The National Rural Crime Network has revealed that on average, domestic abuse lasts 25% longer in most rural areas. Why is this the case?
Perpetrators of abuse in rural areas will weaponise rurality and isolation and use it to their advantage. This is because physical isolation not only makes the victim feel physically captive which is one of the most powerful methods of abuse, but unlike in an urban area where a victim may be able to move within a local authority area, keep their children in school and retain their job, all of these tasks are more challenging for rural victims. Alongside this, services are much harder to access, and for many victims their nearest specialist can be up to two bus-rides away from their home. The more rural you live, the harder it is to get support, the less effective that support is, and therefore the greater risk and harm sits in the most isolated settings.
The societal structure of rural settings also cannot be ignored. The National Rural Crime Network finds that it is almost impossible for a victim to seek help without it being known to others, call the police without further community questioning or even share their fears with others in confidence. If your neighbours have known you their whole lives, they simply may not suspect you could be capable of domestic violence, and if the community see a police car outside of the victim’s house, the victim could be the subject of gossip, and the community could turn against the victim believing the perpetrator instead. There is also evidence that abusers deliberately ‘recruit’ the community to their cause, which unwittingly becomes a mechanism for controlling and isolating the victim yet further. If children are involved, the children could become subject to bullying at school making the victim feel even more guilty for reporting the abuse.
Rural victims are half as likely as urban victims to report their abuse. This is because much less is known about the needs of rural victims, of what good interventions are, or how to effectively prevent rural domestic abuse. It also means demand-led services, like policing and domestic abuse support, are gearing their service towards urban areas and urban victims. This in turn leads to fewer services in place to support rural victims, and those victims therefore further subjugated and less likely to report. So, the cycle continues.
The National Rural Crime Network make several recommendations as to tackling this epidemic. One of the recommendations is that support services must improve their offer to rural victims and survivors. Although the demand for support from rural victims is hidden, it is one that very much exists and is prevalent throughout the country. These are victims that are hard to reach, and more support services must do more to improve their reach into rural areas, facilitating the exiting of abusive relationships and doing more to understand the true demand in the areas they work within.
If you are a victim of abuse or you are concerned for the welfare of a person or a child, it is important to note the signs and contact the police.
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