The phrase ‘domestic violence‘ evokes images of bruises and broken bones, ‘incidents’ and emergency calls. But as a society, we are slowly coming to understand that is only one part of a much larger picture.
Researchers have been stressing for years that most abusive relationships involve more than just physical violence. Often there’s also evidence of tactics like financial abuse, sexual abuse and social isolation.
All are ways of an abuser exercising what’s known as coercive control — a pattern of behaviour designed to oppress an intimate partner.
Watch: Women and violence, the hidden numbers.
The recent murder of Brisbane woman, Hannah Clarke, and her young children — Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4 and Trey, 3 — has demonstrated the horrific potential of an abuser’s quest for complete, uncompromising dominance over the people who love them.
On the morning of Wednesday February 19, the 31-year-old’s estranged husband, Rowan Baxter, ambushed her car on a quiet street in the suburb of Camp Hill. He doused petrol on the vehicle, set it alight and allowed it to burn before taking his own life. The children died at the scene. Hannah died later in hospital, but not before she somehow found the strength to tell authorities what he’d done.
Top Comments
This makes me so angry because the police do NOTHING about emotional abuse and controlling behaviour. My ex had me followed, had recording devices all over our house and manipulated me for control in any way he could. All the police cared about was seeing bruises and cuts to prove any sort of DV. In my experience anyway, just makes me so mad...
Good point. So often we hear that a DVO can't be taken out until the perpetrator has physically done something :( (whether DVOs are effective is a whole other story.)
DVOs aren’t worth the piece of paper they’re printed on. They only cover the physical violence. It means the perpetrator can continue to verbally abuse and harass the victim, and the police can’t do anything to stop it.