Billy (Byoung-Jun) Park Page 1 April, 2012

Misconceptions of Victims of Crime and the Victims Witness Assistance Program Billy (Byoung-Jun) Park Communications II, ENL 7778-020 Amy Simoneau April 2012

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Misconceptions of Victims of Crime and VWAP Introduction The Victims Witness Assistance Program (VWAP) consoles and comforts victims of crime, and helps victims find ways to handle that trauma that they have experience at first hand. However, there are huge/constant misconceptions and misunderstandings that people conceive of victims when situations seems simple enough to handle, such as situations of battered women and abused children. VWAP helps those victims to penetrate misconceptions so that they can understand these victims of crime to the fullest of their ability. This report will outline the types of misconceptions of battered women and abused children specifically.

Battered Women When both the terms relationship and abuse are taken into consideration while watching a film or a TV show, the automatic response from the audience is for the female to escape from the relationship and report to an authority. However, there are numerous reasons as to why they cannot rely on support from others and why they cannot leave their partner. This is what the VWAP has to contemplate on.

Fear Fear is one of the main reasons as to why battered women cannot leave their relationships. When women find police authority as an option, it is completely shut down because of what the consequences way rise upon them. The reason being is that women are at a huge risk is the fact that they can be killed by their partner after the separation. In Canada, intimate femicides account for

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between 61% and 78% of all killings of women where an offender is identified. Abusers may also kill the victim's children, parents, relatives, friends or acquaintances. The perpetrator may also commit murder-suicide (London Abused Womens Shelter, 2011). However, along with the facts that they could be killed, it is also the fear of their current condition that creates distress within their life. Battered women not only have bruises, but also have numerous disorders attached to them, such as anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, and sleeping/eating disorders. With these conflicts hovering over their heads, it makes leaving an abusive relationship completely overwhelming (London Abused Womens Shelter, 2011).

Partner Dependency Another reason as to why women cannot leave their abusive relationships is the dependency of their partners. When the female is a stay-at-home mom or just depends on their male partner for financial purposes, women are at the huge disadvantage when they separate within this situation because they will have a hard time supporting themselves (Goodrum, 2007). After a relationship separation, a mans living standard is increased by 10-30% while a womans living standard is decreased by 23-29%. Women now have to wait patiently for months to receive financial support, such as Ontario Works, so that they can pay for their survival needs, such as shelter and food (London Abused Womens Shelter, 2011).

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Family Values For the safety of their children and other family members, battered women tend to stay within their relationship to protect them from harm (Surviving Abuse, 2005). To protect them, battered women feel as if it is their responsibility to stay. This is mostly because the male partner often makes threats to harm people that are close to her such as her parents or even their own children (Surviving Abuse, 2005). In addition, if there are children involved, women have to consider whats best for them. This means that they have again consider dependency of their abusive partner as a better option than living without his financial support (London Abused Womens Shelter, 2011).

As people that have only observed women being abused by their partners, they cannot understand those who have personally experienced the ordeal. This means that people have to realize that there are countless reasons to as to why women do not just easily ask for help or break their relationships.

Child Abuse Another huge misconception that VWAP has to deal with are the victims of child abuse. Being similar to battered women, children have their own issues to why they cannot speak up when they are abused. The number one reason as to why children keep silent is because its easier for them to let it be than to explain their circumstances. Due to the fact that the abuser is most likely someone the child was close to, they may have mixed feelings

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and do not want their abuser to be in trouble because of their past relationship (Under Our Rainbow, Inc., 2006). On top of what they want to keep silent, they may also be compelled and threatened to keep quiet by their abusers. However, not all children of abuse need threats in order keep silent because of the humiliation of what has happened to them, There are cases where the abuser doesn't even have to use threats or coercion to get what they want because the child feels such an overwhelming amount of shame at what has been done to them. Shame seems to be the most predominant feeling when the abuser is a close relative or very close friend of the family; someone the child has grown to love and trust (Graham, 2009). Also, at this age, it is very difficult for children to describe how they felt while being abused. This is particularly troublesome for kids that are sexually abused because they could have enjoyed what they experienced, but also felt violated (Albert, 1992). However, when children are in court, the defence of the abuser will only be interested in what the child enjoyed not how violated he/she felt. In addition, being tried in court is very overwhelming for even an adult victim of abuse; therefore, we can just imagine how difficult it must be for a child to be surrounded by strangers asking him/her unfamiliar and demanding questions (Albert, 1992). In our current society, children are exposed as being helpless or innocent. This statistic alone has made children a huge target for offenders. People encourage children to speak up, but, to them, it can be much harder to speak up than to do nothing at all. Society may want to help, but they have to respect the situation that they are in at the moment so that they do not get hurt any more than they already are.

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Conclusion There are several reasons as to what VWAP has to comprehend when talking/confronting victims of crime, and they also have to realize that the choices they are helping these victims make are going to last a lifetime. The VWAPs job is to help victims to realize that the decision that they are making is the right one by considering all the options that are laid out for them. This means that they need to look through every single situations and misunderstandings, between them and the victims, and find the best way to deal with the problems that they will soon have to encounter in the future.

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References Albert R. R. (1992, December 1). Victim/witness programs: questions and answers. The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 61(12), 12. Goodrum, S. (2007, Summer). Victims rights, victims expectations, and law enforcement workers constraints in cases of murder. Law & Social Inquiry, 32(3), 725-757. doi:10.1111/j.1747-4469.2007.00075.x Graham S. E. (2009, June 22). Why children do not report rape or abuse to their parents for many years. Retrieved from http://sandrae.wrytestuff.com/swa500163.htm London Abused Womens Centre (2011). Why women stay in abusive relationships. Retrieved from http://www.lawc.on.ca/ResourceWhyWomenStay.htm Tamarit, J. J., Villacampa, C. C., & Filella, G. G. (2010). Secondary victimization and victim assistance. European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law & Criminal

Justice, 18(3), 281-298. doi:10.1163/157181710X12767720266049 Under Our Rainbow, Inc. (2006). Why do some children not tell? Retrieved from http://www.underourrainbow.org/106/Abused-Children-Charity-DonationGift-Why-Do-Some-Children-Not-Tell.htm