On Human Rights Day – 10th December 2021 – the report from this research was published.
Featuring more than 250 images by women who have been forced to relocate due to domestic violence, the book and maps provide an overview of the project, highlighting key research findings and new conceptualisations and knowledge from the research.
The publication presents the key messages – and points to further reading – on aspects of People, Places, Patterns and Processes of women and children on the move due to domestic violence and abuse.
To order a copy, please send postal address to info(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)womensjourneyscapes.net or send details via the contact form
Women on the Move – Vol. 1: Journeyscapes of Domestic Violence (book). ISBN: 978-1-7399686-0-1
Women on the Move: Journeyscapes of Domestic Violence. From Everywhere to Everywhere (map). ISBN: 978-1-7399686-1-8
Women on the Move: Journeyscapes of Domestic Violence. One Year of Spatial Churn (map). ISBN: 978-1-7399686-2-5
Women and children forced to leave home due to domestic abuse need support and accommodation at the regional and national scale — not just the local scale.
And they need more than just a temporary roof over their heads — they need the understanding and respect of specialist domestic violence support. Such specialist support — of which women’s refuges are a key part — can never be taken for granted.
Refuges are under threat, not just from years of cuts to publicly-funded services, but from the very specific mismatch between the scale of funding and the scale of need.
Scale — in this case — is about geographical scale.
Women’s Refuges are still being planned and funded at the scale of local government; and yet it is primarily non-local women and children who need the refuge in any location.
The Domestic Abuse Bill proposes to keep this fundamental mismatch[1] — posing an existential threat to the future of women’s domestic violence refuges.
Local authorities are asked to assess the local need for accommodation services — without any recognition of the very different role of refuges compared to other accommodation services. And then, as an afterthought, they will be asked to consider the need for cross-border support…
Does this mean their women — travelling elsewhere for support — or women from elsewhere coming into their area for support? Or both?
Women’s strategy of relocating for safety shouldn’t be an afterthought.
This map shows just one year of women’s domestic violence journeys across borders to access formal services in England (so not any of the local services for local people)[2]:
One year of domestic violence journeys to services
What does all this cross-border travelling mean for any particular Local Authorities?
Let’s look at Brighton and Hove and East Sussex councils, which have just decided to stop funding their local specialist domestic violence organisation, Rise[3].
In one year, women and children come from different English regions and Scotland to access services in the two authorities. But — and local authorities generally do not acknowledge this — more of their local women go elsewhere to access help.
One year of domestic violence journeys to services in Brighton & Hove and East SussexOne year of domestic violence journeys from Brighton & Hove and East Sussex to services elsewhere
So Brighton & Hove and East Sussex need services in the rest of the country more than they actually support women and children from elsewhere.
Are councils really going to be able — or willing — to include all this in their needs assessments?
And — if they don’t — there isn’t going to be anywhere for women and children to go…
[2] Analysis by Janet C. Bowstead using data fromDepartment for Communities and Local Government and University of St Andrews, Centre for Housing Research (2012) Supporting People Client Records and Outcomes, 2003/04-2010/11: Special Licence Access [computer file]. Colchester, Essex, UK Data Archive [distributor]. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-7020-1
Services in a particular area of the country often do not realise the extent of women’s journeys as they try to escape domestic violence.
Survivors themselves may have very good reason to keep their location – and relocation – secret as they try to escape an abuser who knows so much about them.
It is only by combining data from services across the country – and safely de-identifying them – that we can see the complexity of women’s journeys across months and years; and possibly hundreds of miles.
An example from one woman shows multiple moves[1]:
At the start of the record of accessing services due to domestic violence, “Mia” was 17. She was staying with friends in Essex, and over the next two and a half years travelled between four places in Essex, three in Northamptonshire, and one each in Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire (all shown in red on the map), staying in refuges, Bed and Breakfast, private rented, hostel, supported housing and with friends. All the moves added up to over 300 miles (straight line distances). The final administrative record is a move to a women’s refuge in Lincolnshire – so still not to settled accommodation.
Another woman’s journey – with her son – shows fewer moves, but longer distances [1]:
At the start of the record of accessing services due to domestic violence, “Karen” was 45 with an 8 year old son. They were in a refuge in Gateshead, so already on the move due to domestic violence; and over the next two and a half years travelled between three places in Essex and two in the North East (all shown in red on the map), staying in refuges and with family. All the moves added up to around 950 miles (straight line distances). The final administrative record is a move out of a refuge in Essex to a local authority tenancy in Newcastle upon Tyne.
It all shows that the snapshot that any service sees – in a particular area of the country – is often only a small fragment of the complexity of any woman’s domestic violence journey.
[1] Analysis by Janet C. Bowstead using data from Department for Communities and Local Government and University of St Andrews, Centre for Housing Research (2012) Supporting People Client Records and Outcomes, 2003/04-2010/11: Special Licence Access [computer file]. Colchester, Essex, UK Data Archive [distributor]. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-7020-1
Violence
against women is recognised internationally as a human rights violation:
“the
elimination of violence against women in public and private life is a human
rights obligation” – “this form of violence impedes the ability of women and
girls to claim, realize and enjoy their human rights on an equal foot with men”[1]
And
human rights violations are one of the recognised causes of displacement –
whether internationally (leading to refugees) or within countries (leading to
Internally Displaced Persons – IDPs).
The
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs publishes the “Guiding
Principles on Internal Displacement”, highlighting the distinctive issues
around internal displacement:
“Unlike
refugees, the internally displaced have not left the country whose citizens
they normally are. As such, they remain entitled to the same rights that
all other persons in their country enjoy. They do, however, have special needs by virtue of
their displacement.”[2]
The
UNOCHA specifically lists human rights violations as one of the causes of
internal displacement:
“The
reasons for flight may vary and include armed conflict, situations of
generalized violence, violations of human rights, and natural or human-made
disasters.”
So,
it is clear that internal displacement due to violence against women is within
these definitions. That forced
displacement of women and children due to domestic violence creates internally
displaced persons (IDPs).
But,
time and again, the focus of data and action on Internal Displacement is only
on the other causes – armed conflict, generalised violence, natural or
human-made disasters.
The
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre collects and maps data on displacement
events – but the categories of the map are only Conflict, Disaster and
Development.
The
map for the last 30 days only shows events caused by Conflict or Disaster:
https://www.internal-displacement.org/
The map for the last 90 days also shows a few displacements caused by Development:
https://www.internal-displacement.org/
But
there is no mapping here of human rights violations causing displacement.
The
UK shows some Disaster displacement – and current news reports are full of
people being forced from their homes due to flooding. But there is no mention of the tens of
thousands of women and children forced from their homes due to domestic
violence – the tens of thousands of domestic violence IDPs in the UK.
There are many kinds of evidence and information
that help us decide how to respond to domestic violence: how to prevent abuse –
and the kinds of services to tackle perpetrators and support and empower
survivors.
One important part of the evidence is the data
that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports in November each year[1]. It often forms the basis of media articles
around this time[2].
And it is around this time of year because of the International
Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25th November)[3] –
because domestic violence is predominantly gender-based violence – predominantly
violence against women by men.
So it is vital in all our responses to domestic violence
that we are clear about who does what to whom.
But here the data collection in England and Wales
lets us down – Police Forces are still failing to produce the most basic data
on whether victims and perpetrators are male or female.
If these are the data being used to make decisions on the seriousness of the issue and what should be done to tackle it, what does it say about priorities that only 28 out of 43 regional Police Forces in England and Wales can report the sex of the victim and the perpetrator[4]?
Police Forces producing adequate data in 2018 (coloured blue)
Police Forces producing adequate data in 2019 (coloured blue)
At this rate it will still be years until England
and Wales has just the very basic evidence of “who does what to whom” in terms
of domestic abuse reported to the Police.
Most
local authorities have around the same number of women arriving to access
services because of domestic violence as the number of women who leave their
area due to the abuse[1]. Authorities may not realise this, of course,
as women (and their children) leave secretly – to reduce the risk from the
abuser, they don’t tell the authorities when they leave, or where they are
going.
Local
authorities who provide domestic violence services – especially refuges or specialist
accommodation services – tend to imagine a flow of women and children into
their area from elsewhere. They know
nothing about their local women who escape violence and abuse by crossing
boundaries – the women who leave.
It
is only because of the service data for the whole of England (up to 2011) that
we can see the wider picture[2]. And that is still only the picture of women
and children who went to those particular types of housing services.
It
is a striking picture – no strong flows between local authorities. Not even strong flows into major cities, or
along key public transport routes.
Animation to focus in on one year of women’s domestic violence journeys to services
It
is a pattern of thousands of very individual journeys – including journeys from
every single local authority in England.
It is a total churn of displacement – journeys probably far more complex
than the straight lines on the map. But
even a flow map of one year of journeys[3]
gives a sense of the disruption and upheaval for women and children seeking
safety across the country.
[1] Bowstead,
Janet C. 2015. “Forced Migration in the United Kingdom: Women’s Journeys to
Escape Domestic Violence.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
40 (3): 307–320. doi:10.1111/tran.12085.
[2] Department for Communities and Local Government and University of St Andrews, Centre for Housing Research (2012) Supporting People Client Records and Outcomes, 2003/04-2010/11: Special Licence Access [computer file]. Colchester, Essex, UK Data Archive [distributor]. Available from: <http://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-7020-1>
How
many twists and turns do women have to make to escape abusive partners?
Only
each woman herself would be able to map the road she has travelled – and often
she still won’t know if there are more journeys to make.
Interviews
with twenty women about their domestic violence journeys showed complex trajectories
which could be over 2, 3, or more years; and involving nine or ten moves[1]. And women and their children could still be
in temporary or insecure accommodation and anxious about when they would have
to move again.
Analysis
of the administrative data in this current research project[2] is
revealing complex journeys of moves and stays – accessing different types of
services across England. It is only
possible to link the data over a maximum of four years, and what is most
striking is that these journeys seem to be just the tip of the iceberg.
For example, a 22 year old woman, with no children, is recorded as having ten stays either in services or between accessing services; travelling over 600 miles within England in under 3 years. But the first service record is in a women’s refuge – so she was already on the move due to domestic violence before this administrative record begins.
A
39 year old woman, with a 3 year old daughter and a 1 year old son, was in a
local authority tenancy at the start of the administrative record. But over 800 miles later, in under year, she
and her children had 7 stays in different types of accommodation, and the final
recorded move is to stay with friends.
Even such complex trajectories are clearly only part of longer journeys
away from abuse.
The
administrative data only record what happened – we need to listen to women at
every stage to understand which journeys are necessary, and which are more
about a failure to provide the right support at that point in the road.
[1] Bowstead,
Janet C. 2016. “Women on the Move: Theorising the Geographies of Domestic
Violence Journeys in England.” Gender, Place and Culture 24 (1): 108–121. doi:10.1080/0966369X.2016.1251396.
[2] EUGEO. 2019. Re-Imagining Europe’s Future Society and
Landscapes: EUGEO Congress 2019 Book of Abstracts. Galway, Ireland [Page
205] “Keep on running: women’s multiple moves in seeking security from domestic
violence”. https://www.eugeo2019.eu/conference-schedule.
Data are often collected within administrative boundaries, as if those boundaries contain all the necessary knowledge. But boundaries can be porous – with people and resources crossing through.
Women escaping domestic violence are on the move – crossing administrative boundaries if they need to: either for safety, or support, or to find services.
However, if those services – and the authorities which plan and commission those services – only look within their administrative boundaries, they will not be able to see or understand what is going on. They won’t have the data they need to provide good evidence for their decisions.
For example, if London services – whether at the Borough-level, or across the city – only collect London data, they will only get part of the picture. They will see London women accessing London services; and they will see women from outside London coming to London domestic violence services.
But they are missing a key part of the picture.
Many London women escape domestic violence by leaving London. They may go elsewhere in South East England; or may go much further.
In fact, for the period of time when there were country-wide data from the Supporting People Programme, every year more London women left to elsewhere in the country, than women came to London to access services.
The full data picture needs to cover all four aspects of the journeys women make:
Within Borough journeys
Within London journeys
Journeys coming to London
Journeys leaving London
If authorities, service providers and commissioners only look at London data they only get a partial picture of London women and domestic violence services (http://www.domesticabusemigration.co.uk/). They do not see all the London women who go to services elsewhere – that there are more women leaving London than coming to London. That for domestic violence services London actually needs and uses the rest of the country more than it serves it.
