Domestic violence in the form of technological abuse, harassment by texts and telephone applications to locate victims, together with coercive control, are two types of aggression that are not frequently reported.
During the videoconference “Domestic abuse takes many forms”, organized by Ethnic Media Services, experts on the subject spoke about how domestic violence is exerted through technology and coercive control, and about the vulnerability of immigrants.
Jenna Lane, spokesperson for Blue Shield Foundation of California, said its research has shown that more than half of Californians have an up close and personal experience with domestic violence.
“Domestic violence is more than physical injuries, it can also be emotional, financial by controlling someone’s money or getting them fired from his job”.
But he emphasized that it can also be technological and legal by threatening to call immigration; social by preventing them from seeing their family and friends.
“If you add all this up, we are talking about coercive control”.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at the national level one in four women and one in seven men will experience physical violence from an intimate partner at some point in their lives.
Lane indicated that in Blue Shield Foundation of California, believe that domestic violence means more than helping families and individuals when they are in crisis situations.
“Research shows that domestic violence domestic is a cycle that requires healing and prevention, but if as a society we do not help families to heal, it will continue to happen”.
He pointed out that men who experience violence as children are at high risk of committing it as adults.
“We know that many survivors want to leave abusive situations and find healing, but they need income and a roof over their heads”.
He concluded by saying that the Gender Policy Council is working on the first national action plan to end gender violence, taking into account the recommendations on the gender-based violence against a White House group.
The coercive control
Pallavi Dhawan, director of domestic violence policy for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, pointed out that coercive control is domestic violence.
“Before I became the director of domestic violence policy, I spent 13 years prosecuting domestic violence cases at the Office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney and the definition of domestic violence in the California Penal Code was really limited to physical abuse and threat of physical abuse.”
One definition said it does not align with what they know about the experience of survivors in terms of domestic violence.
“Physical violence It is not always the worst form of abuse for survivors, typically the aggressors are male and the victims are female, but it can also occur in same-sex relationships.”
He added that the person with the least power in the relationship is more vulnerable to abuse, and in our society, the person with the least power is the woman and is especially the woman of color and the immigrant woman.
“Domestic violence and coercive control Violence occurs in all cultures and across racial, ethnic, and economic levels, but the prevalence of coercive control and domestic violence is higher among women of color, particularly immigrant women.”
He cited some of the tactics used to control the victims in an intimate partner relationship, they are isolation, monitoring, deprivation of resources.
“Reluctance to seek help and mistrust among survivors is high for women of color and marginalized communities, who already face unique barriers such as cultural pressures to keep matters private and sense of a family’s honor, experiences with racism at a systemic level or concerns”.
And he remembered how in 2019, he prepared the draft of a bill he introduced to State Senator Susan Rubio, a survivor of domestic violence, which now includes in the California Family Code rnia, coercive control and requires courts to consider evidence when determining child custody.
“Coercive control is now defined in the family code as deprivation of liberty”.
He said that in the case of immigrant women who suffer domestic violence, it could be that the abuser threatens to report them to the immigration authorities if they do not do what they want or if they do not comply with a certain expectation established by the abuser.
“It can be physical abuse, but also the threat of report them to immigration and deprive them of their resources such as not allowing them to go anywhere and basically taking away their means of independence.”
Technology abuse
Erica Olsen, director of the safety net program of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, many abusers misuse technology as a tactic ethics to inflict further abuse and harm.
“Technology abuse can include things like harassing someone repeatedly through texts and calls, monitoring phones to make someone feel isolated and insecure.”
But also follow someone’s location without their knowledge or hijack their social and financial accounts to commit fraud or impersonate them.
“Another very common example is distributing intimate images without consent, or posting threats and harassment online, but there are constantly new tactics used by abusers to harass, isolate and cause fear” .
Olsen said that despite the misuse of technology, every survivor has the right to use technology to ensure access to services, decrease isolation, and increase safety and privacy.
A PEW Research study of 2021 found that women of color are often the targets of violent threats that they are racialized and sexualized in nature. And this can lead to increased trauma and additional loads as well.
They can also prevent survivors access technology and this increases what we know as the digital divide, which creates barriers to accessing advocacy or legal services and support.
A global problem
Deborah Tucker, President of the Board of Directors of the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence, who at 1994 helped design and pass the historic Violence Against Women Act, which have been improving, said that domestic violence occurs throughout the world and in every culture.
“A few years ago we did a large study in Texas, in the that we found that 80% of those who were in prison for a serious crime with violence, grew up in families where domestic violence was used, and had abuse problems of alcohol or drugs attributed to crises they have had throughout their lives”.
For that said when you deal with Congress or Texas legislators, you remind them that the 80% of the people they incarcerate for murder, grew up and had to deal with very early in their lives, with the use of e violence against themselves or someone they loved.
“If we want to stop the worst of the violence in the world, we have to stop domestic and sexual violence. Everything is interconnected. So when we work on more federal-level legislation and policy guidance in the future, we have to consider this.”