Building Bridges- Domestic Violence, Culture, Religion, and the Law

Abstract

A church that teaches must first be a church that listens. Yet studies indicate religion is the ‘missing link’ in domestic violence discourse; religion tends to treat such violence as a private affair. Far from domestic violence victims raising their religious beliefs in seeking assistance, such beliefs are generally misinterpreted and exploited by the perpetrators to justify the abuse. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that women are encouraged, if not forced, by those beliefs to uphold the sanctity of a happy marriage and family life notwithstanding the abuse. Trapped between a church that is shrouded in ‘holy hush’ in the face of domestic violence among its congregations and secular service providers that are unwilling to work with the victims for lack of understanding and resources, further conflicted between their faith and abuse, these women suffer in silence. This is a flaw in the system that continues either to turn a blind eye to this abuse, or to be completely oblivious to the woes of these victims. While the needs of these victims are ever present, religion and secular service providers view each other with distrust and suspicion. This thesis seeks to establish best practice in providing services to Christian domestic violence victims. The thesis proposes that specialised social workers with pastoral care qualifications should be located in secular domestic violence services; this would set best practice in meeting both the religious and practical needs of victims. The thesis develops this model based upon interviews held with three cohorts: victim-survivors, domestic violence service providers and clergy. One of the salient findings emerging from these interviews is the under-identification of a victim’s faith—current service providers seem to ignore it entirely as a component of risk assessment. Building on the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022–2032 the thesis outlines policy and law reforms enabling collaboration and defining best practice that would lead to a coordinated community response to Christian victims of domestic abuse. The thesis proposes a best-practice model for a chaplain-centred service in the form of a specialised social worker offering integrated faith-based and secular responses to domestic violence. Such as a policy, the thesis concludes, holds great potential to be replicated by other faith-based communities.