tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/domestic-abuse-9717/articlesDomestic abuse – The Conversation2024-02-23T12:57:16Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2239242024-02-23T12:57:16Z2024-02-23T12:57:16ZLonger sentences for ‘rough sex’ killers may not deliver justice for victims<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577278/original/file-20240222-24-2sktb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=180%2C99%2C5682%2C3908&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-on-chair-handcuffs-rear-view-1338116366">CC7/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Valentine’s Day, the government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tougher-sentences-for-rough-sex-killers">announced it would</a> introduce tougher sentences for offenders who kill in the context of sexual violence. This comes three years after the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-abuse-bill-2020-factsheets/consent-to-serious-harm-for-sexual-gratification-not-a-defence#:%7E:text=Section%2072%20of%20the%20Act%20re%2Dstates%20the%20current%20law,purposes%20of%20obtaining%20sexual%20gratification.">Domestic Abuse Act</a> reaffirmed that consent to rough or violent sex cannot be a defence to murder. Despite this, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-abuse-bill-2020-factsheets/consent-to-serious-harm-for-sexual-gratification-not-a-defence#:%7E:text=Section%2072%20of%20the%20Act%20re%2Dstates%20the%20current%20law,purposes%20of%20obtaining%20sexual%20gratification.">“rough sex defence”</a> still leads to offenders receiving more <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/02/the-killing-of-sophie-moss-why-did-a-vulnerable-mothers-attacker-get-such-a-short-sentence">lenient convictions</a> and sentencing. </p>
<p>Official figures on how often the rough sex defence is used are difficult to obtain. But <a href="https://wecantconsenttothis.uk">the charity We Can’t Consent to This</a> tracked a ten-fold increase in rough sex claims between 1996 and 2016. They identified more than 60 cases of women being killed by men who attempted to rely on the defence over that period.</p>
<p>Typically, the defence argues that these killings were accidental during consensual rough sex, and that therefore the defendant cannot be guilty of murder. Instead, offenders are charged with or convicted of <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-03-17/HCWS643">manslaughter</a>, which attracts a much lower prison sentence of between three and five years. </p>
<p>Now, the government is proposing to introduce tougher sentences for rough sex manslaughter. Campaigners have <a href="https://policeprofessional.com/news/tougher-sentences-for-rough-sex-killers-welcomed-by-cwj">broadly welcomed</a> this, but will it be enough on its own?</p>
<p>In <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022018320936777">my research</a> with my colleague Jonathan Herring, I have reviewed how legal reforms on rough sex have so far failed to change the culture and prosecution around this crime. Given this history, I am sceptical that these latest reforms will lead to meaningful change. </p>
<h2>The trouble with sentencing</h2>
<p>The government’s proposed changes will reportedly lead to sentences of “between <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13080469/Rough-sex-killers-spend-longer-jail-new-measures-Justice-Secretary-Alex-Chalk-reveals.html">four and six years longer</a>” for rough sex death offenders. But such a blanket prediction is impossible given the bespoke nature of sentencing. </p>
<p>A recent review of domestic homicide killings commissioned by the government drew attention to difficulties encountered in sentencing rough sex <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6411ce52d3bf7f79df1aa9c4/domestic-homicide-sentencing-review.pdf">manslaughter cases</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/sentencing-and-the-council/how-sentencing-works/">Sentencing offenders</a> in any case is a delicate exercise that involves weighing up the culpability of the offender against harm to the victim, using sentencing guidelines that are specific to the offence. As part of this assessment, judges apply what are known as aggravating or mitigating factors to determine, overall, what sentence is most appropriate in an individual case. </p>
<p>Most sentencing guidelines for violent offences have aggravating factors. For example, if the crime was committed while on bail for a different offence, the offender had previous convictions or if a victim was particularly vulnerable. </p>
<p>Adding more aggravating factors will make the sentencing process more complex, but won’t necessarily result in a longer sentence in every situation – it is still a case-by-case basis. And, a sentence for manslaughter will still in most cases be significantly less than for murder.</p>
<h2>The bigger picture of violence against women</h2>
<p>More legislation is only one part of a much wider problem. This change is unlikely, on its own, to bring about the kind of cultural and social changes needed to address rough sex killings and violence against women. </p>
<p>As I have examined in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022018320936777">recent research</a>, there are other issues (more to do with procedure than the law) that arise in these cases. Also at play here are commonly held misbeliefs about rape, <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/more-do-tackle-rape-misconceptions-and-lack-understanding-consent-cps-survey-finds">misunderstanding of consent</a>, and the wide availability of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/61/5/1243/6208896">violent pornography</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-rape-myths-and-unconscious-biases-prejudice-the-judicial-system-against-women-and-rape-survivors-in-particular-214032">How rape myths and unconscious biases prejudice the judicial system against women -- and rape survivors in particular</a>
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<p>In these cases, defendants rely on gendered myths about women and sex to construct a narrative that the victim “liked” rough sex, often relying on their sexual history to <a href="https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/rough-sex-and-the-criminal-law/?k=9781801179294">support these claims</a>. The focus shifts to the victim (who is dead and <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/the-murder-of-grace-millane-heinous-rough-sex-defence-explored-five-years-on-from-british-backpackers-killing-in-new-zealand-12987580">cannot challenge them</a>) and their sexuality, while family and friends listen on.</p>
<p>This also means that media coverage of these cases often details the sexual behaviour and history of the victim, who is usually named. Publishers are subject to <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Reporting-Restrictions-in-the-Criminal-Courts-September-2022.pdf">more restrictions</a> when reporting on sexual offence cases and those involving children.</p>
<p>This is why my <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022018320936777">research suggests</a> that other measures – such as introducing restrictions on the use of sexual history in murder cases and limiting media reporting may be better placed to address these concerns.</p>
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<img alt="Black and white photo of a woman with her head in her hands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577282/original/file-20240222-24-gc0rt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577282/original/file-20240222-24-gc0rt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577282/original/file-20240222-24-gc0rt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577282/original/file-20240222-24-gc0rt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577282/original/file-20240222-24-gc0rt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577282/original/file-20240222-24-gc0rt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577282/original/file-20240222-24-gc0rt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The currently handling of ‘rough sex’ deaths in court can be traumatising for victims’ families.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dark-portrait-64532521">Spixel/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Media and culture present violence as a routine part of sex, something both <a href="https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/5415762/rough-sex-bbc-scotland-partner-men/">men and women</a> enjoy. The availability of violent porn, much of which involves strangulation, and the wider mainstreaming of violent (largely heterosexual) sex through literature, film and popular culture have <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/61/5/1243/6208896">contributed to this</a>.</p>
<p>A 2019 survey found <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50546184">nearly 40%</a> of women had experienced nonconsensual violence during sex, with nearly the same proportion of men admitting they use violence during sex without <a href="https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/5415762/rough-sex-bbc-scotland-partner-men/">obtaining consent</a>. The current discourse also fails to properly <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50546184">account for the way rough sex</a> can be used as part of abusive relationships.</p>
<p>The sentencing amendments will also do little to address these wider issues. The defence will still be able to claim the death occurred during consensual sexual activity and, in doing so, argue against a charge of murder. And details of the sexual history of the victim, where relevant, may still be used to support the defence case. Consequently, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022018320936777">the media will still</a> be able to report on these, to the detriment of victims’ families and future cases.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223924/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Bows receives funding from the ESRC, British Academy, Research England and Home Office. She is affiliated with the NHS (North East and North Cumbria ICB).</span></em></p>Restrictions on media coverage and the use of sexual history in court would be more effective changes.Hannah Bows, Associate Professor in Criminal Law, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2230402024-02-15T15:54:41Z2024-02-15T15:54:41ZAcid attacks are a form of violence against women – the law needs to treat them as such<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575633/original/file-20240214-28-42ov72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=58%2C0%2C2938%2C1999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/shadow-young-woman-shot-against-yellow-1529069204">Katty Elizarova/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the end of January, a 31-year-old woman and her daughters suffered <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/01/witnesses-horrific-attack-corrosive-substance-south-london-clapham">horrifying injuries</a> after being assaulted with an alkaline corrosive substance in London. Sadly, acid attacks like this are not isolated incidents. Over the last 15 years, they have been on the rise across the world, including in the UK.</p>
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<p>These attacks involve splashing sulphuric or nitric acid onto a victim’s face or body. Corrosive substances melt the skin tissue, often exposing or dissolving the bones underneath. They can lead to permanent disfigurement, scarring, a narrowing of the nostrils, eyelids and ears, and permanent damage to sight and hearing. </p>
<p>Those who target a victim’s face in particular aim to maim and disfigure, but not necessarily kill, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44159192">their target</a>. This can cause devastating social and psychological difficulties for the victims, including ongoing health problems, social isolation, a loss of social and economic status, poverty and destitution. </p>
<h2>Acid attacks as gendered violence</h2>
<p>Corrosive substance violence is horrific in any case. But what is often left out of the discussion is that it is a form of gendered violence that mainly targets women. While acid attacks are perpetrated against both men and women, the vast majority of victims – <a href="https://www.asti.org.uk/learn/gender-based-violence">80% globally</a> – are women, and the majority of perpetrators are male. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/research/centres/genderviolence/">researcher of gender-based violence</a>, particularly in minority ethnic communities, I have seen the devastating physical, psychological and social impact these crimes have on victims. As a specialist in criminal justice responses to violence against women and girls, I have provided expert evidence in UK courts on the cultural contexts at play in cases of gender-based violence, including acid attacks. The Crown Prosecution Service drew on my expertise in a 2012 <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/brother-in-honour-acid-attack-jailed-for-30-years-6467871.html#:%7E:text=A%20merciless%20thug%20who%20poured,at%20the%20Old%20Bailey%20today.">acid attack case</a>. </p>
<p>My research and experience suggests the motivations for launching acid attacks on women lie in patriarchal notions of shame, loss of “face”, and honour. They are often retribution for women’s rejection of men’s sexual advances, and are related to domestic violence, abuse and other <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/honour-killings-murder-banaz-mahmod-itv-police-violence-british-b554263.html">“honour”-based violence</a>.</p>
<p>Acid attacks remain common in India and the rest of South Asia, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/dec/21/acid-attack-ban-online-sales-india-delhi">despite bans</a> on the sale of acid over the counter. In the Indian sub-continent, where acid is widely available and relatively inexpensive, there remain traditional, patriarchal perceptions of women as subordinate to men. Attacks are increasing as women in India enjoy increasing access to education and economic independence. </p>
<p>Within a patriarchal society, women are often told that they embody their family’s respect and honour. Their behaviour, thoughts and actions must never bring <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003202332-35/honour-based-femicide-aisha-gill">shame on the family</a>. Divorced or separated women are particularly pressured to meet these expectations.</p>
<p>As a result, men often believe they have power and control over women’s beauty and sexuality. When women make their own marriage choices or exit violent relationships to protect their own and their children’s safety, men interpret these actions through a patriarchal lens and may respond with coercion or physical violence.</p>
<p>While details are still emerging about the Clapham case, it has been <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/03/abdul-ezedi-clapham-chemical-attack-suspect-relationship/">reported</a> that the suspect and victim had been in a relationship before the attack.</p>
<h2>How the law ignores violence against women</h2>
<p>In the UK, alleged perpetrators of acid attacks tend to be charged under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/17/contents/enacted">Offensive Weapons Act</a> (2019). If convicted, they may receive a sentence of life imprisonment. Someone carrying acid can also be charged with possession of an offensive weapon under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/1-2/14/contents">Prevention of Crime Act</a> (1953), which carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison. </p>
<p>If a victim dies as a result of an acid attack, individuals can also be charged with murder or manslaughter. Although few acid attacks result in death, the intention to disfigure the victim permanently can still lead to a murder charge. </p>
<p>The problem with the current approach is that it largely punishes people for obtaining the corrosive substance, while ignoring the impact on the victim – and the gendered aspect of the crime.</p>
<p>Acid attacks where police are able to identify a gendered motivation should be treated like a racial or religious hate crime, where sentences are increased if a hate crime is identified. This would encourage the issue to be taken more seriously, and recognise victims as being affected by domestic abuse or gender-based discrimination. A number of UK women have <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a46661385/acid-attack-london-clapham/">reported</a> not being taken seriously by police when they report threats of acid attacks.</p>
<p>Acid violence against women usually does not happen out of the blue. Survivors of acid attacks <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/acid-attacks-rise-katie-piper-b2431988.html">have called</a> for better understanding of the motives behind acid attacks and how they intersect with <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2021/17/contents/enacted">other serious crimes</a>. As women’s rights are eroded in favour of patriarchal narratives that <a href="https://kashmirobserver.net/2022/02/03/the-patriarchy-in-acid-attacks/">preserve male “honour”</a> around the world, gender-based acid attacks risk becoming legitimised. </p>
<p>The criminal justice system must do more to support those whose lives have been affected. This starts by acknowledging that these are not just horrific, random attacks – they are very often targeted violence against women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223040/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aisha K. Gill is affiliated with the End Violence Against Women Coalition</span></em></p>Corrosive substance violence is horrific in any case, but the role of gender is often forgotten.Aisha K. Gill, Professor of Criminology, Centre for Gender and Violence Research, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2209832024-01-17T13:07:08Z2024-01-17T13:07:08ZWhy police in England and Wales are failing to warn people about partners’ previous abuse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569035/original/file-20240112-29-vo063t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/birmingham-england-september-17-2019-main-1798441609">Michael715|Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since 2014, the police in England and Wales have had powers to warn someone when they know their partner poses a real risk of danger, under what is known as <a href="https://theconversation.com/domestic-abuse-bill-proposed-changes-to-protect-victims-explained-110258">Clare’s Law</a> (the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme). Police can also offer the information if they identify a person at risk. Disclosures can include any kind of information held in police records that indicates a risk of abuse. </p>
<p>In early January 2024, journalist Shanti Das reported that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/06/revealed-police-refusing-requests-for-background-checks-on-violent-partners#:%7E:text=Under%20Clare's%20law%20%E2%80%93%20named%20after,who%20may%20be%20in%20danger.">some forces</a> are refusing to release such information. Analysing government data for 43 forces, Das uncovered significant differences in response rates to Clare’s Law applications. Some forces disclose in response to 75% of requests, many to less than 30%, and at least one, to as little as 5%. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14773708221128249">research </a> shows that being given this kind of information can be invaluable to victims of domestic abuse, because of the way perpetrators use secrecy and lies to exert control. </p>
<h2>Why Clare’s Law disclosures can be life changing for victims</h2>
<p>Each time a serial perpetrator starts a new relationship, they spin a false narrative about their past, using secrecy and lies to exert control. This might involve <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/When_Love_Goes_Wrong/ztmgehKSrNYC?hl=en">explaining away</a> rumours or reports of past abuse as malicious allegations by a “crazy” ex-partner, or pretending previous convictions are for shoplifting, say, or self-defence. </p>
<p>As the relationship develops and the abuse begins, perpetrators use psychological manipulation to blame their partner for their own behaviour – telling them that they deserve the abuse or that they made it happen. “<a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Look_what_You_Made_Me_Do/FlQyswEACAAJ?hl=en">Look what you made me do</a>” is a phrase that exemplifies how perpetrators twist and distort the truth to expand their scope for control over their victim’s lives and minds. </p>
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<span class="caption">Police officers can help to identify serial predators.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/police-officer-on-duty-city-centre-651846142">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The value of Clare’s Law lies in its potential to counter these aspects of abuse.</p>
<p>Police often hold multiple reports of the same kind of abuse from different victims of the same perpetrator – sometimes over many years. Revealing these distinct patterns of abuse <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14773708221128249">can disprove and disrupt</a> the perpetrator’s narrative. </p>
<p>More importantly, it can expose them for what they are: not a misunderstood or troubled person doing their best, but a serial perpetrator with a distinct repertoire of cruelty that they repeatedly inflict on partner after partner. </p>
<h2>Responding to information requests is expensive</h2>
<p>The police receive a domestic-abuse-related call <a href="https://refuge.org.uk/what-is-domestic-abuse/the-facts/#:%7E:text=Fact%3A%20The%20police%20receive%20a,is%20reported%20to%20the%20police.">every 30 seconds</a>. Domestic abuse accounts for <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/national-police-chiefs-council-crown-prosecution-service-and-college-policing-commit">a third of violent crime</a>. </p>
<p>Despite police leaders <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/17/watchdog-finds-staggering-variation-in-police-use-of-clares-law">agreeing</a> that it is one of their top priorities, some forces make hardly any disclosures under Clare’s Law. Why? The first reason is, unsurprisingly, resources. At least three forces have told me that they have reduced or stopped promoting Clare’s Law simply because they cannot cope with the backlog. </p>
<p>Between 2021 and 2023, police in England and Wales received nearly 84,000 requests for disclosure. Essex police, a medium-sized force, currently has a dedicated team of 20 officers working to respond to these requests. </p>
<p>This significant pressure on forces is only intensified by the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6489ab97103ca6000c039ea0/Domestic_Violence_Disclosure_Scheme.pdf">Home Office requirement</a> that the disclosure be completed within 28 days of an application being made– down from 35 days in 2022. Failure to meet this target sees the force get marked down by the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. </p>
<p>But that requirement has been made without the government providing the police with any extra funds to meet it. This matters because responding to a request is resource intensive. </p>
<p>Some people have long and varied criminal histories. Police databases, however, don’t allow officers to search within that history for domestic abuse. So officers have to look at every single recorded incident to see if it is related to domestic abuse, or otherwise indicates a relevant risk. </p>
<p>The process is further complicated by jurisdiction. If relevant events in a person’s history occurred when they lived in another force area, the officer may need to call that force and ask them to do an additional search.</p>
<h2>Interpretation and data sharing difficulties</h2>
<p>Another related problem is that, though disclosures can be made to anyone deemed at risk, some forces <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10439463.2020.1795169">interpret</a> this very narrowly. They only disclose information to someone who is living with the person of interest, or currently in a relationship with that person. </p>
<p>This is despite it being a well-established fact that, in situations of domestic abuse, <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/women-leave/">the risks escalate</a> when a relationship is ending. Disclosing information at this point can reassure victims that they made the right decision to leave – and help them to stay away.</p>
<p>Also, police forces can be <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10439463.2020.1795169">wary of sharing data</a> – concerned about litigation from angry perpetrators. This has led some forces to decide that they will not disclose information about incidents that have not resulted in a conviction, even when that information indicates a serious risk.</p>
<p>However, very few domestic abuse crimes reported to the police <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/cps-publishes-latest-quarterly-statistics-which-show-continued-increase-people-charged#:%7E:text=Conviction%20rates%20have%20decreased%20by,hate%20crime%20(0.5%25)%20cases.">result in a conviction</a>. As a result, these forces will inevitably have very low disclosure rates. And that’s because they are refusing to disclose relevant information about people they know to be dangerous. </p>
<p>This puts victims at risk by reassuring them, falsely, that there is nothing to disclose. Yet, to my knowledge, not a single legal claim on grounds of privacy violation or otherwise has been brought successfully against police in the decade since Clare’s Law was introduced. Police need to stop worrying about data protection and litigation, and focus on protecting victims. </p>
<p>A third and more concerning reason relates to cultural resistance, among some officers, to the police leadership’s decision to treat domestic abuse as a serious crime and a policing priority. In 2023 <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/police-forces/metropolitan-police/areas/about-us/about-the-met/bcr/baroness-casey-review/">the Casey investigation</a> into the culture at the Met police found the country’s largest police force to be institutionally misogynist. It is unlikely to be the only one. </p>
<p>I am conducting a national <a href="http://tinyurl.com/ClaresLawSurvey">survey</a> of people who have accessed Clare’s Law. My initial findings show that some police forces say they will only make a disclosure if the applicant reports their partner as a criminal. Other applicants describe being made to “prove” they are still at risk. </p>
<p>Others still say police told them that if they have experienced abuse themselves, then they already know they are at risk and don’t need the information. Only rigorous recruitment into domestic abuse roles, proper training and strictly enforced lines of accountability can start to address this deeper problem.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220983/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katerina Hadjimatheou receives funding from the British Academy</span></em></p>Being given information about the violent past of a current partner can be life changing. Police forces need better resources to be able to process requests.Katerina Hadjimatheou, Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Ethics, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2181612024-01-16T16:15:39Z2024-01-16T16:15:39ZDomestic violence: criminalising coercive control in France could bring more justice to victims<p>Over the last decade in many European countries, legislators, magistrates, government ministers, law enforcement agencies, lawyers and service providers have recognised that prevailing approaches to domestic violence were failing and have adopted the new model of “coercive control” to reframe domestic violence as a crime against rights and resources rather than as an assault.</p>
<h2>Criminalising coercive control</h2>
<p>In 2021, the <a href="https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/fre#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-213869%22%5D%7D">European Court of Human Rights</a> instructed authorities to “promptly” revise the legal definition of domestic violence so that it covers “manifestations of controlling and coercive behaviour”.</p>
<p>Drawing on interviews with several hundred French professionals, victims, service providers and academics, the <a href="https://medias.vie-publique.fr/data_storage_s3/rapport/pdf/289498.pdf">Chandler-Vérien French parliamentary mission on domestic violence</a> tasked by Prime Minister Borne with improving the judicial treatment of domestic violence stressed the urgency of translating coercive control into law and called on coercive control to be at the core of future information campaigns and professional training.</p>
<p>The French Ministers for Equality between Women and Men <a href="https://twitter.com/BCouillard33/status/1705252762450079761">Bérangère Couillard</a> and <a href="https://www.librairie-des-femmes.fr/livre/9782234096677-la-fin-de-l-impunite-pour-une-revolution-judiciaire-et-juridique-en-matiere-de-violences-faites-aux-femmes-isabelle-rome/">Isabelle Rome</a>, an experienced magistrate, have stated their will to move forward with this approach to domestic violence. In a groundbreaking criminal hearing at the Poitiers Court of Appeal held in November 2023, First President <a href="https://www.librairiedalloz.fr/livre/9782369450900-elle-l-a-bien-cherche-la-justice-et-la-lutte-contre-les-violences-faites-aux-femmes-gwenola-joly-coz/">Gwenola Joly-Coz</a> and Attorney General <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ec-eric-corbaux-78a3a8a6_le-13-d%C3%A9cembre-jai-eu-le-plaisir-d%C3%AAtre-activity-7140963261486714882-apXl/?originalSubdomain=fr">Eric Corbaux</a> used the framework of coercive control in all the domestic violence cases. The court’s decisions are expected in January 2024.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Isabelle Lonvis-Rome, former Minister Delegate for Equality between Women and Men, wants the concept of ‘coercive control’, which covers predatory behaviour deployed by a man to subjugate his spouse, to be better taken into account by the justice system (Public Sénat).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We believe that enacting a coercive control offence in France would be a significant advance in the equality agenda. Criminalising such behaviour would help protect <a href="https://arretonslesviolences.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2020-11/Lettre%20n%C2%B016%20-%20Les%20violences%20au%20sein%20du%20couple%20et%20les%20violences%20sexuelles%20en%202019.pdf">213,000 women</a>, <a href="https://www.ihemi.fr/sites/default/files/publications/files/2019-12/flash_21_violences_au_sein_du_couple_.pdf">82% of whom are mothers</a>, and their <a href="https://www.haut-conseil-egalite.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/hce_-_tableau_de_bord_d_indicateurs_-_politique_de_lutte_contre_les_violences_conjugales.pdf">398,310 children, who are also victims of domestic violence</a>, and so prevent the deaths of hundreds of partners, ex-partners and children every year.</p>
<h2>Coercive control: a “liberty crime”</h2>
<p>Coercive control has been referred to as a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/coercive-control-9780195384048">“liberty crime”</a> because of the experience of entrapment it produces, analogous to being held hostage. The rights infringed upon include autonomy, dignity and self-determination, even more so when victims have a disability. Unless the perpetrators’ range of actions are framed as a single malevolent course of conduct and stopped, this pattern of abuse and exploitation may continue for years, undetected.</p>
<p>The French and international situation described by one of us in the 2023 book <a href="https://www.dunod.com/sciences-humaines-et-sociales/controle-coercitif-au-coeur-violence-conjugale"><em>Coercive Control: At the Heart of Domestic Violence</em></a> (<em>Le Contrôle coercitif au cœur de la violence conjugale</em>) reflects three bodies of evidence : </p>
<ul>
<li><p>current domestic-violence laws have failed to hold perpetrators accountable and to protect victims, mainly women and children; </p></li>
<li><p>the lack of social control and legal sanctions encourages aggravation and recidivism, creating a revolving door in French courts and prisons; </p></li>
<li><p>victims confront situations that more closely resemble captivity than an assault.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>A system of impunity</h2>
<p>The French state’s High Council for Equality has found that the conviction rate for perpetrators of domestic violence amounted to a <a href="https://www.haut-conseil-egalite.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/hce_-_indicateurs_violences_conjugales_-_2019-2.pdf">“true system of impunity”</a>. The gap between the current criminalisation of domestic violence and its reality as <a href="https://www.ciivise.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Avis-meres-en-lutte.pdf">experienced by victims</a> can <a href="https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/181119/justice-la-perte-de-confiance">erode trust in the justice system</a>.</p>
<p>The conviction rate of perpetrators and the number of domestic homicides in France reflect the perpetrators’ lack of accountability. In 2022, <a href="https://mobile.interieur.gouv.fr/Publications/Securite-interieure/Etude-nationale-sur-les-morts-violentes-au-sein-du-couple-pour-l-annee-2022">118 women, 29 men and 12 children were killed</a>. In 2021, <a href="https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/actualites/actualites-du-ministere/etude-nationale-sur-morts-violentes-au-sein-du-couple-2021">121 feminicides</a> were officially recorded, a situation that is even more alarming if we add the <a href="https://arretonslesviolences.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2022-11/Lettre%20n%C2%B018%20-%20Les%20violences%20au%20sein%20du%20couple%20et%20les%20violences%20sexuelles%20en%202021.pdf">684 women who attempted suicide or committed suicide</a> as a result of “domestic harassment”. This failure, which takes place despite the <a href="https://www.ccomptes.fr/fr/publications/la-politique-degalite-entre-les-femmes-et-les-hommes-menee-par-letat">efforts made</a>, highlights the link between the ineffectiveness of the current understanding and criminalisation of domestic violence and its focus on acts that are poor markers of its most dangerous forms.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andreea-Gruev-Vintila/publication/360756577_Violences_au_sein_du_couple_pour_une_consecration_penale_du_controle_coercitif/links/6289e95c6e41e5002d3a6107/Violences-au-sein-du-couple-pour-une-consecration-penale-du-controle-coercitif.pdf">situation in France</a> is not unique. In 2016, when the Home Secretary discovered that England was spending more on policing domestic violence than on National Defense, but that neither domestic homicides nor reports of partner violence to police had declined, she called for an <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-create-new-domestic-abuse-offence">entirely new approach</a> and adopted “coercive control” to replace all 14 definitions of domestic violence in use by health and social services in Britain. Similarly, in 2018 the Scottish parliament unanimously adopted <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2018/5/contents/enacted">Domestic Abuse Act</a>, a crime built around elements of coercive control that carried a maximum 14-year prison sentence, the same as murder.</p>
<h2>Surveillance, isolation, intimidation, control, personalised credible threats</h2>
<p>Since one of us published <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/coercive-control-9780195384048"><em>Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life</em></a> in 2007, in 2007, more than 1,000 monographs and countless survivor testimonials support the view that coercive control should be the primary focus of state intervention in abuse cases, not domestic violence, including the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators, protection, support and empowerment services for victims and protections for children.</p>
<p>The book presents evidence that 75% of the domestic violence incidents that currently lead to arrest are repeated assaults committed by a small proportion of offenders in the context of complimentary abusive behaviours, including sexual assaults, stalking, and other attempts to intimidate victims, and tactics to isolate and control them by taking their money, depriving them of resources and regulating their lives as well as those of their children.</p>
<p>In most cases, violence and/or sexual abuse is accompanied by intimidation, isolation, control tactics, and personalised credible threats. These begin in the house and can extend to every activity, including work, and involve children, other family members and unrelated others, including professionals, as spies, informants or co-victims.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569518/original/file-20240116-27-nw69v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569518/original/file-20240116-27-nw69v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569518/original/file-20240116-27-nw69v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569518/original/file-20240116-27-nw69v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569518/original/file-20240116-27-nw69v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569518/original/file-20240116-27-nw69v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569518/original/file-20240116-27-nw69v7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The coercive control of women by men is the most important cause and context of violence against children and child homicide outside war zones.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">iStock</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because perpetrators aim to monopolise all the resources and privileges available in a relationship or family space, their adult partner is usually their primary target. But any person who is seen as obstructing this monopoly is likely to be targeted as a secondary victim, including children, grandparents, siblings, friends, neighbours, coworkers, as well as law and social services professionals. <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2018/5/contents/enacted">Scotland’s inclusion of “child abuse”</a> as one element of the crime of coercive control highlights how easy it is for police, courts and child protection professionals to miss the frequency with children of all ages are “weaponised”, enlisted as confederates or made into “adjoined victims” by perpetrators who want to use them to hurt or control their mothers.</p>
<p>The effects of these tactics on the adult victims and their <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1162908823000373">children</a> range from paralysing fear, psychological dependence, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/coercive-control-in-childrens-and-mothers-lives-9780190922214">child and mother sabotage</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376515993_'Swim_swim_and_die_at_the_beach'_family_court_and_perpetrator_induced_trauma_CPIT_experiences_of_mothers_in_Brazil">court and perpetrator-induced trauma</a>, and impoverishment to “the death from a thousand cuts”, suicidality and fatality.</p>
<h2>What about the children?</h2>
<p>Coercive control of women by men is the most important cause of <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-coercive-control-of-children-9780197587096">violence against children and child homicide outside war zones</a>. This often occurs after a separation, in the context of legal proceedings relating to the child’s custody and parental rights or during visiting rights. The aggressor can feel that the only way to punish his partner is to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/coercive-control-in-childrens-and-mothers-lives-9780190922214">sabotage her relationship with the children</a> or injure or kill them, as we tragically experienced in France this year with <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/hauts-de-seine-92/courbevoie-92400/infanticide-dans-les-hauts-de-seine-une-petite-fille-de-3-ans-succombe-a-ses-blessures-12-05-2023-UDIZS7ZYLBCS7JN2V5MVUN4JEE.php">the homicide of little Chloé, aged 5, by her father</a> whose mother had filed for divorce and against whom she had obtained a protection order.</p>
<p>The child is an <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/09646639221089252">adjoined victim</a> in these cases, where the risk can only be deciphered in terms of the coercive control over the mother. The importance of extending protection to children in a law on coercive control was highlighted by a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366393524_Contribution_au_Rapport_UNSRVAW_violence_a_l%27egard_des_femmes_et_des_enfants_dans_les_affaires_concernant_la_residence_des_enfants_les_droits_de_visite_l%27autorite_parentale_-_France">French contribution</a> to a <a href="https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile">UN report</a> on violence against women and girls, judges’ request to <a href="https://www.dalloz-actualite.fr/node/comment-mieux-lutter-contre-feminicides-libres-propos-sur-controle-coercitif">include coercive control in French family law</a>, and recent <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fran%C3%A7oise-fericelli-13b273147_violences-intrafamiliales-et-protection-des-activity-7097855544564047872-RIo3/">family law jurisprudence</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218161/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The concept of “coercive control” reframes domestic violence as an attack on human rights and resources rather than an assault.Evan Stark, Professeur émérite, sociologue, Rutgers UniversityAndreea Gruev-Vintila, Maîtresse de conférences HDR en psychologie sociale, Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris LumièresLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2208892024-01-11T17:16:15Z2024-01-11T17:16:15ZWhat Fargo season five gets right about toxic masculinity and domestic violence<p><em>Warning: includes spoilers for the first eight episodes of Fargo season five.</em></p>
<p>The latest series of Fargo includes a two-minute tracking shot that focuses on the menacing face of the sheriff, ranch owner, evangelical Christian and Donald Trump supporter Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm). He is filmed in tight close-up as he stomps through the snow to a small barn that houses his chained former wife, the show’s heroine Dot Lyon (Juno Temple).</p>
<p>The scene is accompanied by Lisa Hannigan’s slow and haunting cover of Britney Spear’s hit song Toxic, which was rearranged specifically for the series by composer Jeff Russo.</p>
<p>It makes for tense and difficult viewing. The audience have witnessed Tillman’s casual violence towards women throughout the series. He has just been humiliated in a political debate, and is clearly hellbent on redeeming his tarnished masculine self-image by doubling down on the recaptured young wife who had the temerity to escape his clutches. </p>
<p>As this brief plot outline suggests, domestic violence is at the heart of Fargo’s fifth season and each episode ends with a list of domestic abuse hotlines. </p>
<p>The priority given to this theme has, however, provoked some negative responses. Forbes critic <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2024/01/07/why-fargo-season-5-doesnt-feel-like-fargo-anymore/?sh=33f9718c24ca">Erik Kain argues</a>, for example, that by tackling a serious social issue, Fargo has undermined its trademark humour and become too earnest.
The series – set in America’s Midwest in 2019 – has generally been hailed as a triumphant “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2023/11/22/fargo-amazon-prime-video-season-5-review/">return to form</a>”, though, following the less well-received series three and four. Season four marked a departure from the show’s contemporary setting, taking place during the 1950s. </p>
<p>As a feminist academic who has been writing on representations of domestic abuse <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230801523_3">since the noughties</a>, it has been gratifying to see the substantial increase in fictional depictions of this theme in the 21st century. I believe the success of the new Fargo series lies in the creators’ bold decision to draw direct connections between the “private” crime of domestic violence and today’s public culture of masculinity that is linked to misogyny.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8ZdK87tfv6k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Fargo season five.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Domestic violence on screen</h2>
<p>Despite the much higher awareness of domestic violence that emerged from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism/The-second-wave-of-feminism">second-wave feminist movement</a>, mainstream films that offered a sympathetic view of abused women were <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-65064-7">rare in the late 20th century</a>. </p>
<p>Furthermore, they tended to rely on the casting of established female stars with a “girl next door” image to draw identification to the still-marginalised figure of the “battered wife”, such as Farrah Fawcett in The Burning Bed (1984) and Julia Roberts in Sleeping With the Enemy (1991).</p>
<p>This has shifted in the 21st century, with feminist issues once more, though in a different way, having a higher profile in mainstream culture due to global campaigns. This includes #MeToo, when women across the world reposted the hashtag indicating their status as survivors of sexual abuse. </p>
<p>Hollywood films such as Waitress (2007), The Girl on the Train (2016), The Invisible Man (2020) and TV dramas such as Angela Black (2021), Big Little Lies (2017) and Maid (2021) have featured extended domestic violence plot lines. Long-running soap operas such as Eastenders and even cosy radio soap The Archer, have also covered the topic. </p>
<p>However, as I argued in my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14680777.2022.2155861?needAccess=true">recent research</a>, many of these dramas present male violence towards women as a rare phenomenon, perpetuated by a few “bad apples” whose behaviour has little relation to mainstream masculine attitudes.</p>
<p>Sadly, all available evidence suggests that domestic abuse is far from abnormal. According to the World Health Organization, <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women">one in three women</a> globally have experienced it. It is somewhat less common in higher-income regions with greater levels of gender equality (such as Europe and the US), but the percentage of women who have experienced domestic abuse in these areas is still 20%.</p>
<h2>A cultural problem</h2>
<p>Despite its darkly comedic tone, the new series of Fargo accurately presents the abuse of women as a cultural rather than individual problem by highlighting its presence in politics, religion and the law. </p>
<p>Its depiction of sheriff and wife-beater Tillman (promoted in his election campaign as “a hard man for hard times”) challenges traditional American fantasies of rugged but benign masculine power.</p>
<p>Tillman is shown watching a televised Trump rally, then slapping his wife immediately afterwards. He draws on the authority of the church when instructing other men on how to punish their wives. To accentuate the endemic nature of gendered abuse, the other key female character, policewoman Indira Olmstead (Richa Moorjani), is subjected to financial abuse by a lazy, cheating husband who criticises her wifely skills. </p>
<p>Given Fargo’s depressing but perceptive view of endemic patriarchal abuse, it is not surprising that the all-female place of safety and recovery where heroine Lyon seeks shelter before her recapture by Tillman is called “Camp Utopia” – and turns out to be a dream. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roberta Garrett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>I’ve been writing on representations of domestic abuse since the noughties. It has been gratifying to see the increase in fictional depictions of this theme in the 21st century.Roberta Garrett, Senior Lecturer in Literature and Cultural Studies, University of East LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2171792023-12-19T13:17:23Z2023-12-19T13:17:23ZWhy do some men commit domestic violence? Trauma and social isolation may play a role<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565296/original/file-20231212-23-6xbunh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2121%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Domestic violence is experienced unevenly across the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/argument-man-and-woman-having-an-argument-at-home-royalty-free-image/1321546697">kieferpix/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Support for survivors of domestic violence is important, but to end domestic violence once and for all, society needs to understand the people who perpetrate it and how to successfully intervene.</p>
<p>Domestic violence is very common in the United States. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs/NISVSReportonIPV_2022.pdf">Nearly half of women and men in the U.S.</a> experience sexual or physical violence, stalking or psychological harm or coercion in a romantic relationship during their lifetime. </p>
<p>Domestic violence is also experienced unevenly across the U.S population. Young people are most vulnerable, with <a href="https://cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs/NISVSReportonIPV_2022.pdf">nearly three-fourths</a> of female victims reporting that their first experience of domestic violence occurred before age 25. <a href="https://cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs/NISVSReportonIPV_2022.pdf">People of color</a> and <a href="https://cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs/nisvsReportonSexualIdentity.pdf">LGBTQ+</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305774">people</a> also experience considerably higher rates of domestic violence than the national average. And despite similar rates of domestic violence across men and women, women report <a href="https://cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs/NISVSReportonIPV_2022.pdf">more severe effects on their lives</a>, including higher rates of injury and need for medical care, needing help from law enforcement and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.</p>
<p>I am a social worker who has spent the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OtG3yWgAAAAJ&hl=en">past 10 years studying</a> how men come to use violence against their intimate partners, since the <a href="https://cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs/NISVSReportonIPV_2022.pdf">effects of their violence</a> is often the most severe. My research has found that consistent supportive relationships with attentive adults in childhood and adulthood, along with stress management that takes trauma into account, are two promising approaches to prevent domestic violence.</p>
<h2>The roots of domestic violence</h2>
<p>Understanding how someone comes to perpetrate violence is necessary to stop violence from happening in the first place.</p>
<p>Certain childhood experiences can put people at risk of committing domestic violence in the future. Researchers have found that child abuse, neglect and a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2015.06.001">negative parent-child relationship</a> are significant risk factors that may lead someone to later perpetrate domestic violence. </p>
<p>Experiencing trauma in early childhood can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2011-2663">alter the brain, how the body responds to stress</a> and whether someone sees the world as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838018791268">threatening, harmful and untrustworthy place</a>. For example, research has shown that people who have been exposed to trauma have increased activity in the amygdala of the brain, resulting in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynstr.2014.10.002">heightened fear and arousal</a> that can lead to aggressive responses in the face of conflict and stress. Trauma exposure is also linked to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.04.010">decrease in activity in the prefrontal cortex</a> – that’s the part of the brain responsible for impulse control, concentration and emotional reasoning. These are essential qualities to navigate interpersonal relationships. </p>
<p>Toxic stress – excessive or prolonged activation of the body’s stress response – happens when someone encounters constant threats to their physical or mental safety during sensitive developmental periods. Compared to their peers, youth facing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-054493">disproportionate levels of hardship</a> and threats of poverty, racism and other structural inequities are at greater risk for toxic stress. These bodily changes can set kids up for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000156">PTSD, depression</a>, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000237">alcohol or drug abuse</a> later in life, which are some of the most common risk factors of perpetrating domestic violence. One study found that nearly one-third of men in a domestic violence intervention program <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12533">reported clinical levels of PTSD</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565302/original/file-20231212-25-zhxfvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Couple arguing in hallway of home" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565302/original/file-20231212-25-zhxfvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565302/original/file-20231212-25-zhxfvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565302/original/file-20231212-25-zhxfvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565302/original/file-20231212-25-zhxfvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565302/original/file-20231212-25-zhxfvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565302/original/file-20231212-25-zhxfvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565302/original/file-20231212-25-zhxfvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are ways to navigate complex emotional challenges without resorting to violence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/stressed-couple-arguing-blaming-each-other-royalty-free-image/1454529507">bymuratdeniz/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Beliefs about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-022-00451-0">traditional gender roles</a> dictating how men and women should act is another significant contributing factor to domestic violence. Unresolved trauma mixed with rigid gender views can limit the coping skills and tools people have to navigate complex emotional challenges in romantic relationships. For example, homes that promote rigid gender scripts, such as “boys don’t cry,” and limit opportunities to learn from activities that are considered “feminine,” like caring for baby dolls, can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.12.022">stunt the emotional expression</a> of boys and make them less skilled in recognizing emotions in others and themselves. Anger typically becomes the most accessible emotion.</p>
<p>Certainly not all people who have faced childhood adversity and trauma are destined to perpetrate violence. Studies show that a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838017692383">secure parent-child attachment</a> and the presence of safe, nurturing relationships and environments during childhood protect against future violence. Positive childhood experiences, such as feeling understood in difficult times and having at least two nonparental adults taking interest in your life, can help. One study of over 6,000 adults in Wisconsin found that those reporting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.3007">three to five positive childhood experiences</a> were 50% less likely to have depressive symptoms or poor mental health days compared to those who had fewer or no positive childhood experiences.</p>
<p>Without these protective factors, however, many children are at risk of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-005-0624-4">carrying their trauma</a> into their adolescent and adult romantic relationships.</p>
<h2>Prevention and intervention</h2>
<p>Supporting the health and well-being of society calls for research-based efforts to prevent and address domestic violence. Responsive relationships, or relationships where the other person is attentive, attuned and supportive, are a key way to improve the well-being of children and adults, including the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235177">mental health of survivors</a> of abuse. </p>
<p>Researchers are paying more attention to the dangers of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/aging/publications/features/lonely-older-adults.html">social isolation among adults</a>. This has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/curing-americas-loneliness-epidemic-would-make-us-healthier-fitter-and-less-likely-to-abuse-drugs-206059">exacerbated by cultural shifts</a> stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work and social media. Social isolation and unhealthy social networks can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2019.07.005">dangerous for victims of violence</a> and damaging for someone prone to committing violence because they can <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18083890">worsen mental health conditions</a> like PTSD. <a href="https://teamchangingminds.org/">Community-based programs</a> that build supportive social networks have the potential to improve mental health risk factors for perpetrating violence.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565305/original/file-20231212-21-mlnsfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of person holding their hand on another person's shoulder in a supportive gesture" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565305/original/file-20231212-21-mlnsfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565305/original/file-20231212-21-mlnsfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565305/original/file-20231212-21-mlnsfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565305/original/file-20231212-21-mlnsfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565305/original/file-20231212-21-mlnsfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565305/original/file-20231212-21-mlnsfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565305/original/file-20231212-21-mlnsfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Supportive social networks are essential for mental health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/hand-of-young-supportive-man-consoling-his-friend-royalty-free-image/1430601013">shironosov/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Most <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838018791268">domestic violence intervention programs for men</a> have not incorporated the understanding that trauma registers in the body as much as it does in someone’s way of thinking. These programs mostly focus on unlearning abusive tendencies and relearning healthy ways of engagement. This kind of approach includes using workbooks and thought exercises to identify abusive behaviors and thoughts about subjugating women, understand why they’re harmful, and learn healthy ways to resolve conflict. </p>
<p>However, focusing on cognitive thought processes as the primary mechanism for change by itself is insufficient for lasting change. In order to meaningfully alter the effects of trauma, interventions must also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105033">engage autonomic brain processes</a>. </p>
<p>Interventions that focus on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838018791268">regulating stress and emotions</a>, such as deep breathing and mindfulness, can help address physiological symptoms of trauma and reset the body’s stress response. Resetting the body’s stress response can then help people engage in the higher-level learning necessary to adopt nonviolent thinking and behaviors and discard abusive tendencies.</p>
<p>Alleviating symptoms of PTSD and trauma in people who have perpetrated domestic violence may help them identify key triggers and develop the coping skills to respond to stress in healthier ways instead of violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217179/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Voith receives funding from the National Institutes of Health; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families; and Victims of Crime Acts (VOCA), Office for Victims of Crime. </span></em></p>Childhood adversity can put people at risk of perpetrating domestic violence in the future. Having a supportive social network and learning ways to regulate the stress response, however, can help.Laura Voith, Associate Professor of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2128222023-11-24T13:17:21Z2023-11-24T13:17:21ZIndia: how COVID enabled new forms of economic abuse of women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560842/original/file-20231121-4286-khw8vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C3882%2C2450&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">During lockdown many Indian women were isolated and suffered both domestic and economic abuse from the menin their families.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Radiokafka/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, the United Nations (UN) identified what it called a “<a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/in-focus-gender-equality-in-covid-19-response/violence-against-women-during-covid-19">shadow pandemic</a>” of domestic violence against women. The UN includes in its definition of domestic violence what it refers to as “<a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/work-with-us/hsd/home/hsd_dapp_what_is_abuse">economic violence</a>”, which it explains as: “making or attempting to make a person financially dependent by maintaining total control over financial resources, withholding access to money, and/or forbidding attendance at school or employment”. </p>
<p>I have been researching economic violence in India, where it surged during periods of social distancing and lockdowns. This not only resulted in the reduction of safe spaces for women and girls, but also trapped them in a space where they were more easily economically exploited. My <a href="https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/news-events/event/spent-fighting-economic-abuse-india">research suggests</a> that the COVID lockdowns spawned a whole new class of economic abuse of women in India. </p>
<p>Economic abuse tends to involve <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077801208315529">controlling and coercive behaviour</a> by a woman’s partner and sometimes their in-laws or other family members, threatening her economic security and potential for self-sufficiency. While economic abuse can take many forms, there are <a href="https://survivingeconomicabuse.org/what-is-economic-abuse/">three main types</a>: sabotage, restriction and exploitation.</p>
<p>Sabotage usually involves interfering in a woman’s access to money or in their work. Restriction is about controlling how women use money. And exploitation most often means a male partner or relative living off a woman, or insisting all debts go in her name.</p>
<p>My previous research has revealed <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-15493-001">unique forms of abuse</a> that are embedded in specific sociocultural practices in India. For example, exploitation of <em>streedhan</em> (jewellery and movable or immovable assets given to a woman before and during her marriage) and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370871643_Dowry_is_a_serious_economic_violence_Rethinking_Dowry_Law_in_India">dowry practices</a> (money and gifts demanded by the groom and in-laws at the time of and after marriage) have been identified as a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-15493-001">common form of economic abuse</a> in south Asian marriages. If a woman lives with her husband’s family they <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-15-0653-6_3">may control</a> her assets or income where multiple generations live together.</p>
<h2>Economic abuse of women</h2>
<p>As part of our research in a city in Bihar, India’s third-most populous state in the east of the country, we made a 20-minute documentary: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HvI1pUeuvI">Spent: Fighting Economic Abuse in India</a>, featuring five of the 76 women we spoke to. All but two were mothers with dependent children. We found that economic abuse was common irrespective of class, caste, religion, education or employment status. </p>
<p>One woman we feature, Nitya, wasn’t allowed to work by her family. Instead she was forced to perform domestic chores around the clock. This typically included being required to cook seven or eight courses at dinner. At the same time, her husband mocked her for not working. Nitya told us he’d say: “You don’t work, what’s the point of your education?”</p>
<p>Some abusive husbands also refused to pay any household costs relating to women and children – especially girls. Another of our interviewees, Nilu, told us how her husband had refused to pay the medical bills relating to their daughter’s birth and tried to force her back to work with a month-old baby. She was forced to stay at her mother’s home to seek help.</p>
<p>Zubaida’s husband got angry whenever she asked for money for necessities, while spending a large amount of money on his own clothes and shoes. </p>
<p>In addition, these women reported abuse that was embedded in cultural practices, such as demands for dowry. Nilu told us her husband pretended that he was not getting paid and made her father pay for everything in her house on a regular basis. Her father agreed to ensure that Nilu was not thrown out of her marital home. </p>
<h2>New abusive tactics</h2>
<p>Our interviews suggested that abusive men’s bad treatment of their spouses tended to worsen during the pandemic. And the special circumstances associated with COVID restrictions enabled new forms of economic abuse of women, given the special circumstances associated with lockdown.</p>
<p>The pandemic gave abusive men new ways of controlling and abusing their wives’ finances. In lockdown – and with the isolation that entailed – a family’s financial affairs became dependent on access to the internet, usually via shared mobile phones.</p>
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<p>One of the women we talked to, Lakshmi – a high-ranking corporate employee – said she was duty-bound to keep her clients’ details confidential. Lakshmi told us her husband took not only her social media and banking passwords but also managed to access her work WhatsApp account, used for communicating with teammates. He started impersonating her online and insulted her superior, which caused her serious problems. </p>
<p>Several other women told us about their male relatives using their logins to clear out their bank accounts. Women also reported loans being taken out in their names, but having no access to money themselves. </p>
<p>Lockdown made it easier to prevent women from accessing their support groups, including their families. Nitya told us of being beaten by her husband, who wouldn’t allow her to speak to her parents.</p>
<h2>Protection measures</h2>
<p>Indian law recognises economic abuse in its <a href="https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/15436/1/protection_of_women_from_domestic_violence_act%2C_2005.pdf">Domestic Violence Prevention Act 2005</a>. It includes deprivation of all economic and financial resources and restriction to shared household resources as well as exploitation of women’s own belongings, such as their jewellery and other valuable possessions. But official <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4350642">understanding of economic abuse</a> and its impact on women remains extremely low – both at government level and among professionals and service providers.</p>
<p>It’s a serious problem. Economic abuse has a huge impact on women’s <a href="https://fbj.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s43093-021-00074-9">physical and mental wellbeing</a> and has also been shown to have an impact on <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-05640-6_7">children’s health and wellbeing</a></p>
<p>To address economic abuse, there’s an urgent need to have open conversations about money in families and challenge ideas around masculinity and money. More importantly, policy makers and practitioners need to work together to address the role of the state, market and community institutions in facilitating economic abuse by reinforcing gender norms, including in financial transactions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212822/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Punita Chowbey receives funding from National Institute for Health and Care Research and Global Challenges research Fund. </span></em></p>The lockdown gave some men a chance to increase their control and coercion of women.Punita Chowbey, Senior research fellow, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2180482023-11-17T16:36:02Z2023-11-17T16:36:02ZSouth Africa’s police are losing the war on crime – here’s how they need to rethink their approach<p>South Africa’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzyqFKC2x1Q">crime statistics</a> for the third quarter of 2023 show that people continue to face a serious problem of violent crime, especially murder and attempted murder. The country’s <a href="https://issafrica.org/events/understanding-escalating-levels-of-murder-in-south-africa">per capita murder rate for 2022/23</a> was the highest in 20 years at 45 per 100,000 (a 50% increase compared to 2012/13).</p>
<p>In response to this crisis, the South African Police Service has reconfigured its <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/37753/">policing strategies and plans</a>. Yet, these approaches offer very little innovation. They mostly reaffirm the way the police have typically pursued policing for the past three decades – fighting a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2018.1503831">“war” on crime</a> and <a href="https://ewn.co.za/topic/operation-fiela">“sweeping away”</a> criminals. </p>
<p>In my view the police have adopted unsuitable crime fighting strategies. This is a “war” the police can’t win on their own, because violent crime is a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326462816_WHY_IS_CRIME_IN_SOUTH_AFRICA_SO_VIOLENT_Updated_Rapid_Evidence_Assessment_on_Violent_Crime_in_South_Africa">complex phenomenon</a>. It requires <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/EJC47702">whole-of-government</a> and <a href="https://www.csir.co.za/sites/default/files/Documents/Making%20South%20Africa%20Safe.pdf">whole-of-society</a> approaches. Government departments, civil society groups and the private sector should pool resources and <a href="https://gh.bmj.com/content/7/7/e009972">work together</a> in a co-ordinated manner. They must be guided by a common plan. Otherwise crime prevention efforts will be piecemeal, lacking effectiveness.</p>
<h2>Determinants and complexity of violent crime</h2>
<p>The scholarly literature on violent crime in South Africa, including <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326462816_WHY_IS_CRIME_IN_SOUTH_AFRICA_SO_VIOLENT_Updated_Rapid_Evidence_Assessment_on_Violent_Crime_in_South_Africa">my research</a>, indicates that interpersonal violence is typically the outcome of a combination of risk factors over time. </p>
<p>One of them is the idea that violence is a legitimate means to resolve conflict between people. </p>
<p>Another is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326462669_Towards_a_more_comprehensive_understanding_of_the_direct_and_indirect_determinants_of_violence_against_women_and_children_in_South_Africa_with_a_view_to_enhancing_violence_prevention">childhood experiences</a> of violence.</p>
<p>Socio-economic elements, such as poverty, unemployment and inadequate living conditions, underpin violence, mainly for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X17696171?journalCode=jmma">younger men</a>. Feelings of stress, frustration and humiliation, combined with substance abuse (chiefly alcohol), inequitable gender norms and the availability of weapons, especially <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/south-africa-spike-in-gun-crime-angers-citizens/a-64903654">firearms</a>, often results in violent behaviour.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-wont-become-less-violent-until-its-more-equal-103116">South Africa won't become less violent until it's more equal</a>
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<p>Given what studies say about the determinants of violence, I predicted during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that South Africa would soon face a <a href="https://www.saferspaces.org.za/blog/entry/the-coming-crime-catastrophe">crime catastrophe</a>. The pandemic and lockdown regulations had increased poverty, unemployment and food insecurity. This would exacerbate existing risk factors for violence, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>domestic abuse </p></li>
<li><p>learners dropping out of school </p></li>
<li><p>diminishing prospects of meaningful jobs, especially for young, marginalised men. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>In 2021/22 there was a significant <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/services/downloads/Annual-Crime-2021_2022-web.pdf">increase</a> in all categories of violent crime. </p>
<p>Since then there’s been no reduction in these risks, especially <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-10-06-eight-million-hungry-children-new-report-about-the-shocking-impact-of-poverty-on-young-south-africans/">food insecurity</a>, <a href="https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/sa-sees-job-growth-but-its-cold-comfort-for-millions-of-unemployed-youth-left-behind-20231115">youth unemployment</a>, <a href="https://www.unicef.org/southafrica/press-releases/crime-statistics-devastating-violence-against-children-and-women-continues">child abuse</a> and the <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/723902/south-africas-shocking-school-dropout-rate-revealed/">school dropout rate</a>. The <a href="https://issafrica.org/events/understanding-escalating-levels-of-murder-in-south-africa">murder rate per capita</a> has increased from 33.5 per 100,000 during the COVID-19 period (2020/21) to 45 per 100,000 in 2022/23. </p>
<h2>Police and the prevention of violent crime</h2>
<p>Even though the police are <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/police-work-social-organization-policing">not able</a> to do anything directly about many of the underlying risk factors for violence, <a href="https://www.police1.com/chiefs-sheriffs/articles/law-enforcement-strategies-to-reduce-violence-wItHuxvLO0IHLEEk/">studies</a> have shown that specific policing interventions can make a difference in reducing violent crime. </p>
<p>The police can work closely with communities to devise <a href="https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/model-programs-guide/literature-reviews/community-oriented-problem-oriented-policing">cooperative solutions</a> to crime problems. They can also collect and use relevant <a href="https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/d/3/327476.pdf">intelligence</a> to design and implement <a href="https://issafrica.org/crimehub/analysis/research/evidence-based-policing-for-south-africa-an-introduction-for-police-officers-researchers-and-communities">evidence-based</a> crime prevention actions. These should focus on the areas where criminal offending is most <a href="https://time.com/6227552/hotspot-policing-crime-effectiveness/">concentrated</a>, and on the <a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/works-reduce-crime-summary-evidence/pages/6/">situations</a> that tend to drive that behaviour. </p>
<p>Interventions require a <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/successfully-reducing-violent-crime-with-multimodal-community-and-police-engagement-interventions/">competent, adequately resourced and professional</a> police organisation and a fair and effective <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/effectiveness-and-fairness-of-judicial-systems_5jfrmmrhkcs2.pdf">criminal justice system</a>.</p>
<p>Since the 1990s the work of the police has included community-oriented approaches. <a href="https://www.police.govt.nz/resources/2008/community-policing-lit-review/elements-of-com-policing.pdf">Best practice</a> is for police to treat community safety groups as equal partners. Solutions to crime problems are <a href="https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/from-crisis-to-community-policing/">co-created</a>. </p>
<p>But the police’s approach has been the converse. They have <a href="https://www.groundup.org.za/article/community-policing-forums-should-be-holding-police-accountable/">co-opted</a> community safety groups, such as <a href="https://crimehub.org/iss-today/are-south-africas-community-police-forums-losing-their-impartiality">community police forums</a> and neighbourhood watches, to be <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/msspeechdetail.php?nid=45270">force multipliers</a>. Studies have shown that such a method is often <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles/171676.pdf">ineffective</a>.</p>
<p>For the past three decades, South African police have prioritised <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2018.1503831">militarised policing approaches</a>, such as <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/msspeechdetail.php?nid=47240">Operation Shanela</a> (“to sweep” in isiZulu). They encourage police to be more <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2023-11-12-cele-doubles-down-on-cops-right-to-use-deadly-force/">forceful</a> in their interactions with alleged criminals.</p>
<p>There is very <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1805161115">little evidence</a> to suggest that militarised policing brings down violent crime rates. Instead, it can erode public trust in the police. This is certainly evident in South Africa, where only <a href="https://hsrc.ac.za/press-releases/dces/feeling-blue-changing-patterns-of-trust-in-the-police-in-south-africa/">27%</a> of the population view the police as trustworthy (from 47% in 1999). </p>
<p>Police effectiveness in combating crime has also been undermined by <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/37753/">declining personnel numbers</a>. In 2018, there were 150,639 police personnel, but this is now 140,048. There has also been a substantial decline in the <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/politics/90-drop-in-police-reservists-devastating-to-high-crime-levels-20231114">police reserve force</a>. </p>
<p>High levels of crime have placed <a href="https://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1991-38772020000100003">considerable pressure</a> on the criminal justice system too. Conviction rates for violent crime are very low. For example, between 2019/20 and 2021/22, police recorded 66,486 murder cases. Of these, only 8,103 (12%) resulted in a guilty verdict.</p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>The good news is that the government does not exclusively depend on policing plans to tackle crime. It has also developed multi-departmental and evidence-based strategies and plans to prevent crime. These are derived from Chapter 12 of the <a href="https://www.nationalplanningcommission.org.za/assets/Documents/NDP_Chapters/devplan_ch12_0.pdf">National Development Plan</a>. It calls for: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>police to be more professional, demilitarised and work in partnership with communities</p></li>
<li><p>an improved criminal justice system </p></li>
<li><p>an integrated crime prevention strategy. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>In 2022 the cabinet approved the <a href="http://www.policesecretariat.gov.za/downloads/reports/Final%20Approved%20Integrated%20Crime%20Violence%20Prevention%20Strategy.pdf">Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy</a>. It seeks to achieve a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach given the multi-dimensional nature of the risk factors that drive violent crime. Furthermore, this strategy encourages government and other elements of society to jointly address common crime problems and collaboratively determine prevention strategies, especially at the community level. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africans-are-feeling-more-insecure-do-ramaphosas-plans-add-up-176991">South Africans are feeling more insecure: do Ramaphosa's plans add up?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There was also the recognition that various government departments (and not just the police) needed to work closely with civil society and the private sector to drive down crime levels.</p>
<p>The problem is that the implementation of strategy is in limbo. No government agency has been willing to take responsibility for it. That’s because there is no direct budgetary allocation, given the highly <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/budget-speech/664953/4-major-risks-that-godongwana-needs-to-address-in-the-2023-budget-next-week/">constrained government purse</a>. </p>
<p>High levels of crime and low levels of policing have substantial <a href="https://www.news24.com/citypress/business/the-crippling-cost-of-violence-20221125#:%7E:text=Violent%20crimes%20cost%20South%20Africa%20about%2019%25%20of%20GDP%20annually.">negative effects</a> on economic performance. So investing adequate resources to carry out the Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy will not only reduce violent crime, but also contribute to economic growth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guy Lamb receives funding from Norwegian Research Council. He is a Commissioner on South Africa's National Planning Commission. </span></em></p>Government departments, civil society groups and the private sector should pool resources and work together in a co-ordinated manner to prevent violent crime.Guy Lamb, Criminologist / Senior Lecturer, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2117952023-10-02T15:07:18Z2023-10-02T15:07:18ZEven before deepfakes, tech was a tool of abuse and control<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548852/original/file-20230918-23-ds1krb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C13%2C2959%2C1980&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-indian-woman-looking-her-smart-410099035">William Perugini/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of the many “<a href="https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/">profound risks to society and humanity</a>” that have tech experts worried about artificial intelligence (AI), the spread of fake images is one that everyday internet users will be familiar with.</p>
<p>Deepfakes – videos or photographs where someone’s face or body has been digitally altered so that they appear to be doing something they are not – have already been used to spread <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/technology/artificial-intelligence-training-deepfake.html">political disinformation</a> and <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/04/22/a-lifelong-sentence-the-women-trapped-in-a-deepfake-porn-hell">fake pornography</a>.</p>
<p>These images are typically malicious and are used to discredit the subject. When it comes to deepfake pornography, the <a href="https://uclawreview.org/2023/08/02/deepfakes-the-effect-on-women-and-potential-protections/#:%7E:text=In%202019%2C%20DeepTrace%2C%20a%20deepfake,of%20those%20involve%20women.%E2%80%9D%2019">vast majority of victims are women</a>. Generative AI – technology used to create text, images and video – is <a href="https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/what-deepfake-porn-and-why-it-thriving-age-ai">already making</a> image-based sexual abuse easier to perpetrate. </p>
<p>A new <a href="https://theconversation.com/online-safety-bill-why-making-the-uk-the-safest-place-to-go-online-is-not-as-easy-as-the-government-claims-214290">set of laws</a> in the UK, will criminalise the sharing of deepfake pornography. But with the attention on AI and deepfakes, we cannot forget how less sophisticated technology can be used as a tool of abuse, with devastating consequences for victims.</p>
<h2>Tech and control</h2>
<p>When I began my research into technology in abusive relationships, deepfakes were just a blip on the horizon. My work focused on the <a href="https://openresearch.lsbu.ac.uk/item/8w0v4">role of smartphones</a> in the abuse of women who had fled controlling relationships. I found that perpetrators of domestic abuse were using technology to extend the reach of their power and control over their partners, a modern take on abuse tactics that were used <a href="https://connect.springerpub.com/content/book/978-0-8261-7991-3">long before</a> smartphones were in every pocket.</p>
<p>Mobile phones can be used directly to monitor and control, using GPS tracking or by bombarding a victim with texts, videos and voice calls. One participant in my <a href="https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/thesis/Beyond_proximity_the_covert_role_of_mobile_phones_in_maintaining_power_and_coercive_control_in_the_domestic_abuse_of_women/23306735">research in 2019</a> explained how her abusive partner used his phone to access social media, sending her offensive pictures via Instagram and persistent and offensive WhatsApp messages. </p>
<p>When she was out with her friends, he would first text, ring and then video call her constantly to check where she was and to see who she was with. When the participant turned off her phone, her then-partner contacted her friends, bombarding them with texts and calls. </p>
<p>This participant felt too embarrassed to make arrangements to meet with her peer group and so stopped going out. Others in similar situations might be excluded from social plans, if friends want to avoid being contacted by their friend’s abuser. Such social isolation is a frequent part of domestic abuse and an important indicator of controlling relationships. </p>
<p>According to the domestic violence charity Refuge,
<a href="https://refuge.org.uk/news/72-of-refuge-service-users-identify-experiencing-tech-abuse/">more than 72%</a> of people who use its services report abuse involving technology. </p>
<p>Mobile phones are a gateway to other gadgets, via the “internet of things” – devices that are web-connected and able to exchange data. These tools can also be weaponised by abusers. For example, using mobile phones to <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/legal-matters/201907/gaslighting-in-the-age-smart-home-technology">change temperature settings</a> on a household thermostat, creating extremes from one hour to the next. </p>
<p>Confused by this, people seek explanations from their partner only to be told that this must be a figment of their imagination. <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaslighting-from-partners-to-politicians-how-to-avoid-becoming-a-victim-121828">Gaslighting techniques</a> such as this make victims question their own sanity which undermines their confidence in their own judgment. </p>
<h2>A modern panopticon</h2>
<p>With the click of a button, mobile phones allow for unprecedented surveillance of others. In the pocket of a perpetrator, they can be used to keep tabs on current and former partners any time, any place and – signal permitting – anywhere. This gives perpetrators a <a href="https://openresearch.lsbu.ac.uk/item/8w0v4">power of omnipotence</a>, leaving victims believing that they are being watched even when they are not.</p>
<p>This brings to mind the work of the 18th-century philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who introduced the concept of the “panopticon”. Bentham proposed a “perfect” prison system, where a guard tower sits in the centre, surrounded by individual cells. </p>
<p>Isolated from one another, prisoners would see only the tower – a constant reminder that they are permanently watched, even though they cannot see the guard within it. Bentham believed such a structure would result in the prisoners’ self-surveillance until eventually no locks or bars were needed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The interior of an empty panopticon prison, a circular, concrete room with a guard tower in the centre and dozens of cells with sunlight shining through" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548853/original/file-20230918-161679-jublh5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548853/original/file-20230918-161679-jublh5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548853/original/file-20230918-161679-jublh5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548853/original/file-20230918-161679-jublh5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548853/original/file-20230918-161679-jublh5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548853/original/file-20230918-161679-jublh5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548853/original/file-20230918-161679-jublh5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A panopticon design inside the ‘Presidio modelo’, a model prison built in Cuba, now a museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Presidio-modelo2.JPG">Friman/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://openresearch.lsbu.ac.uk/item/924y1">My most recent research</a> shows that mobile phones have created similar dynamics within abusive relationships. Phones take the role of the tower, and perpetrators the guards within it. </p>
<p>In this modern panopticon, victims can be out and about, visible to strangers, friends and family. Yet because of the presence of the phone, they feel they are still being watched and controlled by their abusive partners. </p>
<p>As one participant put it: “You feel there’s no freedom even when you’re out. You feel like you are locked up somewhere, you don’t have freedom, someone is controlling you.”</p>
<p>Survivors of abuse continue to monitor themselves even when the perpetrators are not there. They act in ways that they believe will please (or at least not anger) their abusers. </p>
<p>This behaviour is often viewed by others as strange, and too readily dismissed as paranoia, anxiety or more serious mental health issues. The focus becomes about the victim’s behaviour and ignores the cause – abusive or criminal behaviour by their partner. </p>
<p>As technology becomes more sophisticated, the tools and strategies available to abusers will continue to evolve. This will extend perpetrators’ reach and present new opportunities for surveillance, gaslighting and abuse. </p>
<p>Until tech companies consider the experiences of domestic abuse survivors and build safety mechanisms into the design of their products, abuse will continue to remain <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Coercive_Control/8h0TDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">hidden in plain sight</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>If you are concerned about safety and abuse related to technology, please <a href="https://refugetechsafety.org">visit this advice page</a> from Refuge, the UK’s largest domestic abuse charity.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211795/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tirion E. Havard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mobile phones have extended the reach and control of abusive partners.Tirion E. Havard, Associate Professor of Social Work, London South Bank UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2101012023-09-07T15:43:24Z2023-09-07T15:43:24ZHow to support someone who is experiencing domestic abuse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546227/original/file-20230904-32933-37baqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=155%2C0%2C5570%2C3069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/middle-aged-asia-people-old-mom-2274179825">Chay_Tee/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is likely that you know someone in a harmful or unhealthy relationship. Domestic abuse is common. For example, estimates suggest that <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women">one in three women</a> globally will experience abuse in their lifetime. But many people do not know how to respond when a friend, relative or colleague tells them about domestic abuse.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15248380231189191">new research</a> with colleagues at UCL and domestic abuse charities examines how education and training can help families and social networks recognise domestic abuse, know how to respond and be willing to do so. </p>
<p>During COVID lockdowns, domestic abuse became more prevalent while traditional care services were more difficult to access. This meant that victims <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cl2.1263">leaned on support</a> from friends, family, colleagues and neighbours even more. As <a href="https://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Default.aspx?tabid=3808">we found</a>, equipping social and family networks to give this help can be a valuable – and lifesaving – addition to the support provided by professionals.</p>
<p>In the UK, charities and other social organisations offer training programmes, such as <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/our-approach-change-that-lasts/askme/">Women’s Aid “Ask Me”</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-domestic-abuse-is-such-a-difficult-subject-for-churches-157799">programmes for faith leaders</a> and <a href="https://www.eida.org.uk/">toolkits for workplaces</a>. These initiatives teach members of the public and community leaders how to respond to people experiencing abuse in positive and helpful ways.</p>
<p>While most people experiencing abuse <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0886260519843282">tell at least one friend or family member</a>, evidence suggests that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1524838018770412">female and young</a> victims, and members of some <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10903-018-0803-9">marginalised groups</a> are most likely to inform and rely on their informal networks rather than formal services such as the police. </p>
<p>The reaction of informal networks can be vital. Research shows positive reactions from friends or colleagues can improve the <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/15246090260137644">health</a>, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1077801202250083">wellbeing</a> and safety of people experiencing abuse. Informal support from personal contacts can also encourage people to seek help from <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10926771.2020.1867278">formal services</a>, such as gaining access to practical or legal support. </p>
<h2>How to help</h2>
<p>If you believe that a friend, relative, colleague or neighbour may be in a harmful relationship, it is not your responsibility to stop the abuse. If you think that they are in immediate danger, call 999 and ask for the police. But you can provide support and offer to help in other ways.</p>
<p>Talking about domestic abuse is difficult. It may make you feel uncomfortable if someone confides in you about an unhealthy relationship, or if you raise the issue of abuse. But there are steps you can take to respond in positive and helpful ways.</p>
<p>An easy way to remember them is through four “Rs”: recognise, respond, reassure and react.</p>
<h2>Recognise</h2>
<p>Our research highlights the importance of being able to identify the <a href="https://www.thehotline.org/identify-abuse/domestic-abuse-warning-signs/">warning signs</a> and risk factors for abuse. Many people do not recognise that domestic abuse takes many <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/">different forms</a>. And there are widespread <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/myths/">myths</a> associated with abuse that must be challenged – for example, that it always involves violence.</p>
<p>Become familiar with domestic abuse in all its forms, including <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/coercive-control/">coercive control</a> and <a href="https://survivingeconomicabuse.org/what-is-economic-abuse/">economic abuse</a>, so that you can recognise the signs of an unhealthy relationship. </p>
<p>Research suggests that learning about the <a href="https://safelives.org.uk/policy-evidence/about-domestic-abuse/how-widespread-domestic-abuse-and-what-impact">high prevalence and serious impacts</a> of domestic abuse also motivates friends, family, colleagues and neighbours to take action. </p>
<p>If you are planning on <a href="https://safelives.org.uk/reach-in">reaching out to someone close to you</a>, domestic abuse charity SafeLives recommends you start by considering safety – theirs and your own. Think about safe ways to contact them or places to meet before you reach out. </p>
<h2>Respond</h2>
<p>When discussing harmful relationships or experiences of abuse, listen without blaming. Create a space in which your friend, relative or neighbour can confide in you and feel safe. Listen without judgement and show empathy. Be patient and recognise that it is not easy to talk about experiences of abuse. </p>
<p>Gender norms and cultural expectations might make it particularly difficult for some people to open up about their experiences, for example <a href="https://safelives.org.uk/policy-evidence/experiences-male-survivors">male victims of abuse</a> or those in conservative religious communities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-be-a-good-listener-and-how-to-know-when-youre-doing-it-right-211556">How to be a good listener - and how to know when you're doing it right</a>
</strong>
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</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/the-survivors-handbook/im-worried-about-someone-else/#1667820183042-dca07399-ea4a">Supporting a friend</a> may mean reminding them that you are there to listen, helping them to identify their options, or seeking professional advice on their behalf (with their consent).</p>
<h2>Reassure</h2>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1049732314540054">Research</a> highlights the importance of affirming, validating and understanding the feelings and experiences expressed by the person experiencing abuse. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1049732314540054">Studies report</a> that informal networks do not always respond in a helpful way. Expressing doubt, blame or hostility can harm the wellbeing of the person experiencing abuse and diminish the likelihood that they will seek further help. Make it clear that you believe them and validate their experiences. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Close up side profile of a middle aged woman talking on a mobile phone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546230/original/file-20230904-19-7zpmoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546230/original/file-20230904-19-7zpmoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546230/original/file-20230904-19-7zpmoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546230/original/file-20230904-19-7zpmoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546230/original/file-20230904-19-7zpmoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546230/original/file-20230904-19-7zpmoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546230/original/file-20230904-19-7zpmoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remind friends you are there for them – and that the abuse is not their fault.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-portrait-mature-business-woman-talking-1201166101">Jacob Lund / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Domestic abuse campaign group and charity Refuge provides advice on <a href="https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/en/Supporting-a-survivor">how to support a survivor</a> and Equation, another group working against domestic abuse, recommends things that you <a href="https://equation.org.uk/need-help/help-someone">should tell</a> the person you are supporting. A good place to start is to say “I believe you”, and tell them the abuse “is not your fault”.</p>
<h2>React</h2>
<p>Finally, offer to help your friend, relative or neighbour seek support – acting only if and when they want you to. This may mean offering to get in touch with local support services, ringing the national <a href="https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/en/Supporting-a-survivor">domestic abuse helpline</a> or using the <a href="https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/en/Chat-to-us-online">webchat</a>. </p>
<p>Women’s Aid also keeps an up-to-date <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/womens-aid-directory/">directory</a> of local support services and resources across the UK.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1524838016641919">Research</a> highlights that supporting a friend or family member experiencing domestic abuse is difficult, so take steps to <a href="https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/mental-health-problems-introduction/self-care/">look after yourself</a> too. Stay aware of your own needs when helping someone with such a difficult situation, and incorporate activities into your routine that nourish your <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/self-care-strategies-overall-stress-reduction-3144729">mental, emotional and physical wellbeing</a>. This may include talking to friends, being compassionate with yourself, and making time for leisure activities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210101/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Schucan Bird receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>The support of friends and family can be crucial for domestic abuse victims.Karen Schucan Bird, Associate Professor of Social and Political Science, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071462023-08-22T20:05:27Z2023-08-22T20:05:27Z‘Religion would take my life’: two women testify to enduring and surviving harm in evangelical Christian communities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543872/original/file-20230822-31888-w6jk3b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3994%2C1988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Steph Lentz (left) and Rachel Louise Snyder (right).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brett Sayles/Pexels (cross), Nikko Tan/Pexels (background pews)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I grew up in evangelical churches where “telling your story” or “sharing your testimony” was a method of converting others. </p>
<p>I understood a personal testimony to be a powerful thing. I was told no one could question your personal story, your testimony. Which in hindsight is odd, because it turns out when women share stories of harm – including religious harm – they will, in fact, often be questioned. </p>
<p>As Julia Baird <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-23/when-women-are-believed-the-church-will-change/9782184">notes</a>, after she and Hayley Gleeson wrote about instances of intimate partner violence <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-18/domestic-violence-church-submit-to-husbands/8652028">in Christian communities</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-18/shattering-silence-surviving-domestic-violence-in-church/8788902">shared the testimonies</a> of Christian victim-survivors, “a volcano of comment erupted”.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Women We Buried, Women we Burned – Rachel Louise Snyder (Scribe); In/Out – Steph Lentz (ABC Books)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>I sit here with two memoirs full of women’s experiences. They’re each, in their own way, a testimony. Not testimonies of conversion <em>to</em> Christianity, but testimonies to surviving religious harm. </p>
<p>Rachel Louise Snyder, author of <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/women-we-buried-women-we-burned-9781922585363">Women We Buried, Women We Burned</a>, grew up in Pittsburgh and Chicago in the 1970s and 1980s. Her childhood appears clouded by grief, upheaval, family violence and the overbearing religiosity of adults: a religiosity she never shared. </p>
<p>Steph Lentz, on the other hand, was a committed Sydney Anglican. She grew up in the 1990s, fully absorbed <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/joshua-harris-and-the-cruel-optimism-of-christian-purity-culture/11369762">evangelical purity culture</a>, and became an accidental “teenage fundamentalist” who, despite having crushes on girls from age nine, married her husband at 23. </p>
<p>In October 2020, Lentz – now 30, divorced, and out to “close family members and a few trusted friends” – told the Christian school where she was a teacher that she was gay. She was fired. She tells her story in <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780733342974/inout/">In/Out: A Scandalous Story of Falling into Love and Out of the Church</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543665/original/file-20230821-29-gz6yys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543665/original/file-20230821-29-gz6yys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543665/original/file-20230821-29-gz6yys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543665/original/file-20230821-29-gz6yys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543665/original/file-20230821-29-gz6yys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543665/original/file-20230821-29-gz6yys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543665/original/file-20230821-29-gz6yys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543665/original/file-20230821-29-gz6yys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Steph Lentz was fired when she told the religious school she worked at that she was gay.</span>
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</figure>
<p>I still believe sharing a personal story can be a powerful, almost magical thing.</p>
<p>Marta Scrabacz <a href="https://overland.org.au/2016/09/this-is-not-a-memoir-the-c-word-in-womens-writing/">says</a> when we read of women’s experiences in works of narrative non-fiction and memoir, “it allows us to share our experiences with each other”. She suggests “women write such stories for two reasons – firstly, to stop feeling alone and find women like them and, secondly, to stop the past from defining them”.</p>
<p>These memoirs are, at first glance, worlds apart. But both appear to narrate their past in order to be free of it. Synder and Lentz bring us into their personal and intimate stories. Religion is a “character” in both their books. Though the role religion plays varies, religious harm seeps through. </p>
<p>A sense of searching or longing – perhaps for answers, or justice, or maybe freedom – carries these memoirs forward. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/holy-womans-fleshy-feminist-spiritual-pilgrimage-is-a-warning-against-religious-coercive-control-185388">Holy Woman's fleshy, feminist spiritual pilgrimage is a warning against religious coercive control</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Stories of death and new beginnings</h2>
<p>Snyder’s memoir is framed by a story of new beginnings – and a story of cancer, loss and death. </p>
<p>She opens with a memory that would return to her “through the years and then the decades”. An uncle has helped fund a place on a floating, world-travelling educational program, Semester at Sea. On the ship, watching the night sky, Snyder sees day and night split across the horizon. She is in her early twenties. Looking back, she calls this moment a “reset”. It becomes her “origin story”. </p>
<p>The “reset” is a glimmer of future freedom, but we must wait for it. It will be 180 pages before Snyder takes us back to it. In the meantime, it’s overtaken by a second story.</p>
<p>Snyder swiftly moves us back in time. She is an eight-year-old child. Her mother has just died. Her mother’s death, though natural, appears as a violent interruption. It fractures her father’s life: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Her death was the one story that nothing in my dad’s life had prepared him for. And in that story, the loss of her, something of him – that gregarious, smiling, warm man beloved by strangers and family alike – disappeared too.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This death and disappearance double-act is the story at the centre of Snyder’s memoir, one that flows into the unravelling of Snyder’s family, her home, her life. </p>
<p>We make sense of ourselves and our worlds with stories. Stories can sustain us. But they can also be a source of unravelling. Sociologist <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo9471242.html">Arthur Frank</a> puts it this way: “stories have the capacity to deal with human troubles, but also the capacity to make trouble for humans”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-empathy-or-division-on-the-science-and-politics-of-storytelling-176679">Friday essay: empathy or division? On the science and politics of storytelling</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Making trouble: religious harm and family violence</h2>
<p>When Snyder’s father finds a new beginning in a Christian community, the reader is forewarned: “Cancer took my mother. But religion would take my life.” Snyder’s story unravels into loss, grief, family violence, running away (again and again) and homelessness. </p>
<p>Through childhood and adolescence, religion would be used against Snyder. It’s a weapon in her father’s hands. He justifies his physical violence by retelling a story that will, unfortunately, be common to many: obedience to a parent is a sign of obedience to God, discipline is an act of love, violence is an act of love. Snyder recalls:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He’d hit us ten times, a dozen, however many it took until he felt he’d broken us down enough to be truly repentant. And then we three would pray together and repent for my sins. We’d hug. Cry, because at the end of the day it was necessary to see how all this was done out of love. God’s love and my parents’ love.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Discipline that does harm, whether in the home or in the church, can never be loving. Feminist theorist <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780060959470/all-about-love/">bell hooks</a> writes: “Love and abuse cannot coexist.” Love, according to hooks, is “the will to nurture our own and another’s spiritual growth”.</p>
<p>There is little love of that kind during Snyder’s adolescence. </p>
<p>Snyder is kicked out of high school. At 16, she and her older siblings are kicked out of their parent’s home. She takes a string of low-paid jobs and lives in insecure housing. Her grandmother sends her to a “finishing school”, which is followed by a stint as a band manager. A music industry lover prompts her to go back to school: she gets her GED, starts college at the age of 19, and becomes “consumed” by education. </p>
<p>Education, particularly reading and writing, becomes a pathway to possibility and growth. Snyder “began to understand that writing […] was an empathetic exercise in which to examine the complexities and seeming contradictions of people”. </p>
<p>We have arrived at the moment where Snyder’s story is “reset”: on board that ship, aged 23. Writing and travel come to “define” Snyder’s world. This is her fourth book, following two works of investigative journalism and a novel.</p>
<p>Later, as a journalist living in Cambodia, Snyder reflects she was on a “sacred pursuit: to learn as best I could how different lives could be lived, different belief systems understood”. Far away from the American evangelicalism she grew up with, there is peace. </p>
<h2>Doing damage</h2>
<p>On the other side of the world, in Sydney, the stories of evangelical Christianity also make trouble for Lentz.</p>
<p>While Snyder slowly walks her reader through her life, to places of pain and harm <em>and</em> to places of personal and spiritual growth, Lentz starts by recounting her picture-perfect Sydney Anglican life. Against this backdrop, she takes us to the point where the glue holding together her belief system, her marriage and her world come unstuck. </p>
<p>Synder begins with a world unravelling; Lentz is on her way there. A third of the way into In/Out, Lentz reflects:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With my husband of five years by my side, via an old school friend, on the day a new church was born, I met the woman at whose hands I would, over the next three years be taken apart. That day snagged the thread that unravelled my world, and hers. One year on from that day, my life would be unrecognisable. Two years on, I would be on my way to the bottom of the pit I had to walk through. Eventually, I would begin to rebuild. The process would be excruciating and ludicrously slow. It remains a work in progress. But first, I had to do some damage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Lentz declares she will do damage – and yes, we could count an affair, a divorce and fractured friendships as damage done by her. But the church culture she grew up in, which taught her homosexuality was sinful and incompatible with Christian faith, had already done damage of its own.</p>
<h2>Christianity, sexuality and religious harm</h2>
<p>Religiously informed LGBTQ+ change and suppression practices <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1201588/Healing-spiritual-harms-Supporting-recovery-from-LGBTQA-change-and-suppression-practices.pdf">cause harm</a>. This is not only true of intentional activities – such as praying for a change in sexuality – but of communities, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-anglicans-say-same-sex-desire-an-inclination-toward-evil-20230816-p5dx1o.html">including the Sydney Anglican Diocese</a>, that teach homosexuality is wrong, evil or sinful. Simply hearing that message is harmful. </p>
<p>Continually telling a story that places queer people outside faith communities causes <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-will-never-be-considered-human-the-devastating-trauma-lgbtq-people-suffer-in-religious-settings-176360">harm and trauma for queer people</a>. And it renders queer religious people <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/religious-discrimination-debate-and-spiritual-harm/13747818">invisible</a>.</p>
<p>In/Out was written after Lentz lost her job. She boldly invites the reader into her experience of religious harm. She provides an intensely personal, intimate account of the way Christian culture – and religiously informed stories – can both inform and limit how we understand ourselves. </p>
<p>For Lentz – as for many people – Christianity’s place in her life is complex. Through her teenage years, church life was experienced as a welcoming refuge, providing a secure identity and place in the world. </p>
<p>Yet belonging to an evangelical community is often contingent on the “right” expression of gender and sexuality. For Lentz, it was a harmful space that prohibited her from understanding her own sexuality. Lentz’s writing excels when she begins to grapple with how the church, as an institution, stretches into her personal life:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My own marriage had a lot to do with churchmen’s fear about the collapse of patriarchy; my sense of self was shaped by a hierarchical institution ruled by a text covered in the fingerprints of the men looking to keep control.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The legacy of those fingerprints is sexism, exclusion and gendered harm.</p>
<p>For those who have been harmed, or who are still in a place of harm, Lentz’s book may remind them they are not alone. It may give permission to read the Bible differently and to seek welcoming, inclusive communities where they are free to do gender, sexuality and religion (if they want) in a way that honours the complexity of their identity. This is a good thing.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/were-told-pentecostal-churches-like-hillsong-are-growing-in-australia-but-theyre-not-anymore-is-there-a-gender-problem-199413">We're told Pentecostal churches like Hillsong are growing in Australia, but they're not anymore – is there a gender problem?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A scandalous story</h2>
<p>In/Out is positioned by its subtitle as a “scandalous story”. In this regard, Lentz delivers. She recounts in detail what it was like to finally let herself fall in love with a woman. She shares the thrill and the mess of that relationship. We share in her emotional ride. We are with her as she discovers sexual intimacy, as she expects to feel guilt, but feels calm:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was committing the sins of adultery and lying and homosexuality […] I waited for the sense of wrongness to kick in. I waited for God’s judgement to fall upon me in some manner or other. But nothing happened. If anything, I felt closer to God: finally, neither of us was pretending I was that good Christian woman anymore. Instead of condemnation, I experienced deep calm.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We are also with Lentz when she attends an affirming church and is welcomed – but no longer feels at home in Christian spaces. </p>
<p>We are with Lentz when she meets with her school principal and HR manager. Here she tells “the story about my dawning of awareness of my sexuality”. And in telling this story, she sets in motion a conversation with the school which would lead to her being fired: “As letters went back and forth betweeen the school and me, it became clear the Board did not see a future for a gay teacher among its staff.” </p>
<p>Given the school understood homosexuality <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/steph-lentz-was-sacked-this-year-for-being-gay-it-was-perfectly-legal-20210809-p58gzv.html">to be a threat to salvation</a>, the risk of keeping Lentz on staff was too high.</p>
<p>Sure, there is some sexy content in the pages of Lentz’s memoir, but perhaps the real scandal is the mess of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-debate-about-religious-discrimination-is-back-so-why-do-we-keep-hearing-about-religious-freedom-169643">state and federal discrimination laws across Australia</a>, which continue to frame religious freedom and LGBTQ+ rights as in competition. Those laws risk failing those who most need protection. </p>
<h2>‘The goal is simply to endure’</h2>
<p>Lentz races through her book. She gives the reader few moments to pause. Perhaps she is still searching for a place to pause, to start again. I found myself hurriedly turning pages, wanting to know about the process of recovering from religious harm, or of what trauma theologian <a href="https://scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780334060932/the-dark-womb">Karen O’Donnell</a> calls post-traumatic remaking. </p>
<p>While some people may seek recovery from religious and spiritual trauma, others know they can never recover the person they were before. O’Donnell explains: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the experience of the trauma survivor is not a simple wiping clean of the self from the experience of trauma but rather a more complex and arduous work. […] what is the goal of the trauma survivor in this aftermath? It is not transcending trauma, nor finding solutions to the dilemmas of survival. The goal is simply to endure.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Snyder’s memoir is a masterful case study in endurance and survival. As a reader, there is time to sit with child Rachel in her sadness, and with teenage Rachel in her confusion, anger and despair. In the midst of pain, there are beautiful and tender moments. </p>
<p>After crying through her father’s second marriage, Snyder is embraced by her grandfather: “I felt my grandfather’s hand on my head. He didn’t say anything. He just held his hand there on me in stillness.” </p>
<p>This stillness embeds in my mind. I feel I am there in the basement of the church, feeling both the anguish and the comfort. I can pause, exhale. I can start again – and again – with Snyder, after every loss, every setback. Snyder’s writing is consistently measured, yet deeply moving.</p>
<p>Snyder also holds out glimmers of hope. On the cruise, at the moment of her “origin story”, she learns a lesson about death. It’s a lesson that resists shallow causality (your mum died so that you could …). Actually, it’s a lesson on how to live. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My mom’s early death had been a warning shot, a directive about life itself […] it wasn’t a betrayal to her memory to seek a life in which joy was deliberate. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Do we know how to deliberately seek joy? To allow ourselves to be joyful? Maybe we are always in the process of learning these sorts of lessons.</p>
<p>Lentz closes her book saying she’s “growing up all over again, learning who I am, learning to choose”. </p>
<h2>Freedom from the past</h2>
<p>Freedom from the past comes from being able to narrate our stories truthfully. </p>
<p>Lentz finds freedom “Closer to the chaos at the heart of living”. She reflects:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was not a freedom like the one that had been sold to me, squashed into a small box of constrained choices and limited options. […] It was freedom to be patient with mystery.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Snyder, freedom is knowing she doesn’t have to say her parents “did the best they could under the circumstances with the resources they had”. Freedom is knowing this isn’t true. And so, Snyder can say: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I gave myself the freedom to live with a different historical narrative. And in the strangest way this lifted my anger. […] I would no longer carry this burden. They could view our collective past through whatever lens they wanted, but I was going to free myself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You can’t undo what was done. None of us can. But in holding and telling your story truthfully, you can recover your agency and sense of self. In this, there is hope. Your story may or may not be a method for converting others. But the opportunity to tell it can be freeing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosie Clare is a feminist researcher interested in religion and gender. She grew up in the Sydney Anglican Diocese, and recently completed PhD research focused on the lived experiences of Sydney Anglicans. </span></em></p>New memoirs by Rachel Louise Snyder and Steph Lentz chart the territory of being shaped by an ill-fitting version of strict Christianity – and their struggle to free themselves.Rosie Clare Shorter, Research fellow, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2089862023-08-07T11:07:17Z2023-08-07T11:07:17ZLinking police and healthcare data could help better identify domestic abuse – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538035/original/file-20230718-19-w6ftpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4608%2C3428&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Healthcare professionals can play a vital role in identifying and helping people who are experiencing domestic abuse.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stop-violence-against-womensexual-abuse-human-1465291778">HTWE/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Identifying domestic abuse victims earlier could help to reduce future emergency medical admissions. <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(23)00126-3/fulltext">Our new research</a> shows how this could be done before a victim even involves the police by connecting information gathered by the police and hospitals.</p>
<p>Our study showed that many victims of domestic abuse often visit accident and emergency departments before the police get involved. This means that healthcare professionals can play a crucial role in identifying and helping people who are experiencing abuse.</p>
<p>We combined data from the police with data from GPs and accident and emergency hospital admissions. We focused on residents in the South Wales Police catchment area who had experienced domestic abuse between August 2015 and March 2020, and who were given a public protection notification (PPN). This is a document that records safeguarding concerns about adults or children.</p>
<p>Connecting this data with health information gives a wide view of how domestic abuse affects people’s health. Health records are kept in a secure database called the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. </p>
<p>This provides access to different kinds of information, such as records from doctors’ visits, hospital stays, accident and emergency visits, and death records. All data in the databank is anonymous, ensuring that individuals cannot be identified.</p>
<p>Using mathematical models, we then identified the factors that increased the risk of negative outcomes, such as hospital and A&E admissions or death within 12 months of the PPN.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>Of the 8,709 people who experienced domestic abuse, 71.8% were women. Within a year of experiencing abuse, 3,544 of the victims had negative outcomes, such as an A&E admission, while there were 48 deaths.</p>
<p>We also found that certain factors increased the likelihood of negative outcomes. These included being younger, having multiple incidents of abuse, getting injured during the abuse, being assessed as high-risk, being referred to other agencies, having a history of violence, experiencing attempted strangulation, or being pregnant.</p>
<p>Pregnant victims, in particular, faced more risks, which affected their own health and the health of their babies. Certain factors like smoking, obstetric issues and taking specific medications (like antidepressants and antibiotics) increased the risk of having a negative outcome after experiencing domestic abuse.</p>
<p>By studying different patterns, we could predict how severe the cases of domestic abuse were in terms of risk. For example, victims who had frequent interactions with the police were at higher risk.</p>
<p>However, victims who had conflicts related to child contact had a lower risk of experiencing negative outcomes. This is because the perpetrator might not be living with the victim. </p>
<h2>What are the implications?</h2>
<p>Our findings show the importance of considering a victim’s health history in identifying domestic abuse. Identifying certain patterns could lead to earlier interventions.</p>
<p>It is crucial for different organisations to work together and share information to identify and help vulnerable individuals effectively. Identifying specific risk factors, like being younger or having a history of violence, could help identify victims more effectively. This would include investigating previous visits to the hospital, conducting thorough assessments for pregnant victims who are at high risk and connecting different pieces of information.</p>
<p>These measures could help prevent further victimisation and ensure that people receive the right support and resources.</p>
<p>Our research highlights the importance of healthcare settings, especially emergency departments, in identifying and addressing domestic abuse. Training programmes could help emergency department staff identify potential cases of domestic abuse, even if the victim does not explicitly disclose the abuse. </p>
<p>By connecting different sources of information and identifying people at high risk, health professionals could take necessary actions and refer victims to support services.</p>
<p>Our study looked at situations where abuse was officially reported, so victims who did not report it were not included. </p>
<p>We did not include cases where women went to the emergency room for obstetric reasons either. This means that the impact of domestic abuse during pregnancy may be underestimated in our findings.</p>
<p>In future, further research should be undertaken to validate the findings of this study in different settings and populations. It would also be helpful to look at information from other sources, such as social services and housing records, to get a better picture of the factors that contribute to domestic abuse and its consequences.</p>
<h2>Protecting privacy</h2>
<p>While linking data from different organisations can be helpful for research, it is also important to protect people’s privacy. If we want to link data at a national level for purposes other than research, we would need a public consultation on what data is shared and to discuss how people’s privacy would be protected. </p>
<p>This is important because if people were afraid that their data would be shared with the police, they might not seek help from emergency services. When victims can be encouraged to talk, however, this study underlines the importance of training A&E staff to recognise and address potential cases of abuse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208986/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha Kennedy wishes to thank Benjamin Rowe from South Wales Police for his input.
This research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Public Health Research Board (reference number NIHR133680: Unlocking Data to Inform Public Health Policy and Practice).
The study was also supported by Health Care Research Wales through the National Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research, supported by ESRC through Administrative Data Research Wales, and received infrastructure support through Health Data Research UK.
This study makes use of anonymised data held in the SAIL databank. We would like to acknowledge all the data providers who make anonymised data available for research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amrita Bandyopadhyay wishes to thank Benjamin Rowe from South Wales Police for his input.
This research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research, Public Health Research Board (reference number NIHR133680: Unlocking Data to Inform Public Health Policy and Practice).
The study was also supported by Health Care Research Wales through the National Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research, supported by ESRC through Administrative Data Research Wales, and received infrastructure support through Health Data Research UK.
This study makes use of anonymised data held in the SAIL databank. We would like to acknowledge all the data providers who make anonymised data available for research.</span></em></p>New research linking police and healthcare data shows that victims of domestic abuse are detectable before the involvement of the police.Natasha Kennedy, Senior research officer and data scientist, Swansea UniversityAmrita Bandyopadhyay, Research Officer and Data Scientist at the National Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2085752023-07-04T02:11:08Z2023-07-04T02:11:08ZBanks put family violence perpetrators on notice. Stop using accounts to commit abuse or risk being ‘debanked’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535239/original/file-20230703-194046-95aav6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=389%2C117%2C5540%2C3666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Perpetrators of family violence will often use money to hurt and control their victims.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/search/financial-abuse?image_type=photo">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ella never knew when her credit card was going to be declined.</p>
<p>It happened when she was shopping for groceries with her kids, or refuelling the car. That’s when she would discover her partner had cancelled the card or lowered the limit so she couldn’t buy essentials. Again. </p>
<p>Ella* (not her real name) is one of <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/personal-safety-australia/latest-release#cohabiting-partner-violence-emotional-abuse-and-economic-abuse">about 1.6 million Australian women and 745,000 men</a> who have experienced economic or financial abuse. </p>
<p>Perpetrators of such abuse use money to control their victims, with devastating impact including stopping or limiting access to money, creating insurmountable debt and damaging a credit history.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-unemployment-and-less-income-how-domestic-violence-costs-women-financially-204688">Higher unemployment and less income: how domestic violence costs women financially</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.commbank.com.au/content/dam/caas/newsroom/docs/Cost%20of%20financial%20abuse%20in%20Australia.pdf">direct costs</a> to victim-survivors of financial abuse have been estimated at A$5.7 billion a year, with impact on the economy estimated at A$5.2 billion a year.</p>
<h2>The highly disruptive tactics used by abusers</h2>
<p>Perpetrators use a range of <a href="https://www.commbank.com.au/content/dam/commbank-assets/support/2020-11/unsw-report-1-financial-abuse-ipv.pdf">tactics</a>, some of which are inadvertently enabled by bank products and services. For example:</p>
<p>• credit cards are opened in the name of victim-survivors without their knowledge, potentially damaging credit scores </p>
<p>• all cash is withdrawn from joint accounts or redraw facilities without the consent of the other account holder</p>
<p>• legally binding property settlement orders to refinance home loans are ignored, forcing one party to seek help with repayments while trying to disentangle from their ex-partner</p>
<p>• payment descriptions are used to send threatening, abusive messages.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535233/original/file-20230703-252566-aa70gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C144%2C5691%2C3719&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman looks at the ATM in despair as she realises her bank account is empty." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535233/original/file-20230703-252566-aa70gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C144%2C5691%2C3719&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535233/original/file-20230703-252566-aa70gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535233/original/file-20230703-252566-aa70gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535233/original/file-20230703-252566-aa70gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535233/original/file-20230703-252566-aa70gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535233/original/file-20230703-252566-aa70gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535233/original/file-20230703-252566-aa70gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Money may be emptied from joint accounts or access may be blocked.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/search/financial-abuse?image_type=photo">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Banks typically respond to these issues case-by-case, tailoring solutions for each customer. However, it may be possible to eliminate or reduce the need for these interventions with improved product design to prevent and disrupt abusers.</p>
<h2>Taking action against perpetrators</h2>
<p>My first <a href="https://cwes.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CWES_DesigntoDisrupt_1_Banking.pdf">Designed to Disrupt</a> discussion paper for the <a href="https://cwes.org.au/">Centre for Women’s Economic Safety</a> proposes a new “financial safety by design” framework that tailors the <a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/industry/safety-by-design">eSafety Commissioner’s work with the technology sector</a> and provides greater protection for victim-survivors.</p>
<p>It outlines steps banks can take to prevent their products being used as a weapon in domestic and family violence.</p>
<p>Recommended measures include setting up every joint account with separate passwords, logins, and portals for each person so it’s simpler and safer to separate if the relationship ends or is abusive.</p>
<p>Two of Australia’s big four banks, the National Australia Bank and the Commonwealth Bank have already agreed to adopt the primary recommendation – to include financial abuse in product terms and conditions as a reason for suspension or closure of accounts.</p>
<p>It’s likely other banks will follow suit, with <a href="https://www.westpac.com.au/about-westpac/media/media-releases/2022/22-november/">Westpac</a> signalling last November it would consider ensuring its terms and conditions reflect its no tolerance approach to financial abuse.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-who-suffer-domestic-violence-fare-much-worse-financially-after-separating-from-their-partner-new-data-190047">Women who suffer domestic violence fare much worse financially after separating from their partner: new data</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://media-cdn.ourwatch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/18101814/Change-the-story-Our-Watch-AA.pdf">Evidence</a> shows that challenging the acceptance of violence against women is essential to respond to specific gendered drivers of violence.</p>
<p>In banking, this means spelling out the bank’s rules and its expectations of customer behaviour in its terms and conditions. These rules are the foundation of the contractual relationship with the customer and are relied on where there is a dispute.</p>
<h2>Banks taking the lead</h2>
<p><a href="https://news.nab.com.au/news/nab-takes-on-financial-abuse/">National Australia Bank</a> and Commonwealth Bank will change their terms and conditions to make it clear that financial abuse is unacceptable – just like financial crime or threatening call centre staff.</p>
<p>They will be the first Australian banks to signal to millions of bank customers they have a choice: abuse other customers and potentially lose access to their bank account, or behave with respect.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535237/original/file-20230703-267810-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman sitting on floor with bills scattered around her" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535237/original/file-20230703-267810-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535237/original/file-20230703-267810-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535237/original/file-20230703-267810-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535237/original/file-20230703-267810-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535237/original/file-20230703-267810-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535237/original/file-20230703-267810-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535237/original/file-20230703-267810-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Persistent abusers may be denied banking services.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/search/financial-abuse?image_type=photo">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This will make it harder for people to misuse financial products as a means of coercive control. </p>
<p>Implementation will be complex and the banks will need to proceed with caution. Financial abuse is hard to detect and there may be risks to the abused partner if perpetrators blame them for the bank’s action.</p>
<h2>Consequences for abusers who fail to stop</h2>
<p>An abuser may continue their behaviour at another bank. In this instance, there is the option of “de-banking” the customer which is not only a major inconvenience but also denies them access to an essential service.</p>
<p>That’s why it’s important the whole industry moves on this. It is instructive to examine the collective approach the banks have already taken to disrupt technology-facilitated abuse through payment descriptions.</p>
<p>Notably, my research found two banks reported more than 90% of customers discontinued abuse following a warning letter. </p>
<p>Implementation of the new terms and conditions should be guided by the experience of victim-survivors. It could also be informed by the Council of Financial Regulators’ <a href="https://www.cfr.gov.au/publications/policy-statements-and-other-reports/2022/potential-policy-responses-to-de-banking-in-australia/pdf/potential-policy-responses-to-de-banking-in-australia.pdf">de-banking policy recommendations</a> on transparency and fairness measures.</p>
<p>These measures include providing documented reasons to the customer with 30 days’ notice before closing services and giving them access to internal dispute resolution.</p>
<h2>Getting the public on board</h2>
<p>There also needs to be a public conversation about what this means. Airlines make it clear jokes about terrorism are not okay, and patrons are ejected from sporting events for violence.</p>
<p>If every bank in Australia makes it clear there is a minimum expectation of respectful behaviour to be a customer, it would be a game changer. </p>
<p>The widespread adoption of financial abuse terms and conditions and broad public communication will send a strong message to everyone with a bank account that financial abuse is unacceptable and has consequences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Fitzpatrick consults to Westpac and owns shares in Westpac and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. She received funding from the Centre for Women's Economic Safety to write the Designed to Disrupt report and continues to be affiliated. She is a former bank executive and established and led specialist customer vulnerability teams at CBA and Westpac. </span></em></p>Two of Australia’s major banks have announced they will take action against financial abusers, including closing their accounts.Catherine Fitzpatrick, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2064242023-06-07T16:43:44Z2023-06-07T16:43:44ZHow the legal tools to prevent forced marriage can lead to further abuse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530058/original/file-20230605-17-bbwjs6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=151%2C184%2C5448%2C3542&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/emotional-woman-sitting-on-floor-1760192618">KieferPix/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Forced marriage – marriage that lacks the consent of one or both parties – is a serious issue which affects 22 million people around the world – <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---ipec/documents/publication/wcms_854733.pdf">predominantly women and girls</a>. In England and Wales, it is a crime that is legally recognised as a form of domestic violence. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://bpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/dist/6/8539/files/2023/05/Anitha-and-Gill%C2%A9_FMPO_Full-Report_18May2023.pdf">new report</a>, we paint a full picture of the problem, detailing the experiences of survivors and the challenges in supporting victims of forced marriage.</p>
<p>We interviewed 11 forced marriage survivors and 42 police, domestic abuse and other specialist support providers, analysed 37 court rulings and examined 70 police case files. We found the most common age of women and men subject to forced marriages is 16-21, but girls and boys as young as 11 have also become victims. </p>
<p>Since February 2023, when the minimum age of marriage in England and Wales was <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/legal-age-of-marriage-in-england-and-wales-rises-to-18">raised to 18</a>, any marriage involving a child under the age of 18 also counts as forced. </p>
<p>The majority of victims are women and girls, but people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ people are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/bjc/azac097/6967228">especially vulnerable</a>. Contrary to popular belief, forced marriages are not limited to specific cultural groups, and have taken place in South Asian, Middle Eastern, Irish, Nigerian and Somali diaspora communities, among others.</p>
<p>The most common method of preventing forced marriages is through a civil injunction called a forced marriage protection order (FMPO). A potential victim, a relevant third party, such as a friend or lawyer, or any other person with the court’s permission (or the court itself) may seek an FMPO. </p>
<p>FMPOs were first introduced in with the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/20/contents">Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007</a>, which applies to Northern Ireland, England and Wales. <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2011/15/contents/enacted">Scotland introduced</a> similar laws in 2011. </p>
<p>FMPOs can prohibit perpetrators – usually the victim’s parents – from forcing the victim to marry, or taking them overseas for the purpose of marriage. They can also require perpetrators to return the victim to the UK if they have already been taken abroad to marry. Breaching the terms of an FMPO is a criminal offence carrying a maximum five-year sentence. </p>
<p>Approximately 200-250 FMPOs have been granted annually in England and Wales since 2014. We analysed 107 FMPOs issued between 2014-19 to learn more about how they affect victims. Our findings show that the legal tools currently available fall seriously short of protecting victims of forced marriage from further abuse. </p>
<h2>Intersecting abuse</h2>
<p>While FMPOs are effective in actually stopping a forced marriage from taking place, they do not do much to combat other forms of abuse and violence that take place in the context of forced marriage.</p>
<p>The majority of victims choose to remain in the family home while seeking protection from being forced to marry. In many situations, seeking an FMPO can increase the risk of “honour-based” violence and other forms of abuse. We found that forced marriage perpetrators commonly resort to emotional pressure, threats, beatings, kidnapping victims abroad, and even torture and rape.</p>
<p>One case we examined in the police files was of a 17-year-old girl of Indian origin. Following her rape, instead of supporting her, her parents blamed her for bringing shame upon them. She was subtly pressured to marry by her father, who told her that she was a burden on their family and marriage was the only way to restore their honour. </p>
<p>She went along with an engagement that she not want to pursue, but subsequently contacted the police. She told them how social services had let her down previously when she reported her rape:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Social services sent me home after keeping me in foster care. […] I am being pressurised to do things I do not want to do like marrying the boy I am engaged to and pressing charges on the boys involved in the [rape] incident last year. […] I have asked for help so many times from my teachers, social workers and police. […] In the past professionals have just gone straight to my parents and told them everything and that just makes things hard for me.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Close up of a young woman's face, one eye and nose are in frame." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530061/original/file-20230605-21-gns42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530061/original/file-20230605-21-gns42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530061/original/file-20230605-21-gns42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530061/original/file-20230605-21-gns42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530061/original/file-20230605-21-gns42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530061/original/file-20230605-21-gns42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530061/original/file-20230605-21-gns42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forced marriage affects millions of young women and men around the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/ring-light-reflecting-womans-eye-face-2227026763">Stock-Asso/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In another case recorded by the police, a 16-year-old girl was taken to Somalia by her parents under the pretext of visiting family. Once there, she was held captive in a detention centre to break down her resistance to a forced marriage. Deprived of her diabetes medication, she regularly lost consciousness. </p>
<p>The same case file detailed the story of another detainee held in the same facility under similar circumstances. She and the 16-year-old girl were rescued at the same time. The other girl described how this 16-year old “would not wake up even when hit”. Both girls were regularly beaten, burned, had their feet chained, were exposed to extreme weather as punishment, and were tied up without food or blankets and left to defecate on themselves. </p>
<p>In all of these cases, FMPOs helped to prevent a forced marriage and, in the case of the girls held captive in Somalia, helped secure their return to the UK.</p>
<h2>Better protection</h2>
<p>Many victims struggle to balance their need for protection with the desire to avoid a complete break from their families. They were seeking the protection of FMPOs while living under the same roof as their abuser. Clearly, treating FMPOs as a solution requiring no further action can expose victims to further, serious harm.</p>
<p>FMPOs also have an expiry date – and we found that after they expire, very often the threat of forced marriage resumed. Despite this there are currently no mechanisms for alerting the police to an expiry. </p>
<p>When the police and child or adult protection services work together after an FMPO has been issued, they can create a protective shield that can support victims to make their own decisions about the best way forward. FMPOs are not enough on their own to address the complex and contradictory pressures that victims of forced marriage face. Securing their safety must involve a deeper understanding of coercion and emotional pressure and more long-term support for victims.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sundari Anitha receives funding from research councils including the ESRC, British Academy, Leverhulme trust and the Nuffield Foundation for her research. She is member of the Labour party, and a trustee of a domestic violence refuge for South Asian women, Asha Projects, and ATLEU, which provides legal support for victims of trafficking and labour exploitation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aisha K. Gill Ph.D. CBE receives funding from the ESRC/UKRI/Nuffield Foundation.
She was appointed Co-Chair of the End Violence Against Women in 2019. This coalition includes feminist organizations and experts from across the UK, working to end violence against women and girls in all its forms.</span></em></p>Forced marriage protection orders are not very useful in combatting ‘honour’-based violence or other abuse.Sundari Anitha, Professor of Gender, Violence and Work, University of LincolnAisha K. Gill, Professor of Criminology, Centre for Gender and Violence Research, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2067252023-05-31T15:44:03Z2023-05-31T15:44:03ZTina Turner: the singer’s resilience and defiance were typical of a survivor of intimate partner abuse<p>There was something elemental about the ferocity of Tina Turner’s stage strut and the grit in her voice. <a href="https://theconversation.com/tina-turner-an-immense-talent-with-a-voice-and-back-catalogue-that-unites-disparate-music-lovers-206526">Her death last week</a>, aged 83, was met with an outpouring of tributes celebrating her musical prowess. But as we mourn her passing, it’s worth noting that Tina was also a model survivor of intimate partner violence.</p>
<p>In 1981, following her split from husband Ike Turner, Tina Turner began to speak openly about the years of abuse she had endured during their marriage. No charges related to domestic abuse were ever brought, and Ike Turner <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Takin_Back_My_Name/bR5djgEACAAJ?hl=en">denied the accusations</a>. Yet, over the decades Turner told a story familiar and inspiring to many other survivors.</p>
<p>Turner is rightly held up as a <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/tina-turner-ike-domestic-abuse-survivors-1234741396/">trailblazer for speaking publicly about her experience</a> of intimate partner violence. But media coverage of Ike and Tina’s relationship has often solely focused on Ike’s physical violence.</p>
<p>Physical violence sells newspapers. It’s easy for observers to understand and widely considered the worst form of abuse by those who have never experienced it. When Turner <a href="https://people.com/tina-turner-recalled-escaping-ike-turner-abusive-marriage-1981-people-interview-7503995">first spoke publicly</a> about her experience in the early 1980s, “domestic violence” was thought of as episodic physical assault, perhaps triggered by stress or even by the victim themselves.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://the-world-of-tina.com/i-tina-my-life-story---book.html">Turner’s accounts of her relationship</a> revealed a pattern of coercive control. This understanding of abuse is something <a href="https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice-points/coercion-and-control-more-to-do/5115944.article">the world is still trying to catch up with</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529137/original/file-20230530-15-wrzx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ike and Tina Turner holding guitars in a black and white photograph." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529137/original/file-20230530-15-wrzx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529137/original/file-20230530-15-wrzx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529137/original/file-20230530-15-wrzx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529137/original/file-20230530-15-wrzx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529137/original/file-20230530-15-wrzx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529137/original/file-20230530-15-wrzx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529137/original/file-20230530-15-wrzx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ike and Tina Turner on the cover of Cash Box magazine in June 1962.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ike_%26_Tina_Turner_-_Cash_Box_1962.jpg">Cash Box</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not only was Ike physically and sexually violent, but he ensnared Turner in a web of other <a href="https://www.theduluthmodel.org/wheels/">controlling tactics</a>, including financial control, emotional manipulation, control of her identity and a pattern of charm and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/social-instincts/202212/how-to-tell-if-its-love-or-love-bombing#:%7E:text=Love%2Dbombing%20is%20a%20form,to%20be%20in%20constant%20control.">“love-bombing”</a>.</p>
<p>It is this web of domination over victims that disempowers them and often prevents them from leaving a violent relationship. <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Journeys/ucdSDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">Many survivors</a> report the emotional and psychological strategies of abuse as the <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Coercive_Control/14x_zwEACAAJ?hl=en">longest lasting and most damaging</a> elements of an abusive relationship. For experts in the field of intimate partner violence, Ike’s behaviour is textbook coercive control.</p>
<p>What makes Turner’s escape inspiring is the many layers of threat she faced and resisted beyond physical violence.</p>
<h2>A strong (and vulnerable) black woman</h2>
<p>Much of the media coverage of Turner’s victim-survivor status overlooks the fact that as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J015v25n03_11?casa_token=dPGdaafPGfUAAAAA:LENqaPgGcV-Q8dRlXdb_bNB8cz1s_488VEXzdDCpfY3BADgIVJixdFzN2s67wDjCIB6WIF5Ox5Yrhw">a black woman she walked a fine line in speaking publicly</a> about her experiences.</p>
<p>Research has repeatedly found that <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Coercive_Control/JgxZEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">intersectional issues</a> are faced by black women who speak out and seek support for abuse. <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/On_Intersectionality/Jkk2DgAAQBAJ?hl=en">Intersectionality</a> describes multiple challenges or disadvantages faced by an individual with overlapping social identities, such as being a black woman. Stereotypes are one example. </p>
<p>In criminological theory, the stereotypical “<a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-08305-3_2">ideal victim</a>” is perceived as weak and submissive. This stereotype has been attached to the notion of the “battered woman” even though it does not match most <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Coercive_Control/14x_zwEACAAJ?hl=en">survivor experiences of resistance</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OPF9WW7pDVw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Tina Turner speaking about the abuse she experienced.</span></figcaption>
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<p>There remains a widespread lack of understanding of abuse survivors as resourceful and resilient – as opposed to weak. The stereotype of the “strong black woman”, who is fiercely loving, feisty and independent is even more <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Battle_Cries/AlW5wAEACAAJ?hl=en">at odds with the “battered woman”</a> trope. Many <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Compelled_to_Crime/2z1D5Lt9eCAC?hl=en">black female survivors are criminalised</a> as a result of this dissonance. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX8t-a-Ny3w">black male identity</a> is likewise affected by deeply embedded stereotypes. Most survivors, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPF9WW7pDVw">including Turner</a>, offer loyalty as a reason for keeping abuse private, fearing social repercussions if their partner is labelled as an abuser.</p>
<p>Speaking out publicly as a black woman was complex for Turner, and as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cso1TgJrbZf/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">other black women have expressed</a>, her bravery and steadfastness has inspired many others to follow suit.</p>
<h2>More than a survivor</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/how-tina-turner-inspired-domestic-violence-survivors-but-never-let-abuse-define-her-12889335">media coverage</a> over recent days has pointed out, Turner refused to be defined by her experiences. In this regard, she is typical of a survivor of abuse, not an exception.</p>
<p>Stereotypes of abuse victims as weak and submissive often lead to popular coverage which assumes that victimhood dominates a survivor’s social identity. In <a href="https://www.shu.ac.uk/helena-kennedy-centre-international-justice/postgraduate-study/student-research-sarah-tatton">my research</a>, however, survivors often tell me that they “refused to be a victim”. What they mean as they discuss their circumstances is that they are so much more than the stereotypical “victim” of domestic abuse.</p>
<p>Turner was the epitome of the victim-survivor, breaking free and living her life to the full. Not all victims are privileged to have the resources to live a rockstar lifestyle. On the contrary, many are left financially destitute and often have their reputation dismantled, but all are far more than “victims”.</p>
<p>In the month before she died, Turner <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/apr/08/tina-turner-interview">was asked how she wanted to be remembered</a>. For all the inspiration and the enormous influence she had as a survivor of intimate partner abuse, she wanted to be remembered for the person she was and the work she did – as the queen of rock and roll.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Sarah Tatton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Much of the media coverage of Tina Turner’s victim-survivor status overlooks the fact that as a black woman she walked a fine line in speaking publicly about her experiences.Dr Sarah Tatton, PhD Candidate and Associate Lecturer in Criminology, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2049542023-05-12T11:17:29Z2023-05-12T11:17:29ZThe UK is offering payments to abuse victims – but it may not be enough to help them leave<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524441/original/file-20230504-21-ujqaa6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=137%2C30%2C2811%2C1931&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-sitting-alone-depressed-345397208">Marjan Apostolovic/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/domesticabuseinenglandandwalesoverview/november2022">1.7 million women</a> in England and Wales who are victims of domestic abuse, the cost of living crisis has added more barriers to leaving their abuser. The charity Women’s Aid has found that the vast majority of women living with their abuser have now found it <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/the-cost-of-living/">even more difficult</a> to leave for financial reasons.</p>
<p>In partnership with Women’s Aid, the Home Office is attempting to combat this through a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/victims-fleeing-domestic-abuse-given-lifeline-payments">new scheme</a> to support victims in leaving their abuser. The fund will provide a one-off payment of £250 to individuals experiencing abuse, and £500 if they have children.</p>
<p>Over the last few years, my colleagues and I have been <a href="https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/project/effects-domestic-violence-childrens-well-being">using population data</a> to understand how social inequality plays a role in domestic abuse among mothers with young children in Scotland. Even without factoring in the rising cost of living, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0886260520980392">our research revealed</a> that mothers of young children who were living on the lowest incomes were disproportionately more likely to report experiencing domestic abuse, and to experience more types of abuse, more often, than those on higher incomes.</p>
<p>To put it simply, money matters. Without access to funds, victims of abuse are unlikely to be able to take the necessary steps to leave an abuser if they wish to. Victims also often experience <a href="https://survivingeconomicabuse.org/">economic abuse</a>, where a partner or ex-partner is controlling their access to finances and their freedom to pay for things like clothing, transport or a new place to live.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-victims-of-domestic-abuse-dont-leave-four-experts-explain-176212">Why victims of domestic abuse don't leave – four experts explain</a>
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<p>Eligibility for the new fund will be based on a number of <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/excellent-start-as-government-announces-pilot-of-emergency-fund-for-domestic-abuse-survivors/">criteria</a>, such as whether someone is financially dependent on an abusive partner or is unable to access their own money or benefits. It is not clear how (or if) victims will need to prove this criteria.</p>
<p>Funds will be distributed in one of several ways depending on the circumstances. This could mean vouchers, cash or bank transfer – though this may not be appropriate where an abuser controls a survivor’s bank account.</p>
<h2>How much does it cost to leave?</h2>
<p>In today’s financial climate, the amount of money being offered is unlikely to make a substantial difference for domestic abuse survivors who cannot leave an abuser due to a lack of resources.</p>
<p>It is tricky of course to estimate what the cost of leaving an abuser actually is, and the number will vary depending on the case. The Canadian charity <a href="https://resiliencemi.org/about-us/">Resilience</a> has estimated the cost of leaving to be <a href="https://resiliencemi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Cost-of-Leaving-7.png">between £17,600 and £26,500</a>. A calculation that includes childcare, legal support and housing.</p>
<p>Money is not the only resource required. In 2017, the Australian Council for Trade Unions noted that leaving an abuser on average required investing <a href="https://www.actu.org.au/media/1033563/actu-release-171128-fdv-leave-greens.pdf">141 hours of time</a> during business hours. This is a time commitment that many women, especially if working in inflexible low-paying jobs, will not be able to afford.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A worried-looking young woman sitting on the couch with a credit card in one hand and her head resting on her other hand. she is looking at a laptop computer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524446/original/file-20230504-23-nw51m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524446/original/file-20230504-23-nw51m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524446/original/file-20230504-23-nw51m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524446/original/file-20230504-23-nw51m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524446/original/file-20230504-23-nw51m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524446/original/file-20230504-23-nw51m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524446/original/file-20230504-23-nw51m8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Economic abuse can involve control over or blocking access to finances.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/unhappy-millennial-african-american-woman-distressed-2025356384">Fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And leaving comes with other risks. According to data from the 2020 Femicide Census for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, <a href="https://www.femicidecensus.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/010998-2020-Femicide-Report_V2.pdf">37% of women</a> killed by a male current or former partner had separated or taken steps to separate in the run up to their murder.</p>
<p>Leaving an abuser makes women (and children where there are any) homeless, and forces victims to lose vital support networks they may have in their community. <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/thelastingimpactofviolenceagainstwomenandgirls/2021-11-24">Data from</a> the UK’s Office for National Statistics suggests that one in 11 households in England who were homeless or threatened with homelessness cited domestic abuse as the main reason for this. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/The-Domestic-Abuse-Report-2020-The-Hidden-Housing-Crisis.pdf">Women’s Aid</a>, security and safety of housing is the primary barrier for women attempting to leave an abuser.</p>
<h2>The bigger picture of abuse</h2>
<p>There is one more consideration – the leaving fund puts the onus on victims of domestic abuse to leave their home without addressing the actions of the abuser. </p>
<p>There are other potential spaces for policy action. These include ensuring that there is proper law enforcement for perpetrators of abuse when such abuse is reported to the authorities. </p>
<p>We know that there are <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/wp-content/uploads/the-police-response-to-domestic-abuse-an-update-report.pdf">serious deficiencies</a> when it comes to the police response to domestic abuse in England and Wales. These include delays in sending officers to victims at risk, poor understanding of coercive control among officers, worryingly low and falling arrest rates for abuse perpetrators.</p>
<p>When arrests do happen, and when they lead to prison sentences, femicides (the murder of women because they are women, usually at the hands of male partners) come with the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/03/the-killing-of-joanna-simpson-she-was-bludgeoned-and-buried-by-her-husband-why-is-he-being-set-free">lowest prison sentences</a> compared with other murders, raising questions about social norms and attitudes towards domestic homicides. The <a href="https://www.femicidecensus.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/010998-2020-Femicide-Report_V2.pdf">2020 Femicide Census</a> notes that in 48% of cases, perpetrators had a known history of violence and abuse.</p>
<p>Government data <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-patchwork-of-provision-mapping-report/a-patchwork-of-provision-mapping-report-accessible#recommendations-and-next-steps">reveals</a> that behaviour-change intervention for perpetrators is severely lacking across the country.</p>
<p>The leaving fund is a step in the right direction in its aim to support women financially to leave an abuser. But the amount being offered is too little, and without addressing the broader structural factors that affect victims of domestic abuse, such as a lack of housing, sub-optimal law enforcement and unfavourable social attitudes to domestic abuse, this will likely be a drop in the ocean.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204954/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Valeria Skafida receives funding from Nuffield Foundation, grant number WEL/43875, but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily the Foundation. </span></em></p>The cost of living crisis is making it even harder for women to leave their abusers.Valeria Skafida, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1980222023-01-31T12:55:27Z2023-01-31T12:55:27ZNetflix’s Pamela, A Love Story overturns
stereotypes about victims of intimate partner abuse<p>Pamela Anderson’s Netflix documentary is worth watching for many reasons, but one of the greatest lessons it has to offer is what a victim-survivor of intimate partner abuse looks like: resilient, resourceful, eternally optimistic and compassionate.</p>
<p>Unlike most other victim-survivors, Anderson has been granted a platform for a narrative we still rarely hear in the mass media but which <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Coercive_Control/8h0TDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=evan+stark+coercive+control&printsec=frontcover">professionals in the field have known for decades</a>. People who experience intimate partner abuse are not the submissive stereotype but often strong willed and resistant. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3SBJB8r8fVQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Pamela, A Love Story, on Netflix.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Netflix are billing Pamela, A Love Story as a “humanising documentary”, necessary precisely because this is a woman who has been systematically dehumanised by media narratives throughout her life. </p>
<p>Anderson’s voice has always been drowned out by the stories other people have written about her. Most recently her experiences in her relationship with Tommy Lee and the exploitation of her reputation and private life have been mined without her consent in Hulu’s drama series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-watch-pam-and-tommy-the-series-turns-someones-trauma-into-entertainment-176844">Pam and Tommy</a> (2022). </p>
<p>This has prompted a woman who has finally found her power (spoiler, it was inside her all along) to tell her own story, out loud and in control of her narrative.</p>
<h2>Narrative power and intimate partner abuse</h2>
<p><a href="https://kenplummer.com/2019/06/04/narrative-power/">Narrative power</a> is an important aspect of social identity – and taking control of it is one of the most powerful tools used by perpetrators of coercive and controlling behaviour.</p>
<p>Techniques such as <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/gaslighting">gaslighting</a> (where an abuser constructs a false reality by denying and contradicting their victim’s perception) manipulate and degrade the victim’s sense of reality and their sense of self. Yet it is not only within the abusive intimate relationship that a victim’s sense of identity can be warped by narrative.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white photo shows Pamela leaning affectionately on the shoulder of her adult son Brandon." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504909/original/file-20230117-22-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504909/original/file-20230117-22-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504909/original/file-20230117-22-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504909/original/file-20230117-22-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504909/original/file-20230117-22-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504909/original/file-20230117-22-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504909/original/file-20230117-22-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pamela Anderson with her son Brandon Lee in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cap-dantibes-france-may-23-brandon-1447025672">Andrea Raffin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Criminologist Nils Christie drew attention to what many of us think of when we consider victims of crime – especially victims of intimate partner abuse - in his classic work on the “<a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-08305-3_2">ideal victim”</a>. Christie explained that we view victims as inherently weak or vulnerable and that anyone who deviates from this is not considered a “real” victim. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.shu.ac.uk/helena-kennedy-centre-international-justice/postgraduate-study/student-research-sarah-tatton">my research</a> as an expert in intimate partner abuse, I often hear the common misconception that victims are submissive and dependent. Those who show resistance to their abuser are considered to be complicit or provocative.</p>
<p>Many victim-survivors I’ve spoken to explain – just like Anderson does in her Netflix documentary – that they do not perceive themselves as victims. This is because they do not align with the “ideal victim” stereotype. Instead, they see themselves as strong and fiercely independent, and with good reason.</p>
<h2>Optimism and compassion</h2>
<p>Pamela Anderson is eternally optimistic and compassionate – she believes in love and romance. We hear the story of how Lee “wooed” her with constant messages and a whirlwind of drugs and champagne before they settled into a life dominated by his heavy drinking and control of her everyday activities.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504905/original/file-20230117-14-u71c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Pamela Anderson wears a long red dress and large black hat, holding hands with ex husband Tommy Lee who is shirtless beneath a feather black jacket and wearing leather trousers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504905/original/file-20230117-14-u71c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504905/original/file-20230117-14-u71c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504905/original/file-20230117-14-u71c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504905/original/file-20230117-14-u71c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504905/original/file-20230117-14-u71c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504905/original/file-20230117-14-u71c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504905/original/file-20230117-14-u71c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">With ex husband Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee in 1997.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/27jan97-baywatch-star-pamela-anderson-lee-93667795">Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>It’s only looking back, she says, that she sees these red flags. Anderson continued to believe in her love story as she juggled young children, a gruelling work schedule and media onslaught.</p>
<p>“I thought I could love him/her better” is a common refrain in the work that I do. Persistence in an abusive relationship is not submission but fierce loyalty and generosity. Even after the relationship with Lee ends, Anderson retains her faith in romance, going on to marry three more times in attempt to find it.</p>
<p>It’s evident that she is not dependent on men – it’s clear that she was the one holding her life with Lee together. She just believes in the love stories we are all saturated in.</p>
<h2>Resilience and grief</h2>
<p>Anderson is also resilient. She withstood Lee’s demanding behaviour until the point that he attacked her physically. </p>
<p>At that point, she ended the relationship swiftly and with conviction, admitting that she was lucky to have the resources to do so. But she continues to co-parent with Lee and she endures the trauma of having had her most private moments revealed to the world in the infamous “sex tape” with integrity.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-watch-pam-and-tommy-the-series-turns-someones-trauma-into-entertainment-176844">Don't watch Pam and Tommy – the series turns someone's trauma into entertainment</a>
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<p>The documentary uses old photographs and videos to tell the story of how Anderson made a safe and happy life for her young sons, despite the heartbreak of “not being able to make it work with the father of my children” – a grief she carries still.</p>
<p>This is not to say that victim-survivors are invincible. Anderson explains that she doesn’t see herself as a victim, but as someone who puts herself into “crazy situations” and survives.</p>
<h2>A resourceful survivor</h2>
<p>Anderson uses the status she has been conferred with – “sex-symbol” and “thing that belongs to the world” – to campaign for animal rights, an issue she is passionate about.</p>
<p>In a montage of chat show interviews, she is seen sidestepping the hosts’ jokes about “the sex tape” and relationship with Lee to talk about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x64TykhnzNg">her work with the animal charity Peta</a>. But the most poignant example of her resourcefulness comes through her pieces to camera – especially towards the end of the documentary, where we see her draw on her reputation and her survival instinct to train for the starring role in Chicago.</p>
<p>Anderson has transformed her experiences into wisdom, self-reliance and confidence. </p>
<p>In one of my research interviews, a victim-survivor told me: “I’m stronger than I could ever have been if this hadn’t happened.” This <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/may/09/pamela-anderson-chicago-broadway-roxie-hart">glows</a> from Anderson too, as she’s shown performing on the Broadway stage at the end of the documentary.</p>
<p>It is not enough for Pamela Anderson to tell her story – it needs to be heard. I hope the world is ready to listen carefully.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198022/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Sarah Tatton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An expert in intimate partner abuse on why the world should ‘listen carefully’ to Pamela Anderson’s Netflix documentary.Dr Sarah Tatton, PhD Candidate and Associate Lecturer in Criminology, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1967122022-12-22T18:34:28Z2022-12-22T18:34:28ZHelping male victims of domestic abuse can benefit society as a whole<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502230/original/file-20221220-15-dqrok9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C39%2C5299%2C3492&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Around one in five men experience physical violence in an intimate relationship every year.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/helping-male-victims-of-domestic-abuse-can-benefit-society-as-a-whole" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Every year in early December, the UN holds its <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/in-focus/2022/11/in-focus-16-days-of-activism-against-gender-based-violence">16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence</a>. The issue is one that <a href="https://women-gender-equality.canada.ca/en/gender-based-violence-knowledge-centre/gender-based-violence-its-not-just.html">can affect everyone</a> regardless of their sex, gender or gender identity. </p>
<p>However, men who experience violence, and efforts to prevent violence against men and boys, are conspicuously lacking from the gender-based violence discussion. Despite solid evidence of men’s experiences of violent victimization in <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2021001/article/00016-eng.htm">Canada</a>, <a href="https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/60893">the U.S.</a> and elsewhere, services for them are virtually non-existent. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2022/08/sterling-prize-recipient-alexandra-lysova-shrugs-off-controversy.html">I have been studying men’s intimate partner victimization and domestic violence more generally for over 15 years</a>. I believe that helping male victims of intimate partner abuse will also address violence against women and girls by breaking the cycle of violence, and will benefit society as a whole. </p>
<h2>Men as victims of intimate partner violence</h2>
<p>Men are overrepresented among victims of <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/Booklet1.pdf">homicide</a> and <a href="https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Mental-Health-and-Suicide-Prevention-in-Men.pdf">suicide</a>. Research on intimate partner violence — recently highlighted by <a href="https://theconversation.com/depp-v-heard-verdict-is-a-turning-point-in-discussion-of-intimate-partner-violence-184424">the <em>Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard</em> case</a> — suggests that men can also become victims of female-perpetrated partner violence. </p>
<p>Self-reported population studies — one of the major sources of data on partner violence — identified that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1891/1946-6560.3.2.140">one in five men (19.3 per cent)</a> in North America and western Europe experience physical violence in an intimate relationship annually.</p>
<p>In Canada, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520922352">about 655,000 men</a> reported having experienced physical victimization in intimate relationships between 2004 and 2014. Moreover, about 64,000 of these men experienced the most severe type of partner abuse characterized by repeated and severe physical and psychological violence with a high probability of injuries and negative emotional effects. </p>
<p>A U.S study found that people in same-sex relationships can experience <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29994648">higher levels of domestic violence</a>. Just over half <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2019001/article/00005-eng.htm">(55 per cent)</a> of police-reported same-sex partner violence in Canada involved male partners. These individuals may face special barriers when it comes to discussing their experiences or seeking help.</p>
<p>We are also learning that men are at a higher risk of experiencing legal and administrative abuse in the intimate relationships, including false accusations of abuse. A 2020 survey found that 11 per cent of American men <a href="https://www.prosecutorintegrity.org/pr/survey-over-20-million-have-been-falsely-accused-of-abuse/">reported being falsely accused of domestic violence or other forms of abuse</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502232/original/file-20221220-12-31d0ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man with his head in his hand is comforted by other people." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502232/original/file-20221220-12-31d0ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502232/original/file-20221220-12-31d0ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502232/original/file-20221220-12-31d0ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502232/original/file-20221220-12-31d0ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502232/original/file-20221220-12-31d0ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502232/original/file-20221220-12-31d0ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502232/original/file-20221220-12-31d0ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Men often experience gender-specific barriers when seeking help for dealing with domestic violence, but there are far fewer services available to them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The second major source of data — police-reported statistics — indicates that women are more likely to experience the most severe injurious violence and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61030-2">intimate partner homicide</a>. Police-reported data also reveals that women and girls make up <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221019/dq221019c-eng.htm">almost 70 per cent</a> of family-violence victims in Canada. There are however limitations on police-reported data. For example, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221019/dq221019c-eng.htm">about 80 per cent</a> of victims of abuse never report it to the police, and <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/85-002-x/2021001/article/00016-eng.pdf?st=8udlmN8X">men tend to underreport</a> spousal violence compared to women. </p>
<p>Despite underreporting, police data identified concerning trends of family violence for male victims. Between 2009 and 2021, the rates of police-reported family-violence in Canada decreased by five per cent for women and girls but <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221019/dq221019c-eng.htm">increased by four per cent for men and boys</a>. </p>
<h2>Gap in services for men</h2>
<p>Like other victims, men require attention and help with recognizing abuse earlier so they can cope with the consequences of abuse more effectively.</p>
<p>An international study I was a part of in 2020 found gender-specific <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X20919710">barriers to men seeking help</a>, including not recognizing or calling what happened to them abuse, trying to live up to notions of “manliness” (being a victim may be seen as unmanly), trying to fix the relationship, protecting children and simply because they had nowhere to go for help. </p>
<p>There is a drastic <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2022027-eng.htm">service gap for male victims of abuse</a> compared to female victims of partner abuse. Among 557 government-funded residential facilities for victims of crime in Canada, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00006-eng.pdf">only 24 reported being mandated to also serve men in addition to women</a>. </p>
<h2>Breaking the cycle of violence</h2>
<p>Adults are not the only victims of domestic abuse. Children’s exposure to domestic violence – when children witness a parent assault another parent or partner — is a widespread social problem. </p>
<p>Around <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.0676">25 per cent of youth</a> in the U.S. are affected by it in their lifetime. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-015-9783-x">Children of men</a> who are victimized by their female partners often witness the violence and/or experience direct physical and emotional abuse.</p>
<p>Preventing violence by any partner can help to break the cycle of violence — or what is known as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8999-8_2">the intergenerational transmission of violence</a>. That is when children who witness or experience abuse are more likely to engage in violent partner relationships in adulthood. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502231/original/file-20221220-26-2d2215.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An image of shadows on a wall showing a man and woman arguing which a child sits nearby." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502231/original/file-20221220-26-2d2215.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502231/original/file-20221220-26-2d2215.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502231/original/file-20221220-26-2d2215.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502231/original/file-20221220-26-2d2215.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502231/original/file-20221220-26-2d2215.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502231/original/file-20221220-26-2d2215.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502231/original/file-20221220-26-2d2215.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children who witness violence in the home are more likely to carry those experiences over into their adult relationships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Moreover, boys are much more likely than girls to experience <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/85-002-x/2017001/article/14698-eng.pdf?st=VVPO3JZy">physical childhood abuse</a>, including being kicked, bitten, punched, choked, burned or otherwise attacked. Eliminating this type of abuse could reduce men’s perpetration of violence against women and children in their future relationship. </p>
<p>Many people might think that most intimate partner violence is perpetrated only by men and directed toward women. However, the most common pattern of abuse is <a href="https://www.gmu.edu/news/2022-06/depp-heard-trial-shines-light-bidirectional-intimate-partner-violence">bidirectional violence</a>. That is, violence perpetrated and experienced by both people in a relationship. Around <a href="https://doi.org/10.1891/1946-6560.3.2.e3">58 per cent</a> of reported cases of intimate partner violence were bidirectional. </p>
<p>The impact of the bidirectional violence can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2005.079020">very serious</a>, including physical injury and mental health problems for both partners. Recognizing and addressing partner violence that involves mutually violent couples can reduce violence against both men and women.</p>
<h2>Helping men means saving lives</h2>
<p>Strong evidence suggests that helping male victims of domestic violence can help reduce the likelihood of homicide for both men and women. In the U.S. and Canada, research has shown that when abused women are able to leave violent relationships, like finding refuge in a shelter for abused women, there is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767999003003001">a reduction in female-perpetrated homicides</a>. </p>
<p>If abused men had similar opportunities to receive timely help, it could prevent abusive relationships from escalating, and potentially reduce male-perpetrated homicides as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819463-8.00012-5">the deaths of men</a> who are killed by their partners. </p>
<p>It is time to recognize men’s experiences of violence and abuse, not only as perpetrators but also as victims. <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/women-gender-equality/news/2022/11/canada-supports-engagement-for-men-and-boys-to-end-gender-based-violence.html">Engaging men</a> in reducing gender-based violence against women is important, but not enough. </p>
<p>Helping men and boys prevent violence in their own lives and providing them with support to address the consequences of partner abuse is the next important step in eliminating intimate partner violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196712/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Lysova receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She had a research collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Men and Families. </span></em></p>Providing men who suffer domestic abuse with the help they need can also reduce violence experienced by women and children.Alexandra Lysova, Associate Professor of Criminology, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1952732022-12-05T13:26:14Z2022-12-05T13:26:14ZA judge in Texas is using a recent Supreme Court ruling to allow domestic abusers to keep their guns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498785/original/file-20221204-16605-8lpn7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C3008%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taking guns from abusers saves lives.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/gun-royalty-free-image/1007622020?phrase=gun%20law&adppopup=true">Kameleon007 via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For a large part of the history of the United States, <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781635570977">domestic abuse was tolerated</a> under the nation’s legal system. There were few laws <a href="https://doi.org//10.1353/eam.2007.0008">criminalizing</a> <a href="https://doi.org//10.1086/449151">domestic violence</a>, and enforcement of the existing laws was rare. </p>
<p>It was only in the <a href="https://jaapl.org/content/38/3/376">past few decades</a> that laws criminalizing domestic violence came to be widespread and enforced. But now, the U.S. is in danger of backtracking on that legal framework precisely because of the <a href="https://doi.org//10.1086/449151">nation’s historical legacy</a> of turning a blind eye to domestic violence.</p>
<p>On Nov. 10, 2022, a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txwd.1177458/gov.uscourts.txwd.1177458.55.0.pdf">judge in the Western District of Texas</a> struck down the federal law that prohibits access to guns for people subject to domestic violence protection orders. He did this based on a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/20-843">NYSRPA v. Bruen</a>, which held that, to be constitutional, a firearm restriction must be analogous to laws that were in existence when the country was founded. In other words, disarming domestic abusers violates the Second Amendment because those types of laws didn’t exist at the founding of the country.</p>
<p>In a separate, but related, case, the 5th U.S. Circuit of Court of Appeals on Feb 1. sided with the Texas judge, ruling that the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/02/politics/domestic-violence-guns-fifth-circuit/index.html">federal ban was unconstitutional</a>. The Justice Department has indicated that it will appeal.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://sph.umich.edu/faculty-profiles/zeoli-april.html">study the link between gun laws</a> <a href="https://publichealth.jhu.edu/faculty/240/shannon-frattaroli">and domestic violence in the U.S.</a> and know that backtracking on laws that prevent the perpetrators of domestic violence from getting their hands on guns will put lives at risk – the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20363814/">research </a>has proved this time and time again. </p>
<h2>Putting lives in danger</h2>
<p>At present, <a href="http://disarmdv.org/">federal law</a> prohibits persons subject to final – rather than temporary – domestic violence protection orders from purchasing or possessing firearms. In addition, 39 states and the District of Columbia have similar prohibitions on their statutes, with many expanding the restrictions to include individuals under temporary, or ex parte, orders prior to a full hearing.</p>
<p>Ruling that these laws are unconstitutional will put mainly women and children in danger. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31245255/">More than 50%</a> of women who are murdered are killed by intimate partners, and <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-14080-005">most of those homicides</a> are committed with guns. A 2003 study found that when an abusive man has access to a gun, it <a href="https://doi.org//10.2105/ajph.93.7.1089">increases the risk</a> of intimate partner homicide by 400%.</p>
<p>Women constitute the <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-10.xls">majority of victims</a> of intimate partner homicide, and almost <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28630118/">one-third of children under the age of 13</a> who are murdered with a gun are killed in the context of domestic violence. </p>
<p>Moreover, <a href="https://injepijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40621-021-00330-0">68% of mass shooters</a> have a history of domestic violence or killed an intimate partner in the mass shooting.</p>
<p>Enforcement of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20088664/">gun restrictions is spotty</a>, with further research needed as to how systematically they are ordered and whether restricted individuals relinquish firearms they already possess. Nonetheless, research shows that firearm restrictions on domestic violence protection orders save lives. <a href="https://doi.org//10.1093/aje/kwy174">Multiple studies</a> conclude that these laws are associated with an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0193841X06287307">8%-10% reduction</a> in intimate partner homicide.</p>
<p>Specifically, there are <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30383263/">statistically significant reductions</a> in intimate partner homicide when the firearm restriction covers both dating partners and those subjected to temporary orders. This decrease is seen in total intimate partner homicide, not just intimate partner homicide committed with guns, nullifying the argument that abusers will use other weapons to kill.</p>
<p>Moreover, these laws have broad support across the country – <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7859883/">more than 80%</a> of respondents to two national polls in 2017 and 2019 said they favor them.</p>
<p>Americans – whether male or female, gun owner or non-gun owner – tend to agree that domestic abusers should not be able to purchase or possess firearms while they are subject to a domestic violence protection order. Most seem to realize that such reasonable restrictions serve the greater good of keeping families and communities safe. </p>
<h2>A disregard for data</h2>
<p>The ruling in Texas was based on an originalist legal argument rather than the data. Under the judge’s interpretation of the Bruen decision, because colonial law – written before a time when women could vote, let alone be protected in law from violent spouses – didn’t restrict domestic abusers’ gun rights, then it simply isn’t constitutional to do so now. In effect, the ruling, should it stand, would mean the U.S. is unable to escape the nation’s <a href="https://doi.org//10.1086/449151">historic legal disregard for domestic violence</a>.</p>
<p>It also disregards the harm that allowing domestic abusers to keep hold of guns does. Multiple studies demonstrate that domestic violence firearm restriction laws are <a href="https://doi.org//10.1136/ip.2009.024620">effective </a>and <a href="http://doi.org//10.1093/aje/kwy174">save</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0193841X06287307">lives</a>.</p>
<p>That research shows that, should the Texas ruling stand, people who suffer abuse at the hands of an intimate partner are at greater risk of that abuse being deadly. </p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-geller">Lisa Geller</a>, director of state affairs at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story was updated on Feb. 3, 2022 to include the ruling from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195273/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research shows that removing guns from violent abusers saves lives. But laws doing just that are at risk of being ruled unconstitutional, following a landmark Supreme Court guns case.April M. Zeoli, Associate Professor of Public Health, University of MichiganShannon Frattaroli, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1931662022-10-26T14:46:15Z2022-10-26T14:46:15ZWhat the UK ratifying the Istanbul convention on gendered violence means for women and girls<p>Working to end <a href="https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra-2014-vaw-survey-at-a-glance-oct14_en.pdf">violence against women</a> is a fraught endeavour. Not least because gaining international consensus and cooperation on issues around gender equality can be tense. </p>
<p>The scale of problem, however, is clear. The European Network for the Work with Perpetrators of Domestic Violence <a href="https://www.work-with-perpetrators.eu/ic#:%7E:text=Article%2016%20of%20the%20Istanbul,take%20a%20multi%2Dagency%20approach">notes</a> that one in three women globally has experienced either physical or sexual violence. In the EU, more than one in five women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence from a partner, with one in ten experiencing such violence as a child. </p>
<p>The Council of Europe launched its <a href="https://rm.coe.int/168008482e">convention</a> on preventing and combating violence against women in <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/istanbul-convention/key-facts#:%7E:text=A%20European%20landmark%20treaty%20to%20end%20violence%20against%20women&text=It%20is%20known%20as%20the,force%20following%20its%2010th%20ratification.">2011</a>. In the ten years since, commitment from certain signatories to the Istanbul convention (so named for the location of that initial committee meeting) has begun to waver. </p>
<p>In July 2021, Turkey pulled out, despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/turkey-erdogans-decision-to-pull-out-of-istanbul-convention-has-put-him-in-opposition-to-women-157753">a significant increase</a> in national rates of femicide in the past decade. More recently Poland <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2021/04/01/istanbul-convention-poland-moves-a-step-closer-to-quitting-domestic-violence-treaty">said it might</a> withdraw too, a move which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/26/poland-withdraw-from-treaty-violence-against-women-istanbul-convention">inspired protest marches</a> in Warsaw. </p>
<p>The convention aims to tackle violence – including domestic abuse, rape, female genital mutilation and forced marriage. Both Poland and Turkey, however, have denounced the impact it has on what they term <a href="https://www.swp-berlin.org/publikation/what-lies-behind-turkeys-withdrawal-from-the-istanbul-convention">“traditional family values”</a>. </p>
<p>On November 1 2022, the convention comes into force in the UK. The government has ascribed its lengthy delay to ratify the treaty to, variously, <a href="http://real.mtak.hu/122887/1/2020_7_Balogh.pdf">the lengthy process</a> involved in ensuring domestic law can comply, as well as the impact of <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-ratify-istanbul-convention-women-girls-rights-european-a8768606.html">austerity cuts</a> on services for victims and survivors. </p>
<p>Even as the UK becomes the 37th signatory state, <a href="https://www.ibanet.org/Violence-against-women-UK-ratifies-Istanbul-Convention-but-excludes-protection-for-migrants">critics highlight</a> its controversial decision to not commit to providing support for migrant women whose immigration status has not been resolved.</p>
<h2>Why signing the Istanbul convention matters</h2>
<p>The Istanbul convention is articulated around <a href="https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/istanbul-convention-preventing-and-combating-violence-against-women-and-domestic-violence/">four pillars</a>: prevention, protection, prosecution and coordinated policies. States that ratify it are legally bound to abide by these pillars as well as monitor their implementation.</p>
<p>The “prevention” pillar encompasses measures around promoting gender equality, challenging gender stereotypes and challenging attitudes that condone gendered violence. In particular, it stipulates that <a href="https://rm.coe.int/168046e1f2">perpetrator programmes</a> be set up. </p>
<p>When skilled professionals work with male perpetrators, it <a href="https://rm.coe.int/168046e1f2">can contribute</a> to the changes needed for violence against women to stop. It can shift belief systems and cultural and political attitudes towards gender hierarchies, gendered violence and gender discrimination.</p>
<p>In the UK, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2021/17/contents/enacted">Domestic Abuse Act 2021</a> strengthened the legislative framework around gendered violence and service provision for both victims and perpetrators. This new legislation means the UK can finally <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-05-17/debates/22051717000009/IstanbulConventionRatification">comply</a> with the Istanbul convention. </p>
<p>But in May 2022, former home secretary Priti Patel <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-05-17/hcws34">specified</a> that the UK would be making two key reservations. In particular, it has not agreed to the provision in <a href="https://rm.coe.int/168008482e">Article 59</a> of the treaty that victim-survivors with insecure immigration status be supported. </p>
<p>Charities, including <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/womens-aid-responds-istanbul-convention/">Women’s Aid</a>, have been hugely critical of this reservation. They note that this will only exacerbate the wider struggles migrant women face, in the context of the so-called <a href="https://www.jcwi.org.uk/the-hostile-environment-explained">hostile environment</a>. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/press/2022/4/626975e14/news-comment-unhcrs-grandi-fears-uk-legislation-dramatically-weaken-refugee.html">heavily critical</a> of the UK, noting that the <a href="https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3023">Nationality and Borders Act</a> “undermines established international refugee protection law and practices”. </p>
<p>The End Violence Against Women coalition, an umberalla organisation for women’s rights in the UK, has <a href="https://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Joint-IC-letter-30.05.22.pdf">labelled</a> the UK’s current exemption to the Istanbul convention as “disastrous”. In an open letter on May 30 2022, it stated that this will create a “two-tier system, where migrant women are given a lesser status and lesser protections”.</p>
<h2>What needs to be done for women to be safe</h2>
<p>Nicole Jacobs, the domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales, has <a href="https://domesticabusecommissioner.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Safety-Before-Status-Report-2021.pdf">highlighted</a> the risk undocumented migrant women face when unable to access state funds. She has also underlined risk of perpetrators exploiting victims insecure immigration status to further their abuse. </p>
<p>Jacobs has requested a “firewall” so that victims’ information would not be shared with immigration authorities. At present this has been <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1044721/Home_Office_Response_to__Safety_Before_Status__Report_FINAL_JAN_2022.pdf">rejected by the government</a>. </p>
<p>Before committing fully to the terms of the Istanbul convention, the home office <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1044721/Home_Office_Response_to__Safety_Before_Status__Report_FINAL_JAN_2022.pdf">says</a> it wishes to “establish the evidence base” on the issues migrant women face and the funding needed to support them. It places the onus on local areas to establish need. </p>
<p>In particular, the government wants to evaluate its Support for Migrants scheme, which is currently delivering support for women with <a href="https://southallblacksisters.org.uk/support-for-migrant-victims-scheme-smv-scheme/#:%7E:text=Referral%20pathways&text=Alternately%20they%20can%20be%20contacted,helpline%20on%20080%200731%208147">no recourse to public funds</a>. This pilot scheme, however, has limited funds. One charity administering it, the Southall Black Sisters non-profit, has reported it to be “<a href="https://southallblacksisters.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/SBS-briefing-Pilot-Project-1.pdf">wholly inadequate</a>”.</p>
<p>In 2020 charities, academics and police forces, among others, <a href="http://driveproject.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Call-to-Action-Final.pdf">called</a> for the UK government to do more to tackle domestic violence and gendered abuse. They expressed concern, in particular, that the UK’s <a href="https://www.osspc.eu/app/sites/default/files/inline-files/2021_OSSPC_UK_Country_Report_0.pdf">current perpetrator intervention programmes</a> do not have the necessary funding, capacity and governmental backing they need to function. </p>
<p>Ratifying the Istanbul convention is significant because it means the UK is now legally obliged to do better. The biggest problem, as our ongoing research <a href="https://www.osspc.eu/app/en/activities">suggests</a>, is that few professionals from the health, social work and criminal justice sectors in the UK even know about it. </p>
<p>They are unaware of how best to leverage its provisions to get what they need to do their jobs. Making sure they do is the first step to ensuring support for all victims, regardless of their immigration status, and holding perpetrators to account.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jade Levell receives funding for the project 'The Other Side of the Story: Perpetrators in Change' funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC) of the European Union (2014-2020). She is a board member of 'Working with Perpetrators European Network' (WWPEN). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalie Ward is an Associate Researcher for the project ‘The Other Side of the Story: Perpetrators in Change’ which is funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC) of the European Union (2014-2020).</span></em></p>The Istanbul convention aims to tackle violence, including domestic abuse, rape, female genital mutilation and forced marriage. Some states are wavering in their commitment to its provisions.Jade Levell, Senior Lecturer in Social and Public Policy (Criminology and Gender Violence), University of BristolRosalie Ward, PhD Candidate, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1899112022-09-26T11:11:13Z2022-09-26T11:11:13ZDomestic abuse and mental health remain taboo subjects for many Sikhs – with deadly consequences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485621/original/file-20220920-18-h5o4s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/italy-rome-april-2018indian-sikh-girl-1344242780">Nicola Palmieri</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The suicide of Mandeep Kaur caught the attention of people around the world. Kaur, a woman of Sikh heritage from Utter Pradesh in northern India and living in the US, <a href="https://news.abplive.com/news/india/mandeep-kaur-suicide-case-brother-appeals-help-us-bring-back-her-body-or-give-us-visa-1547583">posted a video</a> on social media that later went viral, in which she claimed to have been abused by her husband for years (he denies the allegations).</p>
<p>However the outpouring of online sympathy for this woman belies how the issues of domestic violence and abuse and mental health are perceived in Sikh communities, notably in the diaspora. As our literature review in the UK <a href="https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/28481/1/ejmh_2019_1_Kaur-Aujla_et_al_179_189.pdf">has highlighted</a>, there is a great deal of shame attached to women of Sikh heritage experiencing domestic abuse and subsequent <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31171045/">mental health problems</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, these issues are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/figure/10.1080/19438192.2013.722383?scroll=top&needAccess=true">rarely properly acknowledged</a> as even being a Sikh healthcare issue and the women affected very often don’t get the help they need. This was particularly the case during <a href="https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2021/01/26/domestic-violence-in-lockdown-the-needs-of-black-and-minoritised-communities-during-the-pandemic/">the pandemic</a>. You can even see this is in the way such incidents of domestic abuse that do receive publicity are <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/perspective/sikh-census.aspx">often categorised</a> informally as relating to broader groups such as Punjabis or even South Asians in general rather than <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Self-silencing-among-Punjabi-women%3A-the-interplay-Bhadra/8a99c8ad52b96338406a36b37490e334d900d1ab">Sikhs specifically</a>.</p>
<p>Research has <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/1dFBDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA172&dq=pande+suicides+in+southall">long identified</a> that suicide among women of Sikh heritage in the UK is connected to the particular problem of <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-2266-6_25">domestic abuse and violence</a>. There are also other cultural factors that <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/1dFBDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA172&dq=pande+suicides+in+southall">have been linked</a> to this deeply entrenched issue. </p>
<p>These include the financial demands placed on newlywed women through the practice of paying a dowry and persistent patriarchal attitudes that lead to tolerance of abuse and violence by parents of men. Unfulfilling expectations from marriage and lack of understanding and support from the household and community can also be problems.</p>
<h2>Cultural barriers</h2>
<p>At the same time, Sikhs often face cultural barriers to accessing mental health services. <a href="https://repository.uel.ac.uk/download/f1bf93df46de3136cb3e0d8209739fffa543636bdacb319b5370a6a39ff38930/5379827/u1331813%2520thesis.pdf">Research has shown</a> some Sikhs may perceive themselves as warriors who should be able to overcome and psychological distress by themselves, not as sufferers of mental ill health. </p>
<p>Sikhs living in western countries may also feel medical services don’t <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/FINAL-Reframing-the-links.pdf">understand their culture</a>. And they can fear that reporting domestic abuse could be followed by breaches in confidentiality that would expose their issues to the rest of the community.</p>
<p>Discussing mental health issues publicly is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02759527.2008.11932581">often considered</a> to bring <em>behzti</em> (dishonour) to the family. <a href="https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/services/services-libraries/theses/Pages/item.aspx?idNumber=1032907520">Research shows</a> that first generation immigrants and older generations demonstrate a particular lack of understanding of their children’s mental health needs in this respect.</p>
<figure class="align-Temples should be a place of support for women of Sikh heritage ">
<img alt="Women wearing white head covering plays keyboard and sings inside temple" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485623/original/file-20220920-11487-2euzzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">shutterstock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dubaiuaemarch112019-panjabi-indian-lady-singing-songs-1350279728">Abie Davies/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One solution to this problem might be for mental health services to recruit more Sikh staff who have the cultural knowledge to deal with the community-specific issues, particularly those <a href="http://repository.cityu.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.11803/1626/SavneetSinghCapstone.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">created by stigma</a>. Medical providers can also work with local temples to <a href="https://shabd.co.uk/">reach out</a> and offer such services.</p>
<p>But we <a href="https://www.sikhsanjog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Sikh-Women-Speak-Report-PDF3375.pdf">shouldn’t assume</a> that every Sikh woman wants a Sikh therapist, or even a South Asian therapist. In fact, fear of exposure might actually mean Sikh women would rather speak to someone outside of their tight-knit community. What is essential is that women are given the choice, can speak to therapists in their own language and are reassured that services are confidential.</p>
<p>Such solutions can only go so far, however. Only by recognising that there is an issue with domestic abuse and subsequent mental health issues that needs to be addressed can the Sikh community work closer with healthcare providers to prevent women <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0886109920916038">becoming victims again</a></p>
<p><a href="https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/content/when-a-panjabi-sister-set-fire-to-her-husband">Religious places</a> should be a key point of support for Sikh women, and there are now <a href="https://sikhguarding.co.uk">religious Sikh organisations</a> working to ensure women stay safe in these spaces. If temples and accredited psychological providers working together in an environment free of shame and denial can become the norm, then women of Sikh heritage are more likely to receive the support they need earlier. And perhaps cases like that of Mandeep Kaur will become less common.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harjinder Kaur-Aujla is affiliated with UCU Union as Branch President. Co-founder of Shabd, UK. She would like to express gratitude to: Dr Christopher Wagstaff and Dr Tarsem Cooner (University of Birmingham) for overall academic mentorship.
Members from Sikh Academic and Researcher Network, (SARN) for empowering and self-less service; Sikh Scientists for religious insights and external mentorship; Professor Farzana Shain and Dr Kate Lillie initial formulation and PhD advice;
Stephen Harris (The Conversation) for his patience and editing advice.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Wagstaff and Kate Lillie do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The recent suicide of Mandeep Kaur highlights how women of Sikh heritage can face shame and stigma.Harjinder Kaur-Aujla, Lecturer in Mental Health, University of BirminghamChristopher Wagstaff, Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of BirminghamKate Lillie, Lecturer in Adult Nursing, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1877642022-07-28T02:09:33Z2022-07-28T02:09:33ZHalf of Australians will experience technology-facilitated abuse in their lifetimes: new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476407/original/file-20220727-27-8zlna4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Technology-facilitated abuse is a form of interpersonal violence using mobile, online and/or digital technologies. It includes four main types of behaviours:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>monitoring and controlling, such as keeping track of where the victim/survivor is and who they are with</p></li>
<li><p>emotional abuse and threats, such as sending put-downs or threatening to harm the victim/survivor</p></li>
<li><p>harassment, such as sending offensive material or maintaining unwanted contact </p></li>
<li><p>sexual and image-based abuse, including sexual coercion as well as the taking or distribution of sexual imagery without consent.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In <a href="https://www.anrows.org.au/project/technology-facilitated-abuse-extent-nature-and-responses-in-the-australian-community/">a study</a> of 4,562 adult Australians, we explored the prevalence, nature and harms of technology-facilitated abuse. It is the first nationally representative survey of this kind. Our study included interviews with 20 adult victim-survivors and 10 perpetrators.</p>
<h2>How common is it?</h2>
<p>We found technology-facilitated abuse was very common. One in two (51%) Australian adults reported having experienced at least one abusive behaviour in their lifetime. </p>
<p>Most common was monitoring or controlling behaviours (34%). Emotional abuse and threats of harm were also common (31%), as was harassment (27%). A quarter of respondents had experienced sexual and image-based abuse. </p>
<p>A majority of victim/survivors (62%) said the perpetrator was a man. One in three (37%) said the perpetrator was a current or former intimate partner.</p>
<p>As for self-reported behaviour, one in four Australian adults (23%) reported having engaged in technology-facilitated abuse at least once in their lifetimes. Almost one in two perpetrators (48%) said the victim/survivor was a current or former intimate partner.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/technology-facilitated-abuse-of-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-women-is-rife-in-regional-and-remote-areas-171727">Technology-facilitated abuse of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women is rife in regional and remote areas</a>
</strong>
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</p>
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<h2>What does the abuse look like?</h2>
<p>Participants described various ways in which they experienced or perpetrated abuse. This included low-tech forms, such as threatening text messages, through to more high-tech behaviours, such as secretly installing malicious spyware on a digital device. Victim/survivors described having their online identities hacked through social media profiles, emails and location services, as well as being monitored through apps and tracking devices. </p>
<p>For many victim/survivors abused by a partner, the abusive behaviours started during the relationship and escalated after separating. This abuse included perpetrators using their children’s digital devices to control and monitor them after separation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476417/original/file-20220728-18173-y3ggyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476417/original/file-20220728-18173-y3ggyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476417/original/file-20220728-18173-y3ggyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476417/original/file-20220728-18173-y3ggyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476417/original/file-20220728-18173-y3ggyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476417/original/file-20220728-18173-y3ggyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476417/original/file-20220728-18173-y3ggyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More than a third of people who had experienced abuse said the perpetrator was a current or former partner.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Monitoring through technology was reported to have facilitated in-person stalking. It was also used to gaslight and psychologically abuse victim/survivors. Several participants reported that perpetrators would hack into their technologies, rather than directly contact them, as police often could not detect or prove this behaviour. </p>
<p>One of the most common forms of harassment described was repetitive, unwanted contact: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There was constant harassment via text message […] The amount of calls, there could be 30, 40, 50 calls a day.</p>
<p>I called her about 150 times in, I don’t know, a two-hour period […] It was probably to stress her out or something.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The harassment was often undertaken through multiple channels and platforms, particularly when the perpetrator had been blocked on one platform. Many victim/survivors reported feeling it was impossible to stop the unwanted contact, because perpetrators kept finding new ways to harass them.</p>
<h2>Who is being abused?</h2>
<p>Of those most likely to have experienced victimisation, there were high rates among sexuality diverse populations. Almost three in four (73%) of those identifying as LGB+ disclosed at least one victimisation experience. Indigenous and First Nations people also reported high victimisation, with seven in ten (70%) respondents reporting at least one such experience. Rates were also high for respondents with a disability, with almost three in five (57%) reporting at least one such experience. </p>
<p>We did not have a large enough sample of trans and gender-diverse participants to draw reliable statistics. However, our interview data showed those who were not cis-gender experienced unique forms of technology-facilitated abuse. They were often targeted because of their gender identity.</p>
<p>The high victimisation rate for minority groups could be attributed to their high uptake of communications technologies. Online spaces are an avenue to connect with communities, express their identities, seek help and find a space of belonging that may not be as readily accessible offline. </p>
<p>However, increased use of online spaces can increase exposure to technology-facilitated abuse. As <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1440783319833181">Bronwyn Carlson</a> found in relation to Indigenous Australians, positive use of online spaces can be “circumscribed by broader structural processes of homophobia, racism, and misogyny”. Some rates of victimisation for minority groups may be interpreted within this wider social context of inequality and discrimination. </p>
<p>We also found some differences in abuse according to gender. Women (40%) were more likely than men (32%) to experience abuse from a current or former intimate partner. Women were also more likely than men (28%; 19%) to have experienced repeated abuse from the same perpetrator, feel fearful due to the abuse (26%; 13%), and report that the same abuser had tried to control them in other ways (33%; 25%). </p>
<p>Women victims/survivors also had higher psychological distress scores than men victims/survivors. This indicates higher levels of anxiety and depression. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reports-of-revenge-porn-skyrocketed-during-lockdown-we-must-stop-blaming-victims-for-it-139659">Reports of 'revenge porn' skyrocketed during lockdown, we must stop blaming victims for it</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What does it mean?</h2>
<p>Overall, these results show many Australians experience technology-facilitated abuse, causing them great anxiety and distress. We must ensure support and justice responses cater to a diversity of victim/survivors. </p>
<p>Technology-facilitated abuse certainly has gendered dimensions. However, focusing on gender only is not sufficient to fully understand its prevalence, forms and impacts. </p>
<p>This is not a unique form of abuse. Rather, it is a tactic abusers use to target victim/survivors persistently and, often, anonymously. </p>
<p>There have been some recent changes to <a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/who-we-are/our-legislative-functions">improve responses and legal frameworks</a> relating to technology-facilitated abuse in Australia. Our research suggests more needs to be done. This relates not only to the law, but also to policy responses within organisations that may encounter victimisation or perpetration disclosures. </p>
<p>Ultimately, efforts to address technology-facilitated abuse need to be integrated into our strategies for responding to and preventing all forms of violence, abuse and inequality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187764/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asher Flynn receives funding from Australia's National Organisation for Women's Safety, the Australian Government Department of Social Services, the Australian Criminology Research Council and the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anastasia Powell receives funding from the Criminology Research Council and Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS). Anastasia is also a director of Our Watch (Australia's national organisation for the prevention of violence against women), and a member of the National Women's Safety Alliance (NWSA).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophie Hindes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As well as abuse, many Australian have also experienced threats of harm and harassing behaviour.Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash UniversityAnastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT UniversitySophie Hindes, PhD Candidate, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1867882022-07-25T13:44:33Z2022-07-25T13:44:33ZDomestic abuse: how survivors can get through family law court<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474300/original/file-20220715-22-tba1d0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Know that there is hope.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/vL300WiTaMs">matt hoffman | unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One year on from the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2021/17/contents/enacted">Domestic Abuse Act 2021</a> being enacted, survivors of domestic abuse in England and Wales are still navigating a broken system. Courts are massively under-resourced and face a huge <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/06/rape-and-domestic-violence-cases-will-be-hardest-hit-by-justice-backlog-says-police-chief">backlog</a>. Survivors often face cancellations, delays and postponements. And the wait for the next court date can be all-consuming. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/quite-irreparable-damage-child-family-violence-survivors-on-how-court-silenced-and-retraumatised-them-185198">In court</a>, survivors’ experiences vary hugely, but there are common challenges, from dealing with solicitors and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service to being scrutinised as a parent and not being heard or believed. What’s more, victims are often brought to court by their abusers, as a kind of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-victims-of-domestic-abuse-dont-leave-four-experts-explain-176212">punishment</a> for leaving them. </p>
<p>We are currently partnering with the UK Ministry of Justice, support services and survivors to create vlogs, based on the following advice that we hope will help people get through this process. They are grounded in both research and our personal experiences of surviving domestic abuse and dealing with legal proceedings. </p>
<h2>Prepare yourself</h2>
<p>Hearings are hugely taxing. You have to relive traumatic experiences. Prepare yourself for any additional stresses, such as being told that the court didn’t receive your statement. Breathe. There is nothing you can do to change bad organisation but you can control how you react to it.</p>
<p>Make sure you seek advice and support from organisations such as <a href="https://www.flows.org.uk/">FLOWS</a>, the <a href="https://www.ncdv.org.uk/">National Centre for Domestic Violence</a>, <a href="https://injunction.courtnav.org.uk/">CourtNav</a> and support services such as the <a href="https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/">National Domestic Abuse Helpline</a>, <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/">Women’s Aid</a> and <a href="https://rightsofwomen.org.uk/">Rights of Women</a>. </p>
<p>Each hearing needs recovery time. Give yourself space to process what has happened. Draw up a list of the things you love and keep doing them. </p>
<h2>Get support in place</h2>
<p>Write a list of the people to whom you can turn for support on hard days. Conversely, put in place boundaries with anyone who continues to enable the perpetrator or has a negative effect on you. </p>
<p>In terms of professional support, Claire Waxman, the Victims’ Commissioner to the London Assembly, <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/publications/claire-waxman-victims-bill-consultation-response">highlights</a> the importance and benefit of having a single point of contact throughout your justice journey. Local organisations, such as <a href="https://www.lighthousevictimcare.org/">Lighthouse Victim and Witness Care</a>, can put you in contact with an independent domestic violence advisor, an independent sexual violence advisor or an independent violence advocate. </p>
<h2>Gather evidence from professionals</h2>
<p>Different departments and sections of social services working in a <a href="https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/assessing-harm-private-family-law-proceedings/results/assessing-risk-harm-children-parents-pl-childrens-cases-report.pdf">siloed way</a> – independently and <a href="https://caretivity.com/2020/04/dangers-siloed-social-workers-multi-disciplinary-team/">without clear communication</a> between them – has been shown to be one of the barriers to effectively supporting domestic abuse survivors in court. So, gather evidence, in writing, from as many professionals (GPs, teachers, social workers) as possible from the start. Log all incidents of abuse with the police. And keep all documentation and communication organised. You will need this in court. </p>
<p>Try to take on board professionals’ proposals when they are helpful and <a href="https://theconversation.com/child-protection-in-england-here-is-what-social-work-experts-know-must-change-in-the-system-182072">put your child’s welfare first</a>. Challenge the professionals when they don’t do the same. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman holds a child close." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474299/original/file-20220715-26-6pz6uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474299/original/file-20220715-26-6pz6uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474299/original/file-20220715-26-6pz6uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474299/original/file-20220715-26-6pz6uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474299/original/file-20220715-26-6pz6uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474299/original/file-20220715-26-6pz6uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474299/original/file-20220715-26-6pz6uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remember you are doing everything you can to protect yourself and your children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/DTPlIdXJexI">huanshi | unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Know your rights</h2>
<p>Research shows that court culture in England and Wales has been characterised by <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12841">misogyny</a> and <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Two-Years-Too-Long-2022.pdf">victim-blaming</a>. In Ireland, a 2021 report from the Children Living with Domestic and Sexual Violence group submitted to the Department of Justice warned that the child protection services and family court system could sometimes work in opposite directions, <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/family-law-system-endangers-women-and-children-report-warns-1.4500242">endangering</a> victims by being too pro-contact. Childrens’ voices are often <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/21/abused-uk-children-family-courts-parental-alienation">unheard</a> too. </p>
<p>Read the government’s <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/section/1">welfare checklist</a>, which is used to make decisions about children, and <a href="https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/family/practice_directions/pd_part_12j">Practice Direction 12J</a> which mandates what should be happening in court to protect domestic abuse victims. If your solicitor is not supporting you or you are struggling to access representation, consider representing yourself to make <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/you-and-the-judiciary/going-to-court/advice-for-litigants-in-person/">sure you are heard</a>.</p>
<h2>Ask for special measures</h2>
<p>You can ask for safety adjustments such as to arrive through a separate court entrance or to leave first after a hearing. You can also ask the court for permission to have the same support worker you’ve had from the beginning (because continuity is beneficial for both you and your child) and for that support worker to be present with you during proceedings.</p>
<p>The process for requesting these measures will differ from court to court, and implementation is <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Two-Years-Too-Long-2022.pdf">patchy</a>. Further, COVID has led a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09649069.2021.1996079">move to remote hearings</a>. Difficulties relating to poor quality video and audio made it more difficult for some litigants to access justice. There is also more pressure on the system, as the rules have changed throughout the pandemic, causing delays and a lack of clarity. All this adds more stress to litigants who have to face their abusers in proceedings or be cross-examined by them. So it is helpful for you to know what the <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Safety-from-Domestic-Abuse-and-Special-Measures-in-Remote-and-Hybrid-Hearings-Family-Justice-Council-guidance.pdf">guidance</a> for remote hearings is too. </p>
<h2>Know your experiences are valid</h2>
<p>We know from personal experience how difficult speaking about abuse is. In June 2022, one of us (Rima) <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12841">wrote about</a> how long it took me to find the words and courage to be heard: “I am scared to write but know I speak or am lost in the silent void that I have known for too long”. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/assessing-harm-private-family-law-proceedings/results/assessing-risk-harm-children-parents-pl-childrens-cases-report.pdf">acrimonious</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/03/family-courts-domestic-abuse-judges-magistrates">hostile</a> experience of a courtroom can make you feel <a href="https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/4784">silenced</a> even in a place meant to bring justice.</p>
<p>Going to court has a huge impact on your health and your family. There are no guarantees of a fair outcome and the whole process is dehumanising. What’s more, the end will be an anticlimax. You have been running on adrenaline throughout a process in which there are no winners. There is no easy way through, but each of us finds our own path, and many survivors harness their anger for change. This, after all, is how our project started.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186788/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rima Hussein, Kayliegh Richardson and Danna-Mechelle Lewis at Northumbria University have been awarded research funds to co-create vlogs to support domestic abuse survivors going into family law court in England and Wales. The research study will be conducted in partnership with Cardiff Women’s Aid, Support Through Court, and the Ministry of Justice. The funds are awarded from a UKRI Research England grant awarded to Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement (CAPE) collaboration fund and held by University College London (UCL). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Imane El Hakimi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Family court proceedings place a huge strain on survivors and their families. Here’s what you need to know.Rima Hussein, Senior Lecturer in organisation studies, Northumbria University, NewcastleImane El Hakimi, Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Human Resource Management, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1841082022-06-13T15:42:00Z2022-06-13T15:42:00ZJohnny Depp v Amber Heard: what to understand about intimate partner abuse before taking sides<p>The libel trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has brought a formerly private issue – intimate partner abuse – onto a very public stage. The loud and judgmental response from huge swaths of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61649522">online observers</a> reveals how little people understand about domestic abuse and what goes on behind closed doors.</p>
<p>I <a href="https://www.shu.ac.uk/helena-kennedy-centre-international-justice/postgraduate-study/student-research-sarah-tatton">research</a> police responses to intimate partner abuse in the UK. Unlike most of the public, response officers undergo regular training to equip them for intervening in abusive situations and untangling he said/she said allegations. </p>
<p>Here are three things to consider before making allegations about who in an abusive situation is a liar.</p>
<h2>Forget who says what – look at the power dynamics</h2>
<p>A common issue police encounter is the “he said/she said” conundrum (insert alternative pronouns as appropriate). This arises where the perpetrator and victim tell opposing stories about the alleged abuse. When each person accuses the other of abuse, who do you believe? Perpetrators rarely admit wrongdoing, and the most manipulative will accuse their target of the very behaviour of which they are guilty. Navigating this is difficult, but can be done by paying attention not just to what those involved say, but how they behave.</p>
<p>Victims in <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8h0TDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=evan+stark+coercive+control&ots=wcbL7qEy4J&sig=0Ht5bQUUcAfzi-y0VpuIcU7C-Q4#v=onepage&q=evan%20stark%20coercive%20control&f=false">coercive or controlling relationships</a> typically believe that their partner has issues that they can fix with dedication. They defend their partners by blaming their abusive behaviour on drugs and alcohol, or by giving them chances to make up for the pain they cause. Not reporting abuse initially or failing to seek medical attention for injuries is common for victims who do not want to get their abuser into trouble. Many also <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/40/1/14/398947?redirectedFrom=fulltext">don’t want to make a statement</a> or will refuse to support a prosecution. This can also be a way to demonstrate loyalty.</p>
<p>When it looks like their abuse will be exposed, perpetrators will lash out particularly hard as punishment and work to discredit their victim’s character. They will also use the same charm they used to win over their victim to gain support from the outside world. When confronted with two people claiming to be the “real victim”, look for the one who insists on having the upper hand.</p>
<h2>Question your beliefs about gender stereotypes</h2>
<p>Recently there has been increased attention and support for <a href="https://www.mankind.org.uk/">male victims</a> of intimate partner abuse. One of the main reasons this has taken so long is the harmful effect of longstanding gender stereotypes: masculinity equals reliability, strength and power, and femininity equals dependence and emotional instability. </p>
<p>According to these stereotypes, it is almost impossible for a male to be a victim, especially to a female partner. Femininity is associated with submission, not power, and admitting to victimisation means admitting a lack of masculinity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Red carpet photo of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp from 2015." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468515/original/file-20220613-20-5dfrg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468515/original/file-20220613-20-5dfrg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468515/original/file-20220613-20-5dfrg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468515/original/file-20220613-20-5dfrg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468515/original/file-20220613-20-5dfrg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468515/original/file-20220613-20-5dfrg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468515/original/file-20220613-20-5dfrg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A jury found in favour of Johnny Depp in the defamation case he brought against his ex-wife Amber Heard, which was over an op-ed in which she talked about being the victim of domestic abuse without naming him.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/venice-italy-september-04-johnny-depp-318115634">Matteo Chinellato / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In interviews, male victims told me they had no problem being believed, but felt police perceived the risk of harm as lower where the perpetrator was female. Many female victims, however, still felt that the word of a male perpetrator was believed over theirs and that police did not perceive risk as highly as they did themselves.</p>
<p>Intimate partner abuse is about much more than physical attacks (although there are many ways to hurt someone bigger and stronger than you). Men and women are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1477370813479078">both capable</a> of intimate partner abuse. <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women">Most victims</a> are female because existing <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/domestic-abuse-is-a-gendered-crime/">social systems</a> – such as the traditional family structure, which confines women to the home – place males as dominant. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-victims-of-domestic-abuse-dont-leave-four-experts-explain-176212">Why victims of domestic abuse don't leave – four experts explain</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While acknowledging that male victims are common, we must beware of the tendency to <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/313/313936/down-girl/9780141990729.html">believe the male voice</a> is the most reliable. </p>
<p>It is also common for perpetrators, regardless of gender, to play the disempowered role with conviction. Some may use a public face that contrasts sharply with their private one, exuding sophistication and charm as a way to win observers to their side and discredit their victim.</p>
<h2>Recognise emotional and psychological abuse</h2>
<p>Emotional and psychological abuse is often misunderstood, sometimes even by police. In interviews, officers often suggested that substance abuse or poor mental health are the reason someone becomes a victim, rather than acknowledging these issues are often a result of the abuse. </p>
<p>Dismantling a victim’s mental capacities is a foundational abusive strategy. Victims commonly describe a slow descent into instability at the hands of a competent perpetrator. “Gaslighting” is a tool of manipulation used to erode and deny the victim’s sense of reality, leaving them with a fragile sense of self and inability to function socially.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man sits at the end of the bed with his head in his hands, the woman is leaning back in bed looking upset." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468242/original/file-20220610-20-5yv9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468242/original/file-20220610-20-5yv9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468242/original/file-20220610-20-5yv9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468242/original/file-20220610-20-5yv9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468242/original/file-20220610-20-5yv9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468242/original/file-20220610-20-5yv9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468242/original/file-20220610-20-5yv9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Intimate partner abuse is often about control and power and isn’t always physical – both male and female partners can be perpetrators.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/we-have-problem-upset-young-man-639795646">VGstockstudio / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Despite these mental health effects and <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-08305-3_2">stereotypes</a> about domestic abuse victims, people who experience intimate partner abuse are typically <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520286108/journeys">resilient and resourceful</a>. Victims often describe themselves as strong and independent. “I never thought someone like me could be a victim of domestic abuse,” is a familiar refrain. </p>
<p>They will often resist their abuser, sometimes with physical <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EzB6A7BuqJoC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=michael+johnson+typology+of+domestic+abuse&ots=iJDkFhjXIt&sig=OBnbhxuv4EecOsk9MmJ4l2Pw4BQ#v=onepage&q=michael%20johnson%20typology%20of%20domestic%20abuse&f=false">retaliation</a>, but this should not be confused with perpetration. </p>
<p>If a survivor sounds uncertain and self-conscious when recounting their experiences, it’s probably because they are – their reality and experiences have been denied. If they have reacted rashly or even violently, it’s because their resilience has been tested to the breaking point. And if they seem to have mental health issues, think about why this might be. It may be that they have been repeatedly and viciously emotionally and psychologically assaulted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184108/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Sarah Tatton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Navigating the ‘he said/she said’ conundrum in intimate partner abuse can be difficult.Dr Sarah Tatton, PhD Candidate and Associate Lecturer in Criminology, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1844242022-06-08T18:40:23Z2022-06-08T18:40:23ZDepp v. Heard verdict is a turning point in discussion of intimate partner violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467593/original/file-20220607-40272-2r1g23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2991%2C1989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Johnny Depp waves to supporters as he departs the Fairfax County Courthouse on May 27, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Craig Hudson/AP Photo)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/depp-v--heard-verdict-is-a-turning-point-in-discussion-of-intimate-partner-violence" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/01/johnny-depp-verdict/"><em>Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard</em> defamation trial</a> has touched a chord with many people when it comes to gender and intimate partner violence. Headlines throughout the trial showcased drastically different opinions on the potential ramifications of the verdict for victims of intimate partner violence and the fate of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/06/podcasts/the-daily/depp-heard-me-too.html">the #MeToo movement</a>.</p>
<p>Some declare “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/18/opinion/amber-heard-metoo.html">the death of the MeToo movement</a>” and an “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/01/amber-heard-johnny-depp-trial-metoo-backlash">orgy of misogyny</a>” arguing Heard was punished for her stance as “a public figure representing domestic abuse” and for coming forward against a powerful male celebrity. </p>
<p>Certain advocates and experts fear this verdict will <a href="https://theconversation.com/could-the-depp-v-heard-case-make-other-abuse-survivors-too-scared-to-speak-up-184324">silence women coming forward with abuse claims</a> and embolden perpetrators. While others claim a “<a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/piers-morgan/big-victory-in-the-battle-against-cancel-culture-with-depp-court-win/video/ce2d9ca97a1687d4d025d964b0a01a9f">big victory in the battle against cancel culture</a>” and <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/johnny-depp-and-the-truth-about-male-domestic-abuse-victims">a turning point for male victims of domestic abuse</a>.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/criminology/newsandevents/2020-sfu-criminology-faculty-series/2020-sfu-criminology-assistant-professor-alexandra-lysova.html">scholar</a> who has been studying intimate partner violence for over 15 years, I consider this case to be a crucial turning point in the public discussion of intimate partner violence because it has shed light on hidden forms of intimate partner violence and men who are victims of it. But I also don’t think the verdict will harm the #MeToo movement or female victims of abuse as some fear.</p>
<h2>Bidirectional violence</h2>
<p><em>Depp v. Heard</em> highlighted <a href="https://theconversation.com/heard-v-depp-trial-was-not-just-a-media-spectacle-it-provided-an-opportunity-to-discuss-the-nuances-of-intimate-partner-violence-182843">bidirectional violence</a>, a largely unspoken about issue in intimate partner violence, which occurs when a person in the relationship reports both perpetrating and experiencing violence. </p>
<p>Both Depp and Heard <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-05-03/psychologist-testifies-that-depp-assaulted-heard">accused each other</a> of physical violence and claimed to be victims of abuse — the couple’s former psychotherapist, Laurel Anderson confirmed they were engaged in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61114768">mutual abuse</a>.</p>
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<img alt="A man looks forward while a woman smiles into his chest, he's wearing a suit she's in a dress" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467741/original/file-20220608-268-dlxz8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467741/original/file-20220608-268-dlxz8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467741/original/file-20220608-268-dlxz8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467741/original/file-20220608-268-dlxz8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467741/original/file-20220608-268-dlxz8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467741/original/file-20220608-268-dlxz8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467741/original/file-20220608-268-dlxz8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Johnny Depp and Amber Heard arrive at the premiere of the film ‘The Danish Girl’ during the 72nd edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)</span></span>
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<p>Bidirectional violence is in fact <a href="https://domesticviolenceresearch.org/pdf/PASK.Tables3.Revised.pdf">the most common pattern of abuse</a> in intimate relationships — 58 per cent of couples in abusive relationships experience it. And the impact of the bidirectional violence can be <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2005.079020">very serious</a>, including injury and mental health problems for both partners. </p>
<p>But media pays much more attention to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1440783319837612">unidirectional men’s violence against women</a>. The <em>Depp v. Heard</em> case calls attention to the toxic bidirectionality of abuse, which highlights the need for awareness of the problem so we can prevent it happening in the future. </p>
<p>This case also brings attention to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08398-8_19">women’s use of violence</a> in intimate relationships. In video testimony, Anderson revealed that Heard <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61114768">initiated physical violence</a> in trying to prevent Depp from leaving the room. Depp also accused Heard of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53347044">cutting the top of his finger</a> by throwing a vodka bottle at him. </p>
<p>Despite these revelations, it is important to remember that women are much more likely to become victims of the most serious intimate partner violence, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61030-2">homicide</a>. </p>
<h2>Male victims and their experiences of abuse</h2>
<p>Depp coming forward and speaking out against Heard will likely impact many men who experience female-perpetrated intimate partner violence. Contrary to the <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/invisible-bruises/202112/the-difficulty-recognizing-domestic-violence-against-men">commonly held myths and stereotypes</a> that “real men” cannot be abused by their partners, recent population surveys find comparable rates of intimate partner violence victimization among men and women. </p>
<p>For example, the 2015 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey in the United States found that about <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/datasources/nisvs/2015NISVSdatabrief.html">one in three men and women (34 per cent of men, 36 per cent of women) reported experiencing intimate partner violence</a> — including sexual violence, physical violence or stalking. </p>
<p>And in 2019, I <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1946-6560.10.2.199">led a study</a> that found that more men than women reported being victims of intimate partner violence in Canada. Also, men seemed to stay in abusive relationships longer than women with 2.9 per cent of men and 1.7 per cent of women reporting abuse in ongoing relationships.</p>
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<img alt="A close up of a mans face as he looks angrily forward" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467743/original/file-20220608-18-rr5x50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467743/original/file-20220608-18-rr5x50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467743/original/file-20220608-18-rr5x50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467743/original/file-20220608-18-rr5x50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467743/original/file-20220608-18-rr5x50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467743/original/file-20220608-18-rr5x50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467743/original/file-20220608-18-rr5x50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Actor Johnny Depp sits in the courtroom in the Fairfax County Circuit Courthouse in Fairfax, Va., on May 26, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Michael Reynolds/AP)</span></span>
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<p>There are barriers to men seeking help when they are being abused. A study I was a part of in 2020 focused on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0306624X20919710">abused men</a> in four different countries and found that many did not recognize or call what happened to them abuse — they were “blind to the abuse.” </p>
<p>Other barriers were notions of “manliness” (being a victim may be seen as unmanly), trying to “fix” the relationship, protecting children and simply because they had nowhere to go for help. The <em>Depp v. Heard</em> trial revealed many of these barriers as Heard warned Depp that the jury and world would not believe him.</p>
<h2>No harm to #MeToo and female victims of abuse</h2>
<p>Despite the verdict, which largely vindicated Depp, I believe this case will not negatively impact the #MeToo movement and women coming forward with their claims of abuse. Heard, who <a href="https://www.insider.com/why-amber-heard-lost-her-defamation-trial-with-johnny-depp-2022-6">had a credibility problem in court</a>, is not representative of all female victims of abuse. </p>
<p>As Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, argued, “Instead of being the face of the #MeToo movement, <a href="https://www.insider.com/why-amber-heard-lost-her-defamation-trial-with-johnny-depp-2022-6">she’s the face of a false accusation</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://metoomvmt.org">#MeToo</a> is a powerful social movement that is unlikely to be challenged by any specific case, even between celebrities. It’s the #MeToo’s mission to remove systemic barriers that prevent abused women from being heard and taken seriously. And millions of people closely watched how seriously victims of intimate partner violence were treated throughout the case and how <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/these-are-the-counts-the-johnny-depp-amber-heard-jurors-considered-1.5928663">thorough the jury was</a>. </p>
<p>Contrary to <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/johnny-depps-court-victory-over-amber-heard-has-chilling-effect-on-women-0lmnxvrgf">certain advocates’ concerns</a>, the <em>Depp v. Heard</em> case is likely to contribute to a renewed confidence in all victims of abuse — not only women but also men — and in a justice and jury system.</p>
<p>This case dispels <a href="https://www.safesteps.org.au/understanding-family-violence/family-violence-myths-facts/">many myths about intimate partner violence</a> as some people, possibly for the first time, saw a man openly reveal how he was abused, falsely accused by his female partner and how it affected his life, family and career. </p>
<p>We saw and heard a woman share painful experiences of victimization, and whose <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/key-allegations-johnny-depp-amber-heard-trial-rcna30147">claims were only partially supported</a>. I’m certain this case will continue to be discussed in the media and academia and will shape society’s understanding of the complexities of intimate partner violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Lysova receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She had a research collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Men and Families. </span></em></p>I’m certain this case will continue to be discussed in the media and academia and will continue to shape society’s understanding of the complexities of intimate partner violence.Alexandra Lysova, Associate Professor of Criminology, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.