What the New CPS Guidance on Honour-Based Abuse Means

By Aneeta Prem | Freedom Charity | 8 March 2026

The Crown Prosecution Service has widened its guidance on so-called honour-based abuse. That change does not create a new criminal offence. Instead, it tells prosecutors to recognise a broader pattern of coercion, family pressure and harmful practices around offences such as forced marriage, dowry abuse, immigration-related exploitation, transnational marriage abandonment and spiritual or ritual abuse, so they can use existing criminal law more effectively.

That matters because professionals often misunderstand these cases at the start. Too often, people label the abuse a family matter, a private dispute or a cultural issue instead of identifying coercion, violence or serious safeguarding harm. Once professionals miss that wider pattern, investigators ask the wrong questions, overlook key evidence and fail to show the full scale of the abuse in court.

What is so-called honour-based abuse?

The CPS describes so-called honour-based abuse as an incident or crime involving violence, threats, intimidation, coercion or abuse carried out, or possibly carried out, to protect or defend the perceived honour of an individual, family or community. Its guidance also makes clear that these cases often involve family members, extended family or community networks. Prosecutors must therefore look at the full context and ask whether the conduct forms part of a wider pattern of abuse.

Freedom Charity uses the term dishonour abuse because there is no honour in coercion, intimidation, abandonment or violence. The official phrase still matters for legal accuracy and search clarity. Even so, honest language matters too. We should name the conduct for what it is.

What changed in February 2026

On 26 February 2026, the CPS published stronger guidance for prosecutors on so-called honour-based abuse, forced marriage and harmful practices. The revised guidance now explicitly includes dowry abuse, immigration-related exploitation, transnational marriage abandonment, spiritual or ritualistic abuse linked to beliefs in witchcraft, spirit possession or demonic influence, and also virginity testing and hymenoplasty. The CPS said it made those changes to help prosecutors identify emerging patterns of abuse, understand the wider context and build stronger cases.

The Government also announced on 25 February 2026 that it would introduce a statutory definition of so-called honour-based abuse and statutory guidance through amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill. Ministers said that the approach would help frontline professionals identify victims and pursue perpetrators more effectively. During the House of Lords debate on 4 March 2026, ministers made clear that the proposal would support multi-agency guidance but would not create a specific criminal offence.

These developments are separate, but they move in the same direction. The CPS has changed prosecution guidance. At the same time, the Government has proposed a statutory definition and guidance through legislation. Together, they push public authorities towards earlier recognition, clearer safeguarding and a fuller understanding of abuse that is often collective, hidden and minimised.

No new offence has been created

This point needs to stay clear. The revised CPS guidance does not create a stand-alone offence called honour-based abuse. Prosecutors still rely on existing criminal offences and legal frameworks, depending on the facts. Those may include coercive or controlling behaviour, assault and other offences against the person, stalking or harassment, sexual offences, forced marriage offences and female genital mutilation offences.

So the shift lies in recognition, framing and case-building, not in the creation of a new crime.

What these abuses mean in practice

Forced marriage

A forced marriage happens when one or both people do not consent, or cannot consent, and someone uses pressure or abuse to make the marriage happen. That pressure may include violence, threats, emotional or psychological pressure, financial control, confinement or making someone believe that refusal will bring shame. The difference between an arranged marriage and a forced marriage is simple: consent.

Dowry abuse

The revised CPS guidance now explicitly recognises dowry abuse within this wider harmful-practices context. In real life, dowry abuse can involve demands for money, gifts, property or status before, during or after marriage, backed by intimidation, humiliation, financial pressure or violence. The legal issue is not the label alone. What matters is the conduct and the coercive pattern around it.

Immigration-related coercion

For the first time, the CPS expressly highlights immigration-related exploitation and abuse in this guidance. In practice, perpetrators may threaten deportation, withhold passports or other documents, restrict access to support, block applications, control finances or use insecure immigration status as a tool of silence and dependence. This is one of the most important changes because abusers can weaponise immigration dependency to trap someone.

Transnational marriage abandonment

The CPS now also identifies transnational marriage abandonment. It describes situations where a spouse deliberately takes someone abroad and leaves them there without resources in order to prevent a return to the UK. From a safeguarding perspective, this matters because it combines coercion, isolation, financial dependence, immigration vulnerability and physical distance from help.

Spiritual or ritual abuse

The revised guidance also expressly includes spiritual or ritualistic abuse linked to beliefs in witchcraft, spirit possession or demonic influence. This abuse can involve violence, humiliation, coercion, neglect or other serious harm carried out under the cover of belief. The issue in law is not belief itself. The issue is conduct. Belief does not excuse abuse.

Why Freedom Charity says dishonour abuse

The CPS and Government still use the established official phrase. Freedom Charity has long argued that this language is wrong.

There is no honour in forcing a marriage.
There is no honour in extorting money through intimidation.
There is no honour in trapping someone through their immigration status.
There is no honour in abandoning a spouse abroad.
There is no honour in violence carried out under the cover of shame, faith or family reputation.

The more honest term is dishonour abuse.

This is not a cosmetic argument. Language shapes recognition. It shapes safeguarding. It shapes whether professionals treat abuse with urgency or soften it with euphemism. The phrase honour-based abuse risks carrying the perpetrator’s excuse inside the description of the crime. Dishonour abuse strips that excuse away.

There is no honour in coercion, abandonment or violence. The more honest term is dishonour abuse.

Why guidance matters in law

Some people will ask what these changes are if no new offence has been created. The answer is straightforward.

Cases are often won or lost long before they reach trial.

If police fail to recognise the abuse pattern, they may never ask the right questions.
Without those questions, investigators may never gather the right evidence.
If the evidence remains incomplete, the prosecution may never show the true scale of the harm.

That is why guidance matters.

The CPS now tells prosecutors to look beyond the visible incident and understand the wider pattern of coercion around it, including family pressure, control through immigration status, abandonment across borders and ritualised abuse. When abuse hides inside family reputation, recognition often fails before the law even has a chance to act.

What this means for victims and safeguarding

For victims, this should mean earlier recognition and a more serious response to a wider range of abuse.

A woman whose husband or in-laws threaten her with deportation may now be seen more clearly as a victim of abuse, not as an immigration problem. Authorities may recognise a person abandoned abroad as a victim of transnational coercion, not as someone who was simply left behind. Professionals should also identify a child or adult subjected to violent ritual abuse more quickly as a victim of criminal harm, rather than forcing that person into a misleading story about culture, belief or discipline.

Safeguarding professionals now face the real test: implementation. Guidance on paper does not protect a child. A proposed statutory definition does not, by itself, stop a forced marriage. Police, prosecutors, teachers, social workers, health professionals and safeguarding leads must understand what these patterns look like in practice and act early enough to prevent escalation.

What still needs to happen

The revised CPS guidance is a step forward. The proposed statutory definition is also a step forward. But neither marks the finish line.

Public authorities still need better training, stronger recording, earlier safeguarding intervention, clearer recognition of collective family coercion and a stronger understanding of transnational abuse. The Lords’ debate itself reflected concern that honour-based abuse often involves several family or community members acting together. Professionals need to understand that reality in practice, not just acknowledge it in principle.

Freedom Charity’s position remains clear. The system may continue to use the established phrase. We do not have to repeat it uncritically.

There is no honour here.
Only abuse.
Only coercion.
Only dishonour.

Sources

Crown Prosecution Service, revised prosecution guidance on honour-based abuse, forced marriage and harmful practices, revised 26 February 2026.

Crown Prosecution Service press release, Spiritual and immigration abuse included in CPS ‘honour’-based abuse guidance for first time, 26 February 2026.

UK Government announcement on new laws to protect victims of so-called honour-based abuse, 25 February 2026.

Government supplementary memorandum on the Crime and Policing Bill, 23 February 2026.

House of Lords debate on the Crime and Policing Bill, 4 March 2026.

About the author

Aneeta Prem is the founder of Freedom Charity, a UK organisation working to prevent forced marriage, female genital mutilation and related forms of coercion. She has campaigned nationally on safeguarding and dishonour abuse and is the author of But It’s Not Fair and Cut Flowers.