MYTHS
Beliefs held by service providers may affect the standard of service they offer. Service delivery by HDWA staff should reflect the principles of the Western Australian Health Policy and Implementation Plan to Address Family and Domestic Violence:
- Family and domestic violence is a crime and victims should expect full protection from the justice system;
- FDV is unacceptable and is the responsibility of the perpetrator for whom the appropriate consequences must apply under law;
- All Western Australians have the right to live free from all forms of violence and the fear of violence;
- HDWA staff will be sensitive in recognising and responding to the particular needs of survivors in abusive relationships;
- Health services will ensure a caring environment which maintains confidentiality;
- All interventions will :
- consider the immediate and ongoing safety of victims and survivors;
- empower the survivor to make their own decisions;
- recognise and meet the language and cultural needs of clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities;
- acknowledge and support the rights of individuals to information and resources to change violent circumstances; and
- health care strategies are required to be cost effective and consistent with preventive approaches that will reduce the occurrence of FDV.
Myths within the community serve to reinforce widely accepted beliefs which protect the offender and/or blame the survivor of FDV. The impact of these myths on the survivor will affect how s/he copes with the assault/s, the support they receive from family and friends and the quality of service delivery if they choose to seek assistance.
MYTH
Only a small percentage of women are subjected to FDV.
FACT
Because of the private nature of FDV and the shame and embarrassment that inhibits many victims from talking about the issue, it is impossible to tell exactly how many women are subjected to violence.
A number of studies ranging from women using hospital services to women in the church suggest that from one in three to one in five women are likely to experience violence in intimate relationships (Conrade 1992, Roberts, 1993, White 1991).
MYTH
FDV only happens within poor or working class families.
FACT
FDV occurs across all socio-economic groups. This myth developed because people on low incomes are more likely to come to the attention of official agencies. Those families with access to more resources are sometimes better able to hide the violence.
MYTH
The offender is not a loving partner.
FACT
Researchers have become aware of a cycle of violence in abusive relationships (Walker 1979). During the "buy back" and "honeymoon phases" of this cycle the offender can be a loving and attentive partner. Many violent men are described by their partner as Jekyll and Hyde characters capable of being charming and caring but also capable of violence and abuse.
MYTH
Violent men cannot control their violence.
FACT
Violent men often believe that this is true. It is the belief in this myth which enables offenders to continue to avoid taking responsibility for their behaviour. The large majority of offenders who beat their partners control their violence with others, such as friends or work colleagues, where there is no perceived right to dominate and control.
Offenders are also able to control the way in which they abuse, including limiting physical assault to certain, often hidden, parts of the body and by limiting the amount of damage inflicted. Violence is also frequently pre-meditated although it may seem to the survivor to happen out of the blue.
MYTH
Violent men are mentally ill or have psychopathic personalities.
FACT
Clinical studies of men who abuse their partners do not support this view. The vast majority of violent men are not suffering mental illness and could not be described as psychopaths. Most offenders present as ordinary respectable men who are very much in control. They are represented in all occupations and social classes and the violence usually manifests itself only within their relationships with their female partner and children.
MYTH
Women enjoy being abused.
FACT
This myth developed from the observation that many women remain in violent relationships despite constant abuse. There are many reasons why abused women stay with their violent partners. Many women are too afraid to leave violent relationships. Research confirms that leaving a relationship is a dangerous time for a woman and that from half, to five out of seven, of the women killed by their spouse were separated or were in the process of separating at the time of their death (Easteal 1993, Keys Young 1993, Wallace 1986)
MYTH
A woman could always leave if she really wanted to.
FACT
Approximately one-third of the women who responded to a NT Domestic Violence Phone-In in 1983, stated that they stayed in a violent relationship because they were afraid of what their already violent partner might do if they were to leave (d’Abbs 1983).
Abused women are usually constrained from leaving home by a number of factors including:
Fear or reprisals
Threats of injury and actual violence to themselves or their children if they choose to separate prevents a great number of women from leaving violent relationships.
Social isolation
Abused women are often at home with dependent children. Their partners may deliberately isolate them from friends, family and the wider community. Many survivors choose to hide at home because of their sense of shame of visible injuries, or their belief that the violence is their fault. As a result of their isolation, abused women often have no one to turn to and are unaware of available services.
Financial dependence
Women generally do not have equal access to the same earning capacity as men. To leave their partner condemns many women and their children to a substantial decline in their standard of living.
Social stigma.
Women often experience social pressure not to separate and deprive their children of a father.
Emotional dependence
Like women in non-violent relationships, abused women are generally committed to their relationship, love their partner and hope for a change in the relationship. Some abused women are fearful that their partner will not cope with a separation and that he will attempt suicide as he has often threatened.
Low self-esteem
Many survivors, after years of beatings and verbal abuse, have lost their self confidence and doubt their ability to cope on their own.
MYTH
Some women deserve to be abused. They provoke the abuse.
FACT
There are no excuses for FDV. Violence is rarely the culmination of a mutual argument and women often have no warning of an attack. Many women who are abused try to do everything to avoid violent episodes. In abusive relationships it is often perceived that the man has the right to dominate and control his partner. Survivors of FDV are at risk of abuse from the offender regardless of their actions.
In the 19th Century, British law still stated that a man could discipline his wife by hitting her with any reasonable instrument provided that it was not thicker than his thumb. While such a law no longer exists, many social beliefs still condone the use of violence to control women and to keep them in their place.
MYTH
Alcohol abuse causes FDV.
FACT
There is no single or simple reason for FDV and no evidence that alcohol is a direct cause of violence. There is evidence to suggest that alcohol co-exists with, and may be seen to precipitate, FDV (d’Abbs 1993).
A 1994 Northern Territory Living with Alcohol Violence Survey found that 85 per cent of the group surveyed said that alcohol is a major cause of FDV. However, 98 per cent said being drunk is not an excuse for hitting a partner or a child. Alcohol was involved in domestic violence for three out of four callers to a Northern Territory Domestic Violence Phone-In, in 1983 (d’Abbs).
MYTH
Survivors of FDV exaggerate the abuse.
FACT
Survivors rarely describe themselves as victims of FDV, and tend to underestimate rather than to exaggerate violence, even when violent episodes escalate in intensity and frequency.
Survivors are much more likely to omit, deny, minimise, and even excuse FDV rather than disclose or exaggerate it.
© Health Department of Western Australia. All rights reserved.
Last Updated: Friday, 20 March 1998 10:28
