Introducing Nicole Renehan: Is knowing enough?

On International Women’s Day (8^th March) 2014, Clare’s Law was rolled out nationally across England and Wales following a pilot project the previous year. At this time, I was working on an innovative multi-agency domestic abuse team which was located within children’s services. My main role was to deliver domestic abuse awareness group work to women who had experienced domestic abuse. This filled a much needed gap given that local domestic abuse services did not deliver awareness work with women who remained within the abusive relationship because this was seen to present too much of a risk to them. In effect, what this meant was that such women were unable to explore and question what they knew domestic abuse to be.

Why is it so important that women understand that they are being abused? Surely, they know already? After all, physical injuries hurt and losing one’s friends and family at the bequest of a perpetrator becomes excruciatingly lonely and watching one’s child grow up in fear of another incident is, surely, enough to alert women to their predicament? Surely all women needed was a new team of highly dedicated and passionate staff to come to their rescue? Well, this is what I thought when I first started on the team. Armed with all the enthusiasm that is needed to tackle domestic abuse, I was prepared to ‘knock down doors’ and ‘save’ women and their children from the clutches of violent domestic abusers. But the reality was that women tended to (literally or metaphorically) slam that door in my face. After six months of head scratching and (most) women making it clear that they did not need ‘saving’, that they were not ‘battered wives’ and the abuser was not a ‘wife beater’, myself and my colleague went on a mission to educate ourselves. It is only over many years in the field that I realise how unusual such a move was as, in my experience, victim blaming appears to be the default position for professionals who do not understand domestic abuse themselves. We learned that being assaulted, isolated, and emotionally and psychologically worn down were not so easy to recognise when you were the one being abused. So, running awareness groups was key to arming women with the knowledge they needed to understand that they were not to blame, that his behaviour was wrong and inexcusable, and that, if they so choose, there was support available (to some extent) to help them to leave.

During the sessions we discussed Clare’s Law, the right to know and right to ask, and explored potential merits and pit falls of the scheme. We discussed that, given they had not reported many or any of their experiences of abuse, there may not be anything on record to ‘know’ or ‘ask’ about. Some women reported having accessed a disclosure scheme only to be told by police that they did not have a right to know if their partner had been abusive to other women because, given he had assaulted her, she should already know that he was a perpetrator. During a right to know disclosure, I witnessed a woman being told by a probation officer that her partner had a history of domestic abuse and, subsequently, a Social Worker telling her now that she knew, she should just leave. I witnessed yet another who was issued with an Osman warning (a risk of murder letter) by the police after she failed to act on what she now knew. In effect, a law that had been designed to protect and empower women was regurgitating the same old question of ‘why doesn’t she just leave?’, instead of asking ‘why doesn’t he just stop?’ – ironic given it is his serial criminal record of abuse that led to the disclosure in the first place.

So, how about this? How about we ask women so that we know more about what they need rather than assuming the law and those that apply it know best.

Fast forward seven years and we are finally doing just that. Clare’s Law Research Project involves asking women about their experiences of accessing Clare’s Law, whether a disclosure was made, what they did with that information and why, what barriers they face and what else they say they need. Knowledge may be powerful, but it is not sufficient to tell women to leave without genuinely asking them why they don’t. Obtaining women’s experiences and perspectives of laws that purport to help them are crucial so that those who ultimately implement them do so knowing how to do this effectively and in ways that meet all women’s needs.