CCChat-Magazine_Issue-25-The-Further-Learning-Issue

all abuse will be taken seriously, but
then fails to deliver because coercive
control is only being identified if
accompanied by physical violence, and
it gets tagged on but there is a real
difficulty in identifying it on its own, at
leats that’s what I’m finding. They
can’t recognise it from the ground up,
only top down.
S: There aren’t enough services that
deal with the lower level risk. For me,
if you don’t work with low and medium
risk, it’s going to become high risk so I
think there is something about
prevention and getting early help,
helping the person understand what’s
happening to them, maybe going on a
Freedom Programme, for example, so
they can understand what is
happening to them and means that
they may not reach that level where
there is a risk of homicide. Surely
that’s what we should be trying to do?
M: I agree, if people are aware of the
early warning signs, they can get out,
before they become too invested in the
relationship. You wouldn't get
punched on the first date but red flags
are often apparent, even on that first
date, if you know what to look out for.
S: That brings me onto my pet hate
which is people saying, and I’ve had a
lot of social workers say this to me over
the years, “why does she keep going for
violent men”? It really annoys me, she
doesn’t keep going for violent men,that
myth is just ridiculous. You’re not
going to go to a bar or wherever and
see this guy and think, he looks like
he’s going to give me a good hiding so
I’ll make a move on him. No one goes
into a relationship thinking they are
going to be abused. It’s afterwards that
you get to think, hang on, that isn’t
right, it’s scaring me now.
www.ncdv.org.uk
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