1. 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?’”