Rural Australian Women’s Legal Help Seeking for Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread, ongoing, and complex global social problem, whose victims continue to be largely women. Women often prefer to rely on friends and family for IPV help, yet when informal support is unavailable they remain hesitant to contact formal services, particularly legal support for many reasons. This study applies a sociological lens by framing the IPV and legal help-seeking experiences of rural Australian women gained from 36 in-depth face-to-face interviews as socially contextualized interactions. Findings reveal police and court responses reflect broader social inequalities and rurality exacerbates concerns such as anonymity and lack of service. Cultural differences and power imbalances between survivors and formal support providers are manifested to inform future research seeking to improve survivors' willingness to engage and satisfaction with formal services. Finally, the important role police and the criminal justice system play in de-stigmatizing IPV and legitimating its unacceptability is argued a crucial, yet unrecognized, key to social change.

Service Contacts Proximate to Intimate Partner Homicides in Victoria

“…Reducing stigma associated with family violence (Ragusa 2013) and improving access to specialist family violence services may increase the likelihood of abused women seeking this type of service and improve the overall success of the intervention.…”

The impact of rurality on women's 'space for action' in domestic violence: Findings from a meta-synthesis

“…In such contexts or where victim-survivors or their abusers were well-known, anonymity, privacy, and confidentiality when disclosing violence or accessing support (from friends, support workers, police, court workers or medical professionals) were tenuous at best (Bosch & Bergen, 2006*;George & Harris, 2014*;Lichtenstein & Johnson, 2009*;Loxton et al, 2003*;Neilson & Renou, 2015*;Ragusa, 2013*). This was especially true for women from certain cultural contexts, such as Bangladesh, where family 'honour' is highly prized (Khan, 2015*) or where women occupied leadership roles in their community.…”

“…Numerous articles referred to what we have classified as 'abuser allies' (see Bancroft, 2002), where others in a social network offer support for the abuser or their narrative. Consequently, some women found that friends, family, and police would deny, minimise, trivialise or seek to discredit allegations of violence (George & Harris, 2014*;Hornosty & Doherty, 2002*;Mackenzie & Mackay, 2019*;Martz & Saraurer, 2000*;National Rural Crime Network, 2019*;Neilson & Renou, 2015*;Ragusa, 2013*;Wendt et al, 2017*). A victim-survivor in Hornosty and Doherty's (2002*, p. 20) research emphasised that her friends "don't talk about it [abuse].…”

“…I don't trust the police to do anything for people like me". In one study, a woman identified a serving police officer as her abuser (Ragusa, 2013*).…”

“…Shame was frequently said to be a consequence of the absence of privacy in rural areas (Bosch & Bergen, 2006;Loxton et al, 2003*;Ragusa, 2013*). Being known to police, court staff, lawyers or support workers, and the deficit of private spaces in various agencies resulted in no or little confidentiality (George & Harris, 2014*;Neilson & Renou, 2015*).…”