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When victims finally find the strength to end a relationship with an abuser and take measures to protect themselves and their children, unfortunately their trauma does not end there.
In most cases, perpetrators will use strategies to discredit their victims, and use the legal system to continue their abuse and their control over them.
Deny, Attack, Reverse the Victim and Offender (DARVO)
A very common strategy carried out by perpetrators of violence is known as “DARVO” in English and is starting to be used in many countries to identify perpetrator manipulation.
This strategy is used to deflect blame and further harm their victims. Perpetrators - often with the help of their supporters - attempt to deny the violence, discredit the victim, and claim it was actually they who were the victim.
This can be carried out privately, in the legal system, and/or publicly.
Deny the abuse
Overwhelmingly, the research shows that false accusations of violence from women are very uncommon.
It is well established by the body of evidence that only a very small percentage of women make false claims of domestic abuse.
Despite this, almost all perpetrators claim that the victim/survivor has made false allegations.
Common claims from perpetrators and their lawyers are:
- “she is lying to get full custody of our children”
- "she is lying for financial motivation”
- “she is lying for revenge”
- “she is lying to get immigration papers”
- “she is crazy / has a serious mental health condition”
Domestic violence experts know that these claims are without merit in reality, but perpetrators regularly use them to deny their history of violence.
It is also vital to distinguish between ‘unsubstantiated allegations’ from ‘false allegations.’ ‘Unsubstantiated’ doesn't mean the abuse didn't happen, it simply refers to a lack of admissible evidence.
Attack the person reporting the violence
Comonly, perpetrators will try to discredit and intimidate the victim/survivor, their children, and witnesses.
Research has found many perpetrators actively and relentlessly attack their victims after they have denounced their abusive and violent behaviour.
These attack strategies commonly include:
- defaming the victim/survivor by spreading false and damaging information about them
- making false allegations of substance abuse or serious mental health conditions
- using the victim/survivor’s mental health treatment to claim they are an unfit parent
- starting legal processes on false grounds
- committing crimes, such as fraud, in the name of the victim/survivor
- threatening the victim/survivor of any of the above.
Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender
Recent research has found that many victims/survivors of domestic abuse have had false complaints made about them to the police and child custody services by the perpetrator.
According to Nicole Bedera, from the University of Michigan, perpetrators are increasingly making false complaints about their victims using the DARVO strategy.
Overwhelmingly, research from around the world shows that women are rarely perpetrators of domestic abuse. Furthermore, when women have carried about behaviour that can be defined as domestic abuse, the behaviour is actually present as a resistance tactic against a pattern of coercive control that they have been subjected to.
Another common perpetrator tactic is to accuse the victim/survivor of “parental alienation”. The accusation is used to discredit mothers in child custody procedures.
The concept of “parental alienation” was invented in the 1980s by the controversial men's rights activist and psychiatrist Richard Gardner who equally suggested that child sex abuse was part of the human condition.
“Parental alienation” as a concept has since been widely condemned and rejected by the scientific community.
However, courts and institutions around the world have not yet recognised that “parental alienation” is a baseless concept that puts survivors and their children in danger.
The recognition of “parental alienation” by courts in the United States of America, for example, is estimated to have contributed to the deaths of hundreds of children per year.
French legal system vulnerability and what can be done
Although the majority of judges in France are women, the French legal system is particularly vulnerable to being manipulated by perpetrators due to pre-existing misguided assumptions, unconscious biases, and blatant discriminations present in the wider culture such as:
- expectation of mothers’ behaviour is significantly higher than those of fathers
- female victims are judged on their behaviour leading up to the crime
- women of colour met with higher rates of suspicion
- muslim women are faced with misguided assumptions about their religion, culture and choices
- non-French people are suspected of making false claims to obtain residency rights
- male victims are expected to protect themselves because of their gender
- white French men from good schools or in superior jobs seen as “respectable men” from “respectable families” and therefore judged as incapable of violence
- men who behave respectfully, generously, and kindly in all other aspects of their life are assumed incapable of perpetuating intimate partner violence and gain supporters easily to discredit the victim.
Institutions, services, and individuals looking to protect themselves from perpetrator manipulation can move to ensure that they have processes in place to identify DARVO strategies, ensure they assess the situation from a holistic and historical perspective, and invest in identifying and eliminating the built in unconscious biases and discrimination in their systems and culture.
Women for Women France offers training programs in this area to magistrates, police, and social and health professionals on the subject of DARVO.