Festive season a ‘trigger’ for domestic abuse
LEADERS of charities offering support to women experiencing domestic abuse have spoken of the dangers victims face over the festive period.
A domestic abuse outreach worker at Broxtowe Women’s Project (BWP) said Christmas was a “strange time with lots of tensions” for people in abusive situations.
Sandra Reddish, the outreach worker for BWP, said: “With domestic abuse, there’s added tension over Christmas as there’s high expectations of having an amazing Christmas. Often, there’s more drinking which is a behaviour ‘deinibitator’ that can escalate abuse.”
“There can also be added pressure over families getting together over Christmas. Families don’t always get along and Christmas can end up spiralling into a dangerous situation. It does tend to get bad over Christmas and then leading into the New Year. There’s a lot of excess drinking and partying. There’s heightened tensions.”
Sandra added: “It’s similar with other events like football. It’s the same tension and similar to the drinking aspect. There can be a lot of fallouts. Last year was different because not a lot of families were supposed to be getting together.
“Anxiety is key. A lot of women are scared of getting Covid – when you’d think they wouldn’t be because these are sometimes young women who are fit and healthy. Domestic abuse, however, triggers depression and anxiety.
“Some men have used the pandemic as an isolation tactic and to control women even further.
“If [someone] is planning to leave [an abusive situation] then they need to leave quickly. At Christmas, there are fewer services available and the police are run ragged so my advice would be to do what you can to stay safe. Don’t do anything that will threaten the perpetrator if you think you’re at risk be in rooms with a lock, try and avoid the kitchen as there’s knives in there and, if you trust the neighbours, it can be very good advice to go to them.”
Broxtowe Women’s Project receives donations for women from Greggs and Morrisons over the Christmas period as well as controbutions from people who have made hampers.
Speaking of how Christmas is a financially difficult time, Sandra
Some men have used the pandemic as an isolation tactic and to control women even further
Sandra Reddish, BWP
added that financial abuse was used to control victims.
“With domestic abuse, there’s always almost a financial element that can escalate over Christmas, debt is quite common with abusers,” she explained. “These women are in poverty because of financial abuse and at times rely on food banks and charity shops. Food poverty is widespread.”
Sandra said she would urge people to have the following essentials in case of an emergency and if anyone one needed to flee a situation: a charged mobile phone, any form of ID, a small amount of money and a solid plan.
Detective Inspector Gareth Harding, domestic abuse lead for Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Domestic abuse is an extremely serious issue every day of the year and we always what to hear from victims and survivors, their friends and families. I have been a police officer for more than 20 years and I have seen with my own eyes the appalling impact of domestic abuse not only on victims – but also on children living in homes where violence, aggression and fear have so tragically become part of everyday life.
“When we receive a report of domestic abuse we think not only of what we can do bring the perpetrator to justice, but also what we can do to safeguard victims and their families.
“And the good news is there are a lot of things we can do very quickly to help keep people safe.
“We can, for example, secure interim court orders that will prevent suspects from contacting victims.
“We can also intervene to get them specialist advice and support from local charities in the immediate aftermath of an incident.
“I understand that calling the police can be a very daunting step to takei want to be absolutely clear that take all reports extremely seriously and will do everything in our power to safeguard victims and get justice for them.”