Mounting evidence suggests police are mistaking domestic violence victims as perpetrators at staggering rates, derailing the lives of potentially thousands of women around the country every year. Why are they still getting it so wrong?
For years experts have been warning of a victim misidentification crisis emerging alongside a steady increase in the number of women being named as respondents on domestic violence protection orders. Of course, women can and do use violence, not always in self-defence. But female victims who present as “hysterical” or angry — or who retaliate or defend themselves — are too often being misjudged as the “primary aggressor”, sometimes because police and courts aren’t recognising patterns of coercive control, or perpetrators’ attempts to weaponise legal systems.
And the consequences can be life altering, and in extreme cases, life threatening. A 2017 analysis of 27 domestic homicides in Queensland, for instance, found almost half the women who were killed had previously been identified by police as the perpetrator on a protection order. Shockingly, nearly all of the Aboriginal women killed had been recorded as both perpetrators and victims. In every state, frontline workers are concerned that systems ostensibly set up to protect victims are being used against them, failing to keep them safe. And all the while, perpetrators aren’t being held accountable.
A major issue is that police attending domestic violence callouts frequently take an “incident based” approach, Ms Matthews said; they look for evidence of criminal offending without necessarily delving deeper into a couple’s history of coercive control, a gendered pattern of abuse usually exercised by men over women. This can mean they see, say, a woman’s acts of resistance as assaults, especially if they believe a calm, articulate man who claims to be the victim.
Yet frontline workers consistently report that officers’ understanding of domestic violence varies dramatically, and abusers’ accounts still seem to be getting traction. Some wonder if that is because, in the broader community, women who report violence are frequently met with doubt and disbelief — especially those who don’t present as “ideal victims”: meek, weak and afraid.
Some misidentified victims accept the conditions of protection orders because they’re ashamed, humiliated or unprepared to defend the matter in court, Ms Walker said. “I do find that some clients will just agree to an ADVO being placed on them — against solicitors’ advice — as after years of abuse and trauma they are not able to handle the court process, which can be long and drawn out if the matter has to proceed to hearing.”
Still, victims aren’t always misidentified as aggressors because police have overlooked signs of trauma or struggled with grey areas of domestic violence. In some astonishing cases, women who don’t speak English well have been misidentified because police haven’t used an interpreter.
One of the most significant ramifications of an Aboriginal woman being wrongly named as a perpetrator of domestic violence, she said, is that it perpetuates toxic cycles of incarceration, child removal, mental illness and substance abuse.
[M]any victims across Australia will be rolling the dice if they call police for help with domestic violence, or risking their lives if they choose not to, knowing the colour of their skin or accent — or even their split-second decision to stand up to a powerful perpetrator — could see them being hauled off in the back of a paddy wagon or worse.
Source: Police are still misjudging domestic violence and victims are suffering the consequences – ABC News