Let The Non Swimmers Drown-The Coalition's Approach to Domestic Violence

Introduction


The Guardian has published bad news for that will reduce access to legal aid for targets of Domestic Violence.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/30/female-domestic-violence-victims-lose-out-in-legal-reforms

We offer Awareness Raising programmes to the Public and Private Sectors-feedback from our programmes has been exceptionally positive: we base them on verifiable information that is delivered in a direct "no frills" manner, allowing the power of the information to create the impact.

Participants aren't wilfully ignorant however it remains pretty clear to me that unless you are

• A target of domestic violence and abuse
• A friend or relative of a target
• A support worker or other professional

it is less than likely that you'll have a picture of the reality for the 3 million women per year (UK) whose lives are blighted by an abusive relationship. It doesn't stop with the target: children too are adversely affected with well researched impacts on their educational and emotional growth.

I wonder what questions the decision makers asked themselves: here are some from one of our training packages

(a)   How do perpetrators isolate women? How do perpetrators make women feel unable to do anything right through enforced trivial demands thus taking away their confidence in believing that they can make a change for the better

(b)   How do perpetrators degrade women, what threats might a perpetrator use? Well, one of the ways is to make the financially invisible and therefore almost completely dependent.

(c)    How might a perpetrator display total power by showing who is in control? What small “nice things and treats” might constitute occasional indulgences? Total financial control equals total power. The occasional indulgence? More power and control

(d)   How are women kept physically and emotionally exhausted by perpetrators? What distorted perspectives might a perpetrator use to justify his behaviour? There are as many as there are perpetrators and targets-what we know is that the collective impact of the behaviour is to take away the individual's capacity to believe that they can break out of the relationship and begin a new life under the protection of the law

And it's my belief that unless you are asking these questions and plenty more you are not going to understand the impact of a decision that restricts access to legal aid and support at a critical time.

They might also want to ask

How might perpetrators use children to increase their control and decrease the resistance of the target? How might they use children to:

1. Humiliate
2. Force compliance
3. Ensure silence is maintained
4. Force a woman to stay in an abusive relationship

and that often the resolution of such complex issues requires the force of law.

Is it that they do not understand that impoverishment is part of the abuse and that the target may be effectively without any means of support at and beyond the point of leaving?

This is a poorly thought out decision that requires challenging in a very public forum. There is, as far as I can ascertain, no evidence of alternative funding streams. A disgrace.