Domestic Abuse and Austerity Part 2

As I previously described, victims and survivors need a plethora of support services to enable them to leave an abusive relationship and rebuild their lives. One of the key issues here is that our justice system is not set up to deal with domestic abuse effectively. In order to provide protection to survivors, the burden of proof is on them to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the abuser is a danger to them. In order to do this, they have to prove that the abuser has harmed them before, so is likely to do so again. Part of the reason for this is because our current justice system is still based upon the idea that we must punish people who do something wrong to prevent them from doing it again. We don’t want to punish innocent people, so we assume (in theory) innocent until proven guilty. Firstly, innocent until proven guilty is a good thing. However, it is already not applied equally to all people. Black and minority ethnic people are still accused, tried and convicted at much higher rates than white people, poor people are much more likely to be prosecuted than rich people, and people with intersecting disadvantage are the worst off. Our system is supposed to treat people fairly, but it doesn’t. Our system also doesn’t work for domestic abuse because it is a crime which happens within the private spheres of personal relationships and usually in private homes. There is still a reluctance to get public services involved with private relationships, and legislation criminalising physical domestic abuse is still relatively new, with legislation criminalising emotional and psychological abuse still not having been passed. It is also a crime which relies mainly on the emotional and psychological harm committed by the abuser towards the victim, and that is very difficult to prove with the kinds of physical evidence that are usually relied upon to get convictions. 

However, we can change things to make sure the rights of all parties are upheld, by focusing more on protecting victims. In order to do this, we need to change our perspective on personal relationships and the rights of the people within them. Due to the historical position of women in families, seen at first as literal possessions, then as junior partners, we currently behave as if an ex-partner has the right to see, speak to and contact the victim. Because the effects of emotional and psychological trauma have been diminished, only deliberate physical harm has been seen as actually harmful. This means that we are slow to protect victims from the ways abusers harm them the most, which is any form of communication or contact. If one person does not want to see, speak to or hear from another, they absolutely have the right to choose not to do so. And this is where the impact of austerity and cuts to the police and justice system are harmful; when resources are sparse, services are forced to choose who they can or can’t protect. This then causes empathy fatigue and the desensitisation to harm being caused if it not the most extreme kind. 

If we were to concentrate on protecting the victim, and preventing abuse, we would focus on enabling the victim to escape, and working with the abuser to change their behaviour so they do not continue to abuse the victim, and do not abuse other people in the future. The ways we can do this are more expensive and long term, and they are also much more effective. A few examples of different routes to justice can be found in the UK, such as mediation services, therapy for abusers as well as victims, and NGOs who facilitate community accountability, but they are underfunded, sporadic and can’t keep victims safe. There is more we need to do.

We need to be able to provide refuges which are safe, long-term facilities that have their own security services who are trained to understand domestic abuse and trauma, and why the separation of victim and abuser is so important. 

We need to be able to provide legal and social care proceedings which do not require the victim and abuser to be in contact with each other. This can be done through a mediator who focuses on what the survivor needs and how to resolve issues to do with money, housing, divorce proceedings, and childcare in a way that focuses on practical solutions and not blame.  

We need to democratise the justice system so that family court cases are not won by whoever can pay for the best solicitors. We need to have supervised visits as an option for any family, to be used as a way for parents to learn how to look after their children, instead of as a punishment.     

We need to provide trauma focused long-term therapy for survivors to undo the damage of abuse

We need to provide long term therapy for abusers to help them change their behaviour

We need to ensure that emotional and psychological abuse is taken as seriously as physical abuse and breaches of contact restrictions by abusers are taken seriously

We need to work with victims, survivors, wider families and friends so that everyone understands why a victim/survivor cannot ‘just talk to them (abuser) this once’ and how abusers use their victims personal relationships to coerce and control them

We need to provide trauma based therapy to any children and young people who have any involvement with the victim-survivor or abuser, and protect those children over and above the parental rights of any abuser, understanding that abusers often use children to coerce and control their victims

We need to understand that children who have been witnesses to abuse are more likely to become victims or abuses based on their perceptions of the power dynamics in the abuse they witnessed, and provide long term support with this in mind

We need to ensure the people within the entire justice system understand the complexities of domestic abuse and trauma, and have specialist services for handling these cases, whereby the people in authority are specially trained to be experts on domestic abuse and trauma

There are many other wider reaching changes that we need to make to our society to try to prevent domestic abuse, but we cannot ignore the victims and survivors who are trying to cope with the aftermath of abuse right now. They are the people who are in the most danger, who are the most vulnerable, and who are in need of immediate help. And we cannot help them under the pressure of austerity. These interventions take time and money but they work, and they provide the most hopeful and meaningful changes to people’s lives when they need them most. 

More information!

Rape Crisis

Refuge

Women’s Aid

Citizens Advice Bureau

Transformative Justice Collective 

Circles UK

Prevention Institute

Coalition Ending Gender Based Violence

Transform Harm

INCITE