Victim blaming allows domestic abuse to thrive

DOMESTIC abuse is the single biggest societal issue facing women and children in the UK today.

- Ruth Davison

As the Chief Executive of Refuge, the country’s largest single provider of specialist domestic abuse services, I work with women every day who experience horrific abuse, women who are among the most resilient.

Domestic abuse and violence against women and girls (VAWG) has never been higher on the public and political agenda, and yet it is a widely misunderstood social issue surrounded by many myths which undermine the scale of the problem and the very real impact on those who experience it.

Many of these untruths are fuelled by the fundamental misogyny which is rampant across society, and it is this very misogyny which is the root cause of so much domestic abuse.

Often, we are told domestic abuse or VAWG is a “women’s issue”, but women do not want or choose to be abused.

It is this insidious victim blaming culture that allows domestic abuse to continue unchecked.