{"id":311,"date":"2021-02-23T11:21:39","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T11:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clareslawexperiences.wordpress.com\/?p=311"},"modified":"2021-02-23T11:21:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T11:21:39","slug":"introducing-nicole-renehan-is-knowing-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clareslawexperiencesproject.com\/?p=311","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Nicole Renehan: Is knowing enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size\">On International Women\u2019s Day (8<sup>th<\/sup> March) 2014, Clare\u2019s 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\u2019s 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 <strong>knew<\/strong> domestic abuse to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size\">Why is it so important that women <strong>understand<\/strong> that they are being abused? Surely, they <strong>know<\/strong> already? After all, physical injuries hurt and losing one\u2019s friends and family at the bequest of a perpetrator becomes excruciatingly lonely and watching one\u2019s 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 \u2018knock down doors\u2019 and \u2018save\u2019 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 \u2018saving\u2019, that they were not \u2018battered wives\u2019 and the abuser was not a \u2018wife beater\u2019, myself and my colleague went on a mission to educate <strong>ourselves.<\/strong> 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 <strong>understand<\/strong> 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 <strong>knowledge<\/strong> they needed to <strong>understand<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size\">During the sessions we discussed Clare\u2019s Law, the right to <strong>know<\/strong> and right to <strong>ask<\/strong>, 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 <strong>\u2018know\u2019<\/strong> or \u2018<strong>ask\u2019<\/strong> about. Some women reported having accessed a disclosure scheme only to be told by police that they did not have a right to <strong>know<\/strong> if their partner had been abusive to other women because, given he had assaulted her, she should already <strong>know<\/strong> that he was a perpetrator. During a right to <strong>know<\/strong> 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 <strong>knew,<\/strong> 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 <strong>knew<\/strong>. In effect, a law that had been designed to protect and empower women was regurgitating the same old question of \u2018why doesn\u2019t she just leave?\u2019, instead of asking \u2018why doesn\u2019t he just stop?\u2019 \u2013 ironic given it is <strong>his<\/strong> serial criminal record of abuse that led to the disclosure in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size\">So, how about this? How about we<strong> ask<\/strong> <strong>women<\/strong> so that <strong>we know<\/strong> more about what they need rather than assuming the law and those that apply it <strong>know<\/strong> best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size\">Fast forward seven years and we are finally doing just that. Clare\u2019s Law Research Project involves <strong>asking women<\/strong> about <strong>their<\/strong> experiences of accessing Clare\u2019s Law, whether a disclosure was made, what they did with that information and why, what barriers they face and what else they say <strong>they<\/strong> need. Knowledge may be powerful, but it is not sufficient to <strong>tell<\/strong> women to leave without genuinely asking them why they don\u2019t. Obtaining women\u2019s experiences and perspectives of laws that purport to help them are crucial so that those who ultimately implement them do so <strong>knowing<\/strong> how to do this effectively and in ways that meet<strong> all<\/strong> women\u2019s needs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On International Women\u2019s Day (8th March) 2014, Clare\u2019s 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\u2019s services. My main role was to deliver domestic abuse awareness group work to<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-read-more\"><span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clareslawexperiencesproject.com\/?p=311\" class=\"more-link\">Read More&nbsp;<i class=\"fas fa-long-arrow-alt-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<p><!-- entry-read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9,13,14,7,8],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-clareslaw","tag-survivorvoices","tag-womensperspectives","tag-domestic-abuse","tag-domestic-violence-disclosure-schemes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Introducing Nicole Renehan: Is knowing enough? - Clare&#039;s Law and Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/clareslawexperiencesproject.com\/?p=311\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Introducing Nicole Renehan: Is knowing enough? - Clare&#039;s Law and Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On International Women\u2019s Day (8th March) 2014, Clare\u2019s Law was rolled out nationally across England and Wales following a pilot project the previous year. 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