Disclosing Violence to Police and Other Supports

Abstract

As previous chapters have shown, women in different parts of the world experience substantial levels of violence. Many women have experienced, and will yet experience , some form of male-perpetrated violence in their lifetime. This violence takes many forms. The intensity, severity and frequency of the violence vary as do the settings in which it occurs. The aim of this chapter is to examine the extent to which women seek help from others, including police and other professionals, as well as informal supports such as family members, friends and neighbours. In the IVAWS, respondents were asked whether they themselves or someone else reported the most recent experience of male-perpetrated violence to the police or to some other justice authority (this question was asked separately for the most recent experience of partner and non-partner violence). Respondents were then asked whether the reporting led to a prosecution and a conviction. Satisfaction with the police was also addressed, as well as victims' opinions on what the police should have done to help them. In cases where the respondent had not reported to the police, a follow-up question regarding the reasons for not reporting was asked. As mentioned previously, the IVAWS was constructed in such a way so as to collect information only on the most recent incident of violence. This approach was undertaken in order to minimize the burden on respondents who experienced a series of violent events; rather than asking about the outcome and consequences of each incident, respondents were asked to describe the most recent. The most recent may or may not be typical of all incidents, but was considered likely to be more representative than asking respondents to comment on the most serious, and is less likely to be affected by problems with memory recall. Research consistently shows that violence against women constitutes a severely underreported crime. There are several reasons influencing victims' decisions to disclose experiences of violence, either to informal supports such as friends or family , or to formally report the violence to police or other officials. These reasons are influenced by the circumstances and context in which the violent act takes place, including the relationship to the perpetrator, location, type of incident, seriousness of the incident, injuries sustained, and whether the violence is a single, one-off incident or part of a continuation or pattern of violence. As discussed in Chapter 4, the experience of violent victimisation can be highly traumatizing. Especially when it is perpetrated by someone close to the 133