Talking About Violence Against Women: Verona Singer shares a police perspective

By Eliana Clay

The police often get a bad reputation for the ways they treat violence against women. There are horror stories of police telling women that family violence is a personal matter, and that date rape is not really rape. Verona Singer does not fit this picture.

Singer is a Criminologist who has been working to address violence against women for 24 years. She has worked at shelters for battered women, on anti-poverty initiatives, and at a sexual assault centre. For the last 12 years, she has been the Coordinator of Victim Services with the Halifax Regional Police, where she works with women who are abused in intimate relationships. Singer is also a PhD student at Dalhousie University, where she is researching intimate-partner femicide.

Halifax has a Victim Services unitâ€not all Canadian cities are so lucky. It ensures that victims are well taken care of, and works to increase community trust. In the Halifax Regional Municipality, Victim Services reviews all cases of domestic violence reported in the last 24 hours, and contacts victims with case and resource information. In 2007, over 3000 intimate partner violence calls were reported to the Halifax Regional police. This may seem like a lot, but Verona reminds us that for every time a woman calls the police, there are many more times when she does not or cannot call for help.

`Nowadays, we may think oh my gosh, it`s 2008, we`ve been at this issue of violence against women and women abuse for about 30 years. You would think that they would know where to go, but you know, I don`t think they do, because there aren`t a lot of public education campaigns out there.`

Singer warns us not to judge women who choose to stay in abusive relationships. In order to cope, victims often minimize or deny violence. For some, violence has become a normal part of their social environment, while others have been isolated from their friends and family because of their partners. In order to break free from an abuser, a woman needs tenacity, money, family and community support, and knowledge of resources.

If a woman chooses to report abuse, she still has to survive the justice system. The scales of justice are not balanced. `Court is incredibly intimidating for women, and can also re-victimize womenâ€