Middlesbrough magistrates' court is hearing a clump of domestic violence cases on a drizzly August afternoon. The room is prison-like, the only windows a strip high in the wall above the magistrates' bench and the royal coat of arms. The prosecuting solicitor begins each case with something like: 'It was 3 a.m. and the defendant had been on a night out.' A bag had been thrown at a girlfriend who was thought to be three weeks pregnant. A girl called her boyfriend a 'mong', he called her a 'fat slug' and then a glass of lemonade flew at the back of her head. A defendant is accused of hitting his pregnant girlfriend, and is forbidden to go near her until after the trial, but their baby is due on 9 September and the trial won't start until the 28th. In most cases the couples want to get back together; fines are collected out of benefits. The local paper is mostly interested in drugs busts but Middlesbrough has the highest rates of sexual crime and violence against the person in the North-East. It's almost as bad as Hackney, where I live.

LRB 21 October 2010 | PDF Download