NGO wants end to re-victimisation of survivors of violence

A support group for women suffering domestic abuse has made an impassioned plea for society and the system to stop allowing perpetrators to victimize their ‘prey’ once again.

“Women are all too often victimised even after the violence has ended,” Elaine Compagno, coordinator of the support group SOAR, said.

Compagno, a survivor of violence, makes constant reference to the challenges faced by survivors of domestic abuse once they have removed themselves from the immediate danger, and calls for an analysis into what allows perpetrators to categorically and routinely exert their power on survivors, even after the latter have had the courage to leave.

“We hear a lot about the first part of women’s journeys, that is, running away from the perpetrator of the abuse, but many are not aware that the battle goes on well after that decision is taken,” Compagno said.

All too often, people are bogged down in the heroic escape stories that, although positive, run the risk of obscuring the reality of what follows.

“Very often, survivors of abuse, are not aware of their legal rights, what the law states and what the legal jargon in court means.

“Many women in court don’t understand that ‘forgiving’ somebody in the legal context can mean that if the case is dropped completely, the perpetrator goes unpunished for his crime, and this may have repercussions in the future,” she said, adding that ‘forgiveness’ in that context goes beyond an ethical or spiritual dimension.

If she could give a survivor advice, at whatever stage of their journey, it would be precisely not to forgive abusive partners in the courtroom context.

“Precisely because there is a lack of information on the matter, many women don’t realise that by forgiving abusive partners their actions leave them without very important proof of a past of repetitive, systematic violence.”

Compagno explained that under the Domestic Violence Act of 2006, any reports to the police had to be investigated, even in the absence of evidence, but that authorities might be less willing to go through the same trouble more than once if the same victim keeps on forgiving her partner.

Data by Agenzija Appogg shows that recurrence, or relapsing into violent behaviour is a startlingly common occurrence, with some 157 cases out of a total of 681 cases the agency worked on in 2014, being relapses or re-contact cases. 

“Many women choose to stay with their partners even after the abuse has been reported, and dealt with in court, but unless the abusive partner looks for appropriate treatment, then the chances of relapsing are very strong,” Compagno said, stressing that more awareness was needed to ensure that the perpetrators of violence received the necessary treatment to avoid what had originally led to the violent outbursts.

SOAR is now pushing for courts to provide treatment for perpetrators long after a case is heard, alongside fines issued as deterrence, as part of a multi-pronged approach to tackle cases of domestic violence. 

“We also believe that protection orders for the survivors ought to be made standard as part of this approach,” she said, pointing out that stalking by abusive partners is also sadly a common occurrence.

“Treatment is also essential if there are children in the picture, given that they are a guarantee that the perpetrator is likely to remain in the picture,” she said. She highlighted her firm belief that it is beneficial for children to have a good relationship with their fathers, but added that in cases where the father has been shown to be violent, the access needs to be monitored and reviewed every so often to make sure that they were not a threat to the children, or that they didn’t try to coax information about their former partners from their children.

“Some fathers might also end up using their rights to visit children as ways of controlling their former partners, either by making sure visits come at the mother’s financial cost, or by making sure that they show up late to agreed access times, thus exerting control on what the mother can do with her day.”

Apart from an ongoing study analysing how survivors are made victims once again by the system itself, SOAR is offering training sessions to law students in an effort to create better awareness of the problems they face.

“People need to understand that intimate partner violence or domestic abuse, is enabled because we live in an unequal society, and certain environments, like mediation procedures, do nothing to break this pattern,” Compagno said.

She also said that respondents in SOAR’s ongoing study pointed out the imbalance of power during mediations, where lawyers often end up shouting at each other and belittling survivors and their lawyers. “This is reminiscent of the scenarios that were enacted before these cases were taken to court,” she said, as she quotes respondents saying that they often felt “jeopardized and degraded,” or “like a playing card in the middle… agreeing due to intimidation.”

“Proper mediation, that is, people truly agreeing on an amicable separation, can only work if there is no fear, but if the women in question find themselves in this situation, they are often made to feel powerless,” she said, adding that this fear often meant that women made rash and lenient decisions just to get the uncomfortable process ‘over with’. 

Compagno added that judges and police officers could sometimes lack insight, and understanding of the victim’s reality, with one survivor saying that she was ultimately forced to supervise child access visits back in the matrimonial home.

“Cases like these give abusive partners a second chance, and they place the survivor in a very vulnerable position,” she said. 

She added that although police officers were often helpful and followed their duty as required, sadly there were cases where gross misinformation could have terrible consequences.

“We have seen cases, for instance, where women resorted to police stations in other localities for fear of being followed, only to be denied help by officers on duty at the time,” she said, stressing that this was all down to a lack of awareness on their part. 

Compagno’s message is clear – women need to be made aware of the tools at their disposal, but even society at large, and to a larger extent the people who deal with domestic violence directly, need to be illuminated on their duties and on the empathy necessary in dealing with survivors. 

“Policy makers need to truly listen to NGOs from the field, to better gauge what is necessary, and to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth,” she added.