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Provincial Services for Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

Penny Bain

In the past year, the province of BC has experienced reductions in the services required by victims of intimate partner violence and their children. Yet intimate-partner violence continues to be a significant concern in the province. Front-line victim-service workers reported in a recent survey that the seriousness of the violence and the poverty and hunger of victims of intimate partner violence is increasing.

Although rates of spousal homicide have decreased, the number of children killed by family members has increased by over 10 per cent during the past two decades. (Statistics Canada, 2000) The most common precipitating event is that the children’s mother has left the male perpetrator. (Cooper, 1994) Between 1991 and 1999, women were killed by spouses after separation at a rate of 39 per million couples as compared to a rate of five per million killed by current spouses. (Statistics Canada, 2001)

First Nations women are significantly more likely than other Canadians to report spousal violence: within a five-year period, 25 percent of First Nations women were assaulted by a current or former spouse. This is twice the rate for First Nations men (13 percent) and three times the rate for non-First Nations women and men. Rates of spousal homicide among First Nations women are more than eight times higher than for non-First Nations women. (Statistics Canada, 2001)

Women with disabilities also live with a higher-than-average risk of violence. Approximately 15 percent of women in Canada have disabilities (Health Canada, 1993) and at least half of these women are abused. (DAWN, 1989) It is estimated that women with disabilities are 1.5 to 10 times as likely to be abused as women without disabilities, depending on whether they live in the community or in institutions. (Sobsey, 1988)

Older women are more vulnerable to abuse by a spouse because of frailty, poor health, or financial or emotional dependency. A BC study in 2001 found that the difficulties faced by older women in accessing services include social and geographic isolation, poverty, housing, ageism, and age-related health issues. (Hightower, 2001)

Regardless of age or race, women in abusive relationships need assistance to reduce the violence or to safely leave. Leaving an abusive relationship is rarely simple because abusers often systematically isolate their victims socially and financially.

Women who decide to leave need legal help to obtain restraining, financial support, and child custody orders. They may also need social assistance to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves and their children. They need safe, affordable housing. And in order to look for work or to hold a job, they need reliable, affordable childcare. Yet today in BC, women who want to leave abusive relationships are being systematically undermined.

For example, since April 2002, the provincial government has cut legal aid services by 40 percent, including closing community offices. Women must now go to one of seven regional offices, or apply for services by telephone. If a woman can prove there is a risk of violence, she can obtain services for interim restraining, support, or custody orders. However many women find it difficult to prove violence at an initial intake interview. Abused women are often traumatized and/or reluctant to disclose the relevant information to a stranger.

Even if the woman is successful in obtaining help with an interim order, she must represent herself at the trial. Civil trials, particularly those relating to child custody, are legally complex. Unrepresented women, particularly those who are traumatized, lack education, or lack English skills, are at an extreme disadvantage in proving their case.

In addition, the government no longer funds family advocates for children, and therefore their interests regarding safety and protection from violence are not necessarily presented to the judge. Also the government has closed many courthouses in smaller communities forcing women to travel long distances to obtain court orders.

Mediation is becoming a common way to keep lengthy divorce and custody battles out of court, and abused women are often directed to mediation services. Yet research shows that the use of mediation where violence has been a factor is unsafe. The potential for intimidation makes fair settlement unlikely and the need for ongoing contact prolongs conflict, putting women and children at continued, sometimes lethal risk.

On another front, the BC Corrections Branch has restructured court-ordered treatment services for abusive men and funding has been cut by 50 percent. The Criminal Justice Branch has cut all Crown counsel victim services and has directed Crown to divert abusive men in “minor” cases to “anger management” courses prior to charge approval. The men do not undergo trials to hold them accountable for their actions, yet the programs to which they are diverted do not necessarily treat their abusive behaviour.

At the same time, the BC Human Resources Ministry has cut social assistance payments for employable single parents by $70 per month, and has eliminated the $100 exemption for child support payments and the exemption for $200 earned income. This increases abused women’s financial dependence, often forcing them to choose between staying and tolerating the violence, or leaving, and risking hunger and homelessness for themselves and their children.

Young women are required to prove that they have been employed for two years before becoming eligible for assistance. Many young people are homeless as a result of fleeing family violence. The chair of the BC Association of Social Workers explained in a recent letter to MLAs: “The Ministry is making it next to impossible for social workers to bring teens who are at risk into care. Instead, it is offering ‘independent living’ which basically means underage welfare, with a social worker attached to supervise it … Children who come into care, especially those who come into care at a later age, bring with them a great deal of personal damage. They have suffered the effects of abuse and neglect for years. They often have developmental delays, mental health issues or behavior disorders. An increasing number have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and will need ongoing care throughout their lives. Most are angry; all are confused and hurt. These are children with special needs. They need more services, not less. Adolescence represents a last chance to offer service, not an opportunity to terminate it prematurely.”

Last but not least are cuts to day care. Since April 2002, cuts to child-care subsidies have resulted in 57 percent fewer subsidized children in day care in BC. (Advocacy Forum of BC survey, January 2003) How are women to leave abusive relationships when they know they will be unable to work for want of day care?

Without access to resources like these, abused women are forced to stay in abusive relationships. The focus over recent years in BC has been on saving money, yet the cost of not providing women with the assistance they need in order to walk away from the violence, navigate the justice system, end the conflict, and re-begin their lives runs into billions of dollars in lost productivity and unpaid tax dollars.

The UN Committee on the Convention to Eliminate Abuse of Women has just issued a report calling on the BC Government to reverse these changes. The Committee particularly expressed concern about the “proposed changes regarding the prosecution of domestic violence as well as the cut in support programmes for victims of domestic violence.”

What can we do to help reduce the violence and assist abused women in finding safety?

• We can support community programs that provide counselling and support services for abused women and their children.
• We can support community based coordination between the justice system, and social, education, and health services that provide services for abused women.
• We can support education for young people and adults about how to build healthy relationships.
• We can let abusers in our community know that abuse is wrong and we can let our judges, police, Crown counsel, corrections officers, and victim services workers know that we expect them to pro-actively investigate, prosecute, and sanction abusers.
• We can support appropriate treatment programs for abusers.
• We can support screening prior to obtaining a firearms license.

In doing these things, we will be serving notice to our elected officials that we consider stopping the violence and supporting its victims to be a basic requirement of the jobs to which we have elected them. Indeed, we will be letting them know that protecting the vulnerable is a basic requirement of all those chosen to govern a civilized society.

Sources

Cooper, M (1994) Wasted lives: The tragedy of homicide in the family, Vancouver, BC: BC Institute Against Family Violence.
DisAbled Women’s Network (DAWN) (1989) Beating the “Odds”: Violence Against Women With Disabilities, Toronto, ON: DAWN.
Health Canada (1993) Family violence against women with disabilities, Ottawa, ON: National Clearinghouse on Family Violence.
Hightower, J, Smith, G, and Hightower, H (2001) Silent and Invisible: A Report on Abuse and Violence in the Lives of Older Women in BC and Yukon, Vancouver, BC: BC/YukonSociety of Transition Houses.
Sobsey, Dick (1988) “Sexual Offences and Disabled Victims: Research and Practical Implications,” Vis-à-vis.
Statistics Canada (1994) Juristat: Wife assault: The findings of a national survey, 14 (9).
Statistics Canada (2000) Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile 2000, Ottawa, ON: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.
Statistics Canada (2001) Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile 2001, Ottawa, ON: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.