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. 2024 Oct;30(12-13):3350-3371.
doi: 10.1177/10778012231176201. Epub 2023 May 25.

Insurance Discrimination, Companion Animal Harm, and Domestic Violence and Abuse - Double Jeopardy in the UK

Di Turgoose  1 , Ruth E McKie  1 , Paris Connelly  1
Affiliations

Insurance Discrimination, Companion Animal Harm, and Domestic Violence and Abuse - Double Jeopardy in the UK

Di Turgoose et al. Violence Against Women. 2024 Oct.

Abstract

Prompted by Signal et al.'s study, this research examines UK "Pet Insurance" policies to see if and how experiencing domestic violence and abuse (DVA) in interspecies households is excluded under insurance policies terms. Situating our findings within the existing literature on human and companion animal victims of DVA, we discuss the implications for improving cross-reporting and multi-agency action to protect and prevent harm to humans and companion animal victims of DVA. In turn we identify a series of recommendations to combat discrimination in insurance, set out in our conclusion.

Keywords: companion animals; domestic violence and abuse; insurance discrimination; interspecies households; pet insurance.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Coercive control, companion animal and insurance discrimination paradigm.
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