Raising Awareness: Domestic Violence in Massachusetts

By Ursula Furi-Perry, Esq.

Perhaps due to increased awareness about domestic violence, the reported numbers regarding victims of violence are rising, says Mardi Chadwick, Esq., Director of Community Services at Casa Myrna Vazquez, a Boston-area domestic violence agency. It used to be that one out of every four people reported to have been affected by domestic violence, Chadwick says; now, that number is one out of three. In fact, those numbers concerned Governor Deval Patrick enough to issue a public health advisory this June, urging for a statewide strategy to prevent domestic violence homicide.

Defining domestic abuse

“We all think of domestic violence as a man physically beating his wife or significant other,” explains Professor Diane Sullivan of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, who teaches a class on women and the law. “But it involves so much more than physical violence. It is really a control and dominion being exercised by one partner over another.” Domestic violence can also span across or affect the whole family, Chadwick says.

 “Another myth is that it happens only to poor women,” Chadwick says; yet domestic violence happens across socio-economic, ethnic, and gender lines. “It likely happens to someone you know,” says Chadwick. “It’s not a shameful secret. It’s a public health issue.” Likewise, the abusers can’t be stereotyped, either. “We tend to think it’s limited to drunken, unemployed, abusive men,” says Sullivan. “But you can’t profile exactly who a perpetrator will be.”

The economic impact of domestic violence can be one of the biggest challenges in getting victims help—whether it’s housing or being able to provide for the kids.

“The decision to leave is a hard one,” Sullivan says. “Sometimes, women care more about the kids than their own lives.” Yet the traumatic effect of living with domestic abuse can be worse for the children than leaving—Sullivan says studies show that children who witness or live through abuse are four times more likely to be abusive themselves.

To help victims with the many issues that go into domestic abuse – from the legal to the economic impact – Chadwick says many domestic violence prevention organizations are focusing on a more multi-faceted approach and providing “wrap-around services” to victims; organizations are also getting better at coordinating rather than duplicating resources, she says. Whether it’s a housing issue or restraining order that the victim wants to address, “it’s important to work through all of the issues with the social service providers,” says Chadwick. 

It’s also important for victims to understand “that it’s not their fault,” Sullivan says. “Women sometimes think, ‘I made a bad choice,’ but they have a right to a divorce or separation, and there are people out there that help them.”

Recognizing the Signs

If you suspect that you or a loved one is a victim of domestic violence, there are some signs you can look for:

• First, the obvious, says Chadwick: unexplained physical injuries, or many unexplained trips to the doctor’s office;

• A significant number of absences from school or work;

• Isolation, sudden changes in activities, or the activities of one partner being monitored or controlled by the other;

• Not being able to maintain friendships or outside relationships, Sullivan says, or one partner refusing to allow the other to go places;

• Lack of power to make decisions, or all control over decision-making being vested in one person.

Once a victim decides to take steps to leave, things don’t always work out well, either. “You can receive a restraining order,” says Sullivan, “but simply having a restraining order is often not enough. They have to be enforced.” And enforcement can be difficult—sometimes due to the woman’s decision not to cooperate after her abuser calms down, though Sullivan says the police now pay more attention to taking pictures and gathering other evidence at the scene when called into a domestic abuse situation and may even go forward without the victim’s cooperation.

Another big challenge lies in “having exposure to what the centralized resources are,” Chadwick says. Though there are many social service providers to assist victims, it’s often difficult to raise awareness among victims about providers and about domestic violence in general.

Where to Get Help

Several resources in Massachusetts are available to assist victims of domestic violence and their families:

SafeLink, Casa Myrna’s statewide, toll-free domestic violence hotline: (877) 785-2020, http://www.casamyrna.org/safelink.html

Jane Doe, Inc.: The Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, www.janedoe.org, (617) 248-0922

Women’s Bar Foundation’s Family Law Project for Battered Women, http://www.womensbar.org/wbf/flpbm.aspx, (617) 589-9240

In addition to these statewide resources, victims and their families can find assistance through local police departments, the courts, and other local organizations. If you are in immediate danger, though, you should always call 911.

Ursula Furi-Perry is an attorney, adjunct professor, and mom of three boys in Haverhill. She is the author of four books and more than 300 articles on legal topics. She can be reached at www.furiperry.com and authors the Legally Mom Blog at http://wickedlocal.com/legallymom