PATHWAYS: How Women Leave Violent Men

PATHWAYS: How women leave violent men Tasmania 2003 PATHWAYS: How women leave violent men ‘The quality, speed and sensitivity of services provided by law enforcement, medical, mental health and social service agencies measures the true regard, dignity and safety that a community extends as a matter of course to members who become victims’ (Koss & Harvey 1991 104 cited in Kelly 67 1996). ‘…domestic violence occurs within communities where members of neighbourhoods, kinship networks, and friendship networks know about domestic violence long before any outside agency is approached - they see and hear it happening, they see the physical consequences on women’s bodies or they are the ones women speak to about it’ (Kelly 68 1996). i © Government of Tasmania 2003 Report Title: Pathways: How women leave violent men ISBN: 0 7246 4936 0 Author: Shirley Patton Discipline of Social Work School of Sociology & Social Work University of Tasmania This work is copyright. Organisations have permission to reproduce parts or the whole of this publication, as long as the original meaning is retained and proper credit given. Funded by Partnerships Against Domestic Violence, a Commonwealth Government initiative. The views expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commonwealth Government of Australia, the Tasmanian Government, or the Partnerships Against Domestic Violence Taskforce. Whilst all reasonable care has been taken in the preparation of this publication, no liability is assumed for any errors or omissions. Printed by: Terry Brophy and Associates Published by: Women Tasmania, Department of Premier and Cabinet, 140 Macquarie Street, Hobart, Tasmania. Cover design by: Julie Hunt: (It’s) like…I’ve been living in a concentration camp…When you step out of it, you know, it’s just like a big explosion of colour or something…It was like finding a rainbow, like a peaceful thing or something…It was just like Dorothy and The Wizard of Oz…as if you put a pair of red shoes on. (Yasmin, 39 years) ii iii DEDICATION This report is dedicated to the memory of three women; Sonja Mercer, Diane Mudge and Melissa Johnston, who were allegedly murdered by their male partners or ex-partners during the twelve month period of this research. Sonja Mercer was allegedly murdered by her defacto husband in April 2001(The Examiner April 2001). She was 32 years old, the mother of an eleven year old son, and lived in the Cressy-Longford area in the north of Tasmania. Sonja was shot with a rifle. In September 2001, Diane Mudge was allegedly murdered by her male partner. Diane, who was in her forties, lived at Newtown in the South of Tasmania (The Mercury September 2001). In November 2001 Melissa Johnston, 18 years old, was allegedly murdered by a former boyfriend at a women’s shelter in Ulverstone, in the North West of Tasmania (The Examiner November 2001). She was decapitated with an axe as she tried to escape. Three women whose male partners or ex-partners decided they did not have a right to live. How might we have helped? What could we, as a community, have done differently? In honour of these three women’s lives, and the seventy five woman murdered by their male partners in Australia every year, we, as a community, need to have an answer. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................XI EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................XII Introduction and context ........................................................................................................xii Women in the study: demographics ......................................................................................xiv The violence women experienced...........................................................................................xiv Turning points .........................................................................................................................xiv The process of leaving: pathways and barriers.....................................................................xv Recognising diversity: culture, background, circumstances and needs.............................xix Implications for policy and practice ................................................................................... xxiii Defining a framework for practice ................................................................................... xxviii SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS........................................................XXX Domestic violence support services.......................................................................................xxx Criminal justice responses to domestic violence.................................................................xxxi Medical and health care service responses .......................................................................xxxiv Women’s access to resources..............................................................................................xxxiv Community development.....................................................................................................xxxv Information ...........................................................................................................................xxxv Recognising diversity ..........................................................................................................xxxvi Education and training for professionals and service providers ................................. xxxviii Domestic violence practice guidelines ...............................................................................xxxix An integrated response to domestic violence ..........................................................................xl INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 Research aims .............................................................................................................................2 Research questions .....................................................................................................................2 Research design ..........................................................................................................................3 Key terms ....................................................................................................................................4 TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ...6 Tasmanian research in the 1980s and 1990s............................................................................6 Government response ................................................................................................................6 v Projects under Partnerships Against Domestic Violence .......................................................8 CURRENT THINKING AND KNOWLEDGE ......................................................9 Introduction ................................................................................................................................9 Defining domestic violence ........................................................................................................9 Prevalence and incidence rates ...............................................................................................10 Use of resources ........................................................................................................................11 Pathways and barriers.............................................................................................................11 Tasmanian research .................................................................................................................20 Summary...................................................................................................................................22 Implications of current thinking for policy and practice .....................................................23 Relevance to this study.............................................................................................................23 WOMEN IN THE STUDY: DEMOGRAPHICS..................................................25 THE VIOLENCE WOMEN EXPERIENCE........................................................30 Introduction ..............................................................................................................................30 Physical assault.........................................................................................................................30 Sexual assault............................................................................................................................31 Other abuse...............................................................................................................................32 Violence and abuse to children ...............................................................................................34 Women’s responses ..................................................................................................................35 Men’s controlled use of violence .............................................................................................36 Perpetrator programmes.........................................................................................................36 Summary...................................................................................................................................37

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