Pacific police learn why women stay in violent relationships

Police participants undergo a two-week training in gender, violence against women, and gender-based violence legislation. (Contributed Photo)

NADI, Fiji—Police participants undergoing a two-week training in gender, violence against women, and gender-based violence legislation have examined some of the reasons why many women withdraw police complaints against their violent partners or do not leave such relationships.

As part of the training funded by the Australian Federal Police and facilitated by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Center, the police officers from 11 Pacific countries shared some of the problematic experiences they faced in responding to violence against women, including that of women withdrawing criminal complaints against their partners. 

One participant explained that despite a no-drop policy relating to cases of intimate partner violence, it was difficult to sustain because of the institutional and personal pressures that come to bear in domestic violence cases.

Many women wanted to withdraw cases even though they may have been severely assaulted. However, they would often turn up at the police station again several months later to report yet more violence. 

Women who returned to their violent husbands are often criticized for their decision but there are a whole host of reasons they go back or drop complaints, ranging from a lack of self-esteem, belief in the sanctity of marriage vows and financial dependence—all stemming from the unequal power relations between women and men. 

Women often did not want to end their relationship, only wanting the violence to stop. However, they often found themselves stuck in a cycle of violence that could often end in a violent death or severe disability for the woman if no intervention happened to change the violent man’s attitudes and behavior—or if she does not leave.

A major barrier for a woman to pursue a charge against her partner is the complicated systems, long processes, inadequate laws and regressive attitudes of police officers and other people involved in the criminal justice system.

A police participant recognized that these long and slow processes involved in reporting often deters women from going to the police and following through with the process until the perpetrator had been prosecuted and sentenced.

The participants identified the varied reasons that women stayed in a violent relationship. These included lack of confidence, the fear of social isolation, the danger to their safety posed by the perpetrator should they leave, the payment of bride price by her family, the hope that their partner would change and the lack of support services by State agencies. 

Participants come from the police forces of Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The workshop began on Monday and will end on Friday, Nov. 11.