See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Violence

by Jess Hill

A strong justice response is exactly what domestic violence perpetrators least expect. As a later evaluation would find, weak justice responses lead perpetrators to believe they are ‘immune to consequences’ and make the victim feel ‘incapable of seeking help’. When this belief is reinforced for offenders time and again, they feel free to abuse with impunity. As one High Point police officer said, when you ‘see some [offenders] with eight or nine [protective order] violations against them … you are like, how can that happen in our court system? How can someone be charged eight or nine times with different victims, not just one victim, and they are still on the street?’

Long-term cultural change is important, says Harger. But the act of calling out domestic violence in public and bringing consequences for offenders is a huge cultural change in itself. ‘In my opinion, psychological and culture change is calling a domestic violence offender into our City Hall and having all of these people say, “Your violence is unacceptable. She may love you and she may be afraid of you, but we are not. She may feel like she is powerless against you – we are not. This is no longer about her – this is about us and you.” That is very powerful.’

While traditional systems make victims responsible for protecting themselves, both High Point and Bourke hand that responsibility back to the community and the police.