuance and enforcement of so called preventive restraining orders, which function independently from both criminal and civil procedures.
This work continues the author’s previous research on the evolution of preventive coercion and the transformation of British law enforcement, first explored in her monographs: The Great British Experiment (2024) and Restraining the Nation (2025).
Files
Files
(35.9 kB)
| Name | Size | Download all |
|---|---|---|
|
md5:af0de74e4fa48d6dfa797ae29780a8ea
|
35.9 kB | Download |