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Investigation
Saira was being abused by her husband. Police believed she was the aggressor
Some migrant survivors of family violence are being misidentified as the primary aggressor in response to incidents, according to a new Victoria-based report. For Saira, it meant police believed her husband over her, leading to devastating consequences.
Published 3 March 2022 4:39pm
By Amy Hall, Emma Brancatisano
Source: SBS News
Image: Saira says her husband monitored her internet use. (Getty, SBS)
This story contains descriptions of domestic violence.
Living in Victoria with no job or money, Saira (not her real name) says her husband was monitoring her every move.
She knew their relationship was “bad”, even before she moved to Australia from India to continue their relationship, but says she didn’t realise the financial, emotional and sexual mistreatment she would endure was considered abuse.
“To be frank, for me, physical abuse is only abuse. I never knew all the other things are also abuse. And I thought these are issues that can be resolved between husband and wife over the period,” she says.
Saira says during the time they were together she had two miscarriages, and even around that time, her husband still wanted her to have sex with him.
“It was so painful. And he didn’t leave me even for an hour to sleep. He was torturing me.
Saira moved to Australia to be with her husband. Source: Getty, SBS
She became physically and socially isolated during the relationship but having already spent money on her visa and fearful that their families would blame her for a marriage breakdown, Saira says she decided to “stick it out”.
That is, until she says her husband began to restrict her food intake and withdrew all of her money from their joint bank account.
“I was so upset that I didn’t know what to do.
“I just asked him, 'do you want me to die without eating anything? Is that what is your aim?'”
I just asked him, 'do you want me to die without eating anything?'Saira
“That is when the issue has become so big, and he started staying, ‘you’re a slave to me, you have to do things according to me’, and all of these things … I was not ready to do it.
“He was just on my head. Literally, he was standing on my head and he was shouting at the peak of his voice. So I had to call the cops, but they didn’t come.”
The risk of misidentification
Saira describes an incident in 2017 in which she rang Victoria Police to ask them to give her husband a warning, “to ask him to control his temper”.
She says police responded by saying they could issue an Intervention Order (IVO) - but she didn’t know at the time what that was.
She says police called her back four hours later but during that time, the couple had another altercation which left both of them with bruising.
Saira's husband then filed a police report against her, claiming he was the victim, which led to Saira being incorrectly identified as the primary aggressor.
Saira says she was so isolated at the time, she didn’t know where the local police station was and her husband monitored her internet use, so she didn’t know what to do.
“I was new to the country and the location ... Australia is not my native place.
“I just called them [the police]. I didn’t go to the [station] and they didn’t see the bruises on my body. They could only see the bruises on his hand.
“So they just came to a conclusion that I was the perpetrator and he was the victim.”
Saira says her husband monitored her internet use. Source: Getty, SBS
“Victoria Police is particularly concerned about the impact of misidentification on our priority communities. We know the risk of misidentification can be higher where there are communication barriers and distrust of police.”
“We are committed to addressing the issues contributing to misidentifying predominant aggressors as we know the impact it has on victims.”
In a position paper released in February, inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence, which helps women from migrant and refugee backgrounds across Victoria, says misidentification is estimated to occur in every one in 10 cases - and significantly more when incidents take place in culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
“Many family violence incidents are dynamic, “so it’s critical police are digging deeper to understand the whole story,” Ms Callaway says.
The importance of being heard
Dr Ellen Reeves, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from the Monash Gender and Family Prevention Centre, says the misidentification of a victim-survivor as the predominant aggressor in family and domestic violence cases isn’t unusual. But it’s hard to gauge national statistics.
“It's really hard to get an exact prevalence of this issue, especially because the legal system generally doesn't record this.”
Dr Reeves says some victim-survivors are at a higher risk of misidentification, including First Nations women, migrant and refugee women, and women with a disability or mental health issue.
“But then you also have these underpinning factors such as drug and alcohol use, a prior history with the police, and women's use of force, which is commonly used within the context of self-defence or retaliation.”
InTouch, which has assessed more than 20,000 women and children over 37 years, says based on anecdotal information, an estimated one-third of its clients have experienced misidentification at some point during their engagement with law enforcement and the justice system.
InTouch chief executive Michal Morris says misidentification can also occur when a couple with limited English language skills are interviewed without an interpreter.
“The language barrier is critical; that when we have experienced family violence we have a right to be able to tell our story in the way we want, and sometimes it's too difficult and sometimes it doesn't happen,” she says.
“But it has to happen every time because we're expecting police to make decisions at a point in time when they can't get all the facts, and that is problematic."
The language barrier is critical; that when we have experienced family violence we have a right to be able to tell our story in the way we want.Michal Morris, InTouch
Ms Morris says lack of cultural awareness among some police members is another issue.
“One of the things that we've identified with a lot of the clients that come to inTouch is that they will come across [to police], particularly when they're not speaking English, aggressively, or at a heightened state of emotion, and that will be assumed to be aggressive, so they will be named the prime aggressors.”
She says how much victim-survivors choose to disclose to police can also be a contributing factor in misidentification.
“We know that for a lot of women who are on temporary visas, they will be reluctant to tell everything to the police, and so they may withhold some information because they falsely believe that they can be kicked out of the country the next day.”
The devastating consequences
Dr Reeves says the consequences of misidentification can be life-changing, with some victim-survivors losing caring rights to their children and facing immigration issues.
There can also be impacts on employment and education.
“I know one woman who was studying to be a nurse and she was really worried that she wasn't going to get a job when she graduated because of this intervention order or criminal charges - so she ultimately quit her studies," she says.
Victim-survivors can also lose faith in the justice system.
"This is really important because when a victim-survivor is misidentified, their own safety needs often aren't acknowledged … and [they] are likely to be at risk of re-abuse.”
The consequences of misidentification can be life-changing. Source: SBS News
Work is also underway to implement recommendations from the latest Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor, the body set up to review how the Victorian Government and agencies are delivering reforms.
Among its own recommendations, InTouch wants to see police appropriately engaging interpreters when there is a language barrier and police, court staff and other services having ongoing and regular cultural awareness training.
It says where a response is considered at “higher risk” of misidentification, additional steps should be taken to investigate and ensure it has not occurred.
The group is also calling for a single point in the system to correct misidentification.
Dr Reeves added that outside Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland are also shining a light on misidentification in their moves to criminalise coercive control.
"In Tasmania, in WA, South Australia, I think the conversations are being had, but in terms of governments actually directly responding to it and law enforcement responding to it, I think there's still a long way to go.”
The lasting impacts
Saira says her experience felt like being pushed onto a busy road.
“It was like I was being pushed - tying your hands and eyes with a blindfold - on a full traffic jam road. You don’t know which direction you have to go and who to trust. Because the person whom you have trusted and come to this country has left you on the road.
“I didn’t have a house. I didn’t have my visa. I didn’t have a job. I didn’t have a penny in my hand, and I didn’t have anything to eat as well in the house.”
For Saira, being misidentified led to her being issued with an Intervention Order and told she needed to vacate her home.
The order was withdrawn on the same day, she says, but the case would later go to court.
After being presented with evidence of the abuse Saira had suffered, her husband withdrew the case, she says, and he was asked to attend an assessment for a men's behavioural change program.
The couple separated and Saira later divorced her husband with the help of a women's legal service.
She returned to India last year.
Looking back, she says she hopes police in Australia today prioritise attending reports of domestic violence in-person to “understand both sides of the story”.
“We just want someone to listen to our story at that point in time and guide us in the right way.
“Because we are scared, especially women who come from a different country, are scared.”
If you or someone you know is impacted by family and domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit . In an emergency, call 000. The Men’s Referral Service provides advice for men on domestic violence and can be contacted on 1300 766 491.
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