Toolkit with Report Form - Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic ...

Section Six
Myth: Women Lie About
Being Abused
Reality: Their Injuries And Actions
Speak For Themselves
Myth: A PFA Is Just A Piece
Of Paper
Reality: A PFA Has The Full Power
Of The Court Behind It
Our experience working with over
2.5 million victims, the majority of
them women, is that they are battered,
bruised and bloodied; have lived
in fear and fled in terror; and seek
justice, safety and peace of mind for
themselves and their children.
Our experience collaborating over three
decades with the statewide network
of providers of batterer intervention
services is that many batterers accuse
their victims of lying because they refuse
to recognize or don’t realize that their
behavior is abusive and criminal. It often
takes months of intensive education and
one-on-one sessions before a batterer
acknowledges and stops minimizing and
trivializing the violence and its impact.
Myth: Women Use PFAs
To Get Custody
Reality: Custody Awards
Prove Otherwise
A National Institute of Justice study found
that 35% of mothers alleging abuse were
awarded primary custody, compared
to 42% of mothers who did not allege
abuse and were awarded custody.
Protection From Abuse orders have
protected hundreds of thousands
of domestic violence victims in
Pennsylvania from harm.
A study in the Journal of the American
Medical Association found that
protection orders (issued for 12 months
or longer) are likely to reduce policereported
physical violence by 80
percent.
A protection order is never intended
to be the only option for victims, who
are encouraged to also work with
an advocate at their local domestic
violence program to create a safety
plan that may include a shelter stay,
relocation, pursuit of criminal charges,
etc. It’s important to recognize that
a PFA order is only as effective as
the enforcement behind it, and lax
and inconsistent enforcement by the
courts and police can have deadly
consequences.
The American Psychological
Association reports that allegations
of abuse rarely result in the denial of
parental contact, even when abuse is
substantiated.
page 46
When Crisis Strikes | Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence | 2012