Victims’ experiences seeking justice Individual Micro / Interpersonal Meso / Community Macro / Society Enablers Barriers Awareness Light bulb moment, naming the abuse Lack of education/ awareness Friends/family believing the disclosure Not being believed, especially by parents Professionals not ignoring abuse Professional incompetence, Not following policy Awareness raising through education Stigma associated with ‘being a victim’ Emotions Emotional strength/ resilience Self-blame Childhood abuse Emotional support from family/ friends Isolation/ being shunned No support network Supportive demeanour from professionals Routine discourtesy from professionals Women’s empowerment Blame culture Services Help-seeking Knowledge of services Didn’t know where to get help/ couldn’t access help Friends/family helping to access services Perp manipulating services Availability of specialist services Inadequate provision of services Woman-centred services Activism Male-dominated institutions Finances Employment Own financial resources No resources Negative equity Friends/family lending money or place to stay Being kicked out Financial abuse by perp Availability of legal aid Legal/ court costs Class position and resources Poverty & benefits system Property laws Examples of enablers/barriers – as described in the interviews – where the description incorporates several levels of analysis. “Did not receive legal aid: She said she did not get legal aid. She said her ex-husband “took all of our money and bought another house. He bought it in his name”. She is renting now and living on benefits having had to give up her job for financial and stress reasons. Initially, she could not afford a solicitor to organise the contact arrangements: she had to save for 6-7 months. Participant had to litigate for herself: she asked for an adjournment as, despite “having a good education”, she was unwilling to interrogate her ex-husband.” “Well just thinking back to the Hillsborough thing I said, do you know what I mean, about realising that … I think there’s something about actually.. that you’ve got to acknowledge that justice is actually really important … and I think that’s really dawned on me recently. That it’s like something about this fucking … I don’t know … you go to therapy, you go to recovery, do all these things, take responsibility da-da-da … but there’s no emphasis on … actually they can … do you know what I mean like … it keeps putting the emphasis back on the victim or survivor to like be a better person and deal with the shit. It’s not that I don’t believe in that, but it’s completely like out of proportion. So it’s almost like you never get a message that says no wonder you want justice … it’s like nobody’s ever said to me … you know no counsellors, nobody’s ever said ‘Have you thought about going to the police about that?’”