Investigative journalist Jess Hill spent four years researching and writing about Australia’s domestic violence crisis in her book See What You Made Me Do, now a three-part SBS documentary.
She says the elusive nature of coercive control often makes this type of abuse invisible.
She explains the common patterns.
“If you feel like you’re having to ask for an allowance or you’re not having access to money, if you feel like you’re being isolated from friends and family either you’re being told you can’t see them or your partner is just making it very hard for you to see them; they are constantly belittling you or degrading you, making threats to harm themselves if you leave, threats to harm pets or threats to hurt or kill the kids; this is the abuse called coercive control.”
The latest report by inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence found that 92 per cent of perpetrators of domestic violence had used controlling behaviours.
Anu Krishnan, a Melbourne based social worker says coercive control in the context of multicultural communities is not dissimilar to mainstream experiences.
But women of multicultural backgrounds may not often recognise their experience as abuse due to their cultural conditioning.
“Forcing a person who is of faith from say a Hindu background or a Muslim background to do things that are contrary to their faith – forcing someone who’s vegetarian to cook meat and berating them if they say they can’t. Some of these automatically do not look like extreme coercive control but they can be even more harmful and eat away at a victim-survivor’s core.”
SBS’ series on Domestic Violence 'See What You Made Me Do' premieres at 8:30 pm Wednesday 5 May. Watch on SBS or stream free on SBS On Demand. The three-part series continues weekly on 12 & 19 May and repeated at 9.30 pm Sundays on SBS VICELAND.
If you, a child, or another person is in immediate danger, call 000
If you, or someone you know, needs assistance please contact 1800 RESPECT at 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT.org.au
Click on the player at the top of the page to listen to this audio in Punjabi.
