4 Accessing Formal and Informal Supports in Response to Domestic Violence

The resources and supports that women use in response to their experiences of domestic violence can vary as much as their stories and their circumstances. Women may turn to formal supports, such as counselling, shelters and police intervention, or to informal supports, such as friends and family (Ahmad et al., 2013). Formal supports to women experiencing DV can vary across urban centres, and such supports in rural areas is an even greater challenge (Northcott, 2010).

Racialized immigrant women are also less likely to seek legal recourse for domestic violence and there tends to be disproportionately fewer racialized immigrant women in the overall caseload of specialized domestic violence courts than Caucasian women (Tutty et al., 2008). The factors that can contribute to making racialized immigrant women vulnerable to domestic abuse are similar to factors that create challenges for these women when accessing information/supports to confront violence. Other barriers that keep women from reporting abuse is the fear of deportation, unfamiliarity with the health care system and sexism (Guruge et al., 2010). There may also be an underlying fear that reporting to the police would damage the ethnic community’s image and that a woman could suffer reprisal from family and friends (Hyman et al., 2006; Ting & Panchanadeswaran, 2009). Reporting could bring further isolation to the woman herself, as some immigrant women depend on extended family members in Canada and do not want to jeopardize their family and community connections (Erez 2000; Lee & Au 2007).

Some racialized women have had negative experiences with law enforcement in their countries of origin where the police force is repressive and corrupt, and this may be a deterrent to reporting domestic abuse in Canada. These women may have a generalized distrust and fear of law officials which they transfer to members of law enforcement in Canada (Ahmad et al. 2009; Gillis et al. 2006; Tam et al., 2015).

Tam et al. (2015) report that many immigrant women are aware of potential racial discrimination; and fear that, if arrested, their partners would be treated more poorly by police, relative to Caucasian men. These racialized women generally preferred their partners not be charged or prosecuted as they simply want the violence to stop, and not necessarily that their partners be punished and that charges be laid. With mandatory prosecution policies, women lose control over what happens to their spouse once the criminal justice system response has been initiated (Tam et al., 2015). Men are often the breadwinners and women are economically dependent on their husbands. If the men go away, or lose their jobs, the women could lose financial support, which puts them at risk in other ways (Tam et al., 2015).

Religion and spirituality can be a source of support for women facing domestic violence; a belief in something higher than oneself was helpful for some women and restored to them a sense of well-being and balance in the Ahmad et al. study (2013).  Similarly, Fuchsel (2012) found that immigrant Mexican women used the Catholic church as a form of informal support. Women’s experiences when revealing domestic violence to church clergy, however, were varied as some faced barriers, leading them to turn to family and friends instead.