What its position is regarding whether smear campaigns and reputational abuse are adequately recognised under existing domestic abuse legis…

The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 provides for an offence of abuse of a partner or ex-partner which criminalises psychological, as well as physical, abuse. The Act defines abuse as behaviour which a reasonable person would consider likely to cause the victim to suffer physical or psychological harm where the accused either intends to cause such harm or else is reckless as to whether their behaviour would be likely to result in such harm.The Act provides an illustrative definition of abusive behaviour which includes behaviour which is abusive and which has as its purpose, or which a reasonable person would think would be likely to have the effect of:isolating the victim from friends, relatives or other sources of support;frightening, humiliating, degrading or punishment the victim.As such, depending on the facts and circumstances of the case, the offence can be used to prosecute someone who engages in smear campaigns or reputational abuse of their partner or ex-partner. In other cases, it may be possible to prosecute such behaviour using offences such as threatening or abusive behaviour with a domestic abuse aggravation where the offence is committed by the victim's partner or ex-partner.Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) are operationally independent of the Scottish Ministers and are responsible for any guidance in place for police and prosecutors.Victim support organisations have long-standing experience in dealing with victims who have suffered different forms of coercive and controlling behaviour and can tailor their approaches in offering support depending on the specific circumstances of any given case.