Domestic violence survivors encounter nine main barriers, study finds

A study on domestic violence has discovered nine interrelated categories of barriers which survivors of violence against women face when they seek help through state or voluntary services.

The findings of the study, which was conducted by the University of Malta’s Department of Gender Studies, as part of the EU project ‘Full Cooperation: Zero Violence’, were presented to equality minister Helena Dalli today.

Apart from the barriers survivors face, the study also aimed to identify those barriers which professionals encounter when delivering a service to survivors of domestic violence.

Barrier categories

The nine barrier categories identified in the study each involve various aspects, amongst the most salient of which are:

• Cultural: Malta’s patriarchal society was identified as “an underlying and ubiquitous barrier”, gender inequality determined to be still manifest in society, and survivor’s experience of ‘shame’ for leaving their partner is still an issue. One survivor said “And then, when you look at why you don’t leave… because I’ve invested, and there’s shame…”.
• Socio-economic: difficult financial situations exacerbate the help-seeking process, especially unaffordable rent conditions. "Where am I going with two children, unemployed and in debt? So you have to put up with it,” a survivor said.
• Survivor-related: defence mechanisms such as denial, minimisation, rationalisation, as well as negative emotions such as shame and fear, block survivors from seeking help. "I used to be afraid of him, even until he left… I used to wake up during the night the minute he used to return home,” were the words of one survivor.
• Perpetrator-related: those behind domestic violence are often manipulative and controlling. Parental alienation through the psychological manipulation of a child is also a barrier.
• Offspring-related: children appear to be the main motivating factor for the survivor to leave an abusive relationship, however, conversely, children can also be ‘pull factors’, impeding those in the relationship from moving away from it
• Informal network-related: the study shows that there are cases where the non-involvement of an informal support network of family and friends is recommended
• Psychosocial, health care and education provision: survivors reported not being sufficiently informed on available services and on their rights, resulting in another barrier to seeking assistance. 
• Inter-agency collaboration: the study has shown that Malta lacks specialised services, and agencies don't collaborate in certain cases.
• Justice system: survivors feel the justice system is insensitive and too slow, the study found . Survivors and professionals highlighted the crucial role of the police in protecting the survivor, however, the study’s results show that police have to increase their competence.

Equality minister Helena Dalli was today presented with the findings of a University of Malta study on the barriers to help-seeking in gender-based violence against women

Recommendations

The study, which was qualitative in nature, presented a list of 32 recommendations which were categorised in accordance with the 'Four Ps' of the Istanbul Convention - prevention, protection, prosecution and integrated policies.

Amongst the recommendations were more awareness campaigns, specialist training, promotion of gender sensitivity in the justice system, the provision of handbooks and training to first responding officers and investigators, specialist services in Gozo, gender-mainstreaming in policy areas, and more inter-agency cooperation.

Research design

The study collected its data through 16 qualitative interviews, and six focus groups, which included both survivors and professionals.

A total of 50 participants took part in the study, 23 of whom were survivors, the rest professionals.

All interviews and focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed, with the transcripts subjected to rigorous coding following the Constant Comparative Method, through which newly collected data is compared with previously obtained data.