Restoring Soul – Part 2

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Contents

3 Informal support systems
3.1 Introduction 
3.2 Disclosing sexual violence for the first time 
3.3 Survivors’ reasons for disclosing sexual violence
3.4 Responses of social networks to disclosures: impact on survivors
3.5 Impact of sexual violence on informal networks
3.6 Summary 

4 Criminal justice system
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Why and when do victim/survivors report to police? 
4.3 At what points and why does attrition occur? 
4.4 Diverse cultural groups 
4.5 Summary 

5 Formal support systems 
5.1 Introduction 
5.2 Context of service delivery in New Zealand 
5.3 When, why and how do survivors contact formal support systems? 
5.4 World views and service delivery 
5.5 Funding and workforce issues for specialist sexual violence services 
5.6 Workforce issues for Māori service providers 
5.7 Pacific services 
5.8 Gaps in services for other population groups 
5.9 Summary 

List of Tables

Table 4: Characteristics of cases associated with criminal justice outcomes 
Table 5: How survivors contacted formal service providers (pathways study) 
Table 6: Most common referral mechanisms (environmental scan)
Table 7: Constraints on service delivery – specialist sexual violence services and Women’s Refuges

List of Figures

Figure 2: Attrition and conviction rates of recorded sexual violation (SV) offences

List of Boxes

Box 2: Anya’s story

3 Informal support systems

3.1 Introduction

Informal support systems have a pivotal role in responding to disclosures of sexual violence and in survivors’ ongoing recovery process. We use the term ‘disclosure’ to signify the first time a victim/survivor tells someone else – usually a friend or family or whānau member – about the sexual assault. Disclosure is about seeking support and is not necessarily a matter of simply speaking up. It is often a process that requires the survivor to work through complex issues, such as recognising the incident as wrong (Quadara, 2008). Disclosure is distinct from ‘reporting’ to police, although in some cases they might be the same.

Relatively few studies have undertaken in-depth analyses of who survivors first tell about the sexual violence, what they hope to achieve when they disclose to different support sources, and how different support systems influence subsequent decisions and actions.

This chapter draws on information from the pathways study to explore the role of informal support systems in responding to sexual violence. It looks at the importance of initial responses to disclosures, particularly the impact on survivors’ later decisions and recovery. It also discusses the way that the impacts of sexual violence ripple out to affect family, whānau and friends. We had several questions in mind when we began thinking about informal support systems.

• How do informal support systems respond to disclosures of sexual violence? How well equipped are they to support survivors?
•  How do their reactions affect victim/survivors? Do they encourage or hinder victim/survivors from seeking further help from appropriate formal sources?
• What are the impacts of sexual violence on informal support systems and how well equipped are they to deal with these impacts?
•  What are the implications when the perpetrator is part of the survivor’s family, whānau, or social network?

3.2 Disclosing sexual violence for the first time

Previous research has shown that many survivors seek help from family, whānau and friends to deal with the impacts of sexual violence. Some may also involve formal systems, such as the police, mental health agencies or social services. Because help-seeking strategies are not mutually exclusive, survivors who engage with formal support systems often continue to rely on informal support networks.

The importance of disclosures to informal support systems should not be underestimated, particularly as responses to these disclosures can have a profound effect on the victim/survivor’s next steps. However, all too often friends and family do not have easy access to information about sexual violence, what to do if someone discloses to them, or where to get help for the victim/survivor.

There is evidence that help-seeking is patterned by social factors such as gender, relationship to the perpetrator and ethnicity. For example, women are more likely than men to seek help from both informal support sources and formal agencies. Women who are raped by intimate partners might be less likely than survivors of stranger or acquaintance rapes to seek help from any source. Ethnic minority women might be more likely to withdraw socially and less likely to seek help from formal agencies (Lievore, 2005).

In the pathways study, over two-thirds of the participants said the first person they told about the sexual violence was a family or whānau member, or a close friend – usually female. Only a small number said they reported to the police or a victim service first. While most told someone about the assault either within 24 hours or within the week after it happened, a smaller group did not disclose the assault for more than a year after it happened. In these cases, perpetrators were mostly intimate partners, family or whānau.

Participants in the pathways study said it was very difficult to face others who might judge or blame them, but that it was important to get help as soon as possible after the incident. They also said that support from informal systems was crucial in helping them move forward and start their recovery process.

3.3 Survivors’ reasons for disclosing sexual violence

Survivors in the pathways study often seemed to have instrumental reasons for disclosing – that is, they had a purpose and outcome in mind – although we cannot know whether their reasons were as clear-cut and conscious at the time as they seem in retrospect. Having said this, not all survivors had a clear objective at the point of disclosure.

The most frequent reason for disclosing was to get support of some kind. Survivors’ retrospective comments show that they had varying understandings of what ‘support’ can mean. For example, most survivors said they told someone about the sexual violence so they could get advice or help to:

• decide what to do next
•  leave a violent relationship
• apply for a protection order
• feel safe from the perpetrator
• tell others about the perpetrator
• get medical attention

A male survivor disclosed because he was afraid his interest in internet pornography might indicate he was becoming a perpetrator. This suggests he needed help to understand and address his psychological and behavioural patterns.

For others, disclosure was a way of securing much-needed psychological and emotional support. Some needed help because they were not coping or were ‘having a breakdown’, sometimes to the point of contemplating or attempting suicide.

Disclosures can also be an important source of validation. Some survivors could not believe what had happened to them and were filled with self-doubt. They needed confirmation from an independent source that what had happened to them was sexual violence.

Many disclosures seemed to be unsolicited, as survivors made the first move to tell someone what had happened, but some seemed to involve less of a conscious decision. In some of these cases, someone else noticed that something was wrong and asked the survivor what had happened. For others, it was the first time they were able to identify what had happened as sexual violence. Previous research has found that many women are unable to name sexual violence, sometimes because they are unaware of their rights, because their perceptions of ‘real rape’ have been shaped by incorrect television portrayals, or because at the time they were simply unable to face the fact they had been sexually assaulted (Lievore, 2005).

Māori survivors
Māori survivors were more likely to disclose to friends than family. They were often seeking help for serious mental health issues, such as suicidal ideation or anxiety, treatment for medical injuries, or legal support. In general, the initial support was helpful.

For Māori, disclosing their experience of sexual violence, and coping with the process of disclosure, was identified as the hardest part of the recovery process. For most Māori survivors in this sample, the perpetrator was a partner, an ex-partner or a whānau member. Most Māori survivors had been abused on more than one occasion, with a substantial proportion spontaneously telling the researchers that they were also victims of childhood sexual abuse. Almost half had been assaulted by more than one perpetrator in the incident they focused on during the research interview.

The survivor’s relationship to the perpetrator was a major deterrent to reporting to the police. It also meant that disclosures often had negative impacts on whānau. In some cases, whānau and wider social networks were split apart after disclosure.

It blew up the whole family. It was awful. But it had to be done. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 139)

Other population groups
While the pathways study included survivors from diverse social and cultural groups, the numbers were too small to show any differences in reasons for and experiences of disclosing sexual violence. The literature review indicated that levels of disclosure are generally low among survivors from collectivist cultures (Mossman et al., 2009a). Survivors are often pressured into silence because of the disgrace and shame associated with rape, while new migrants can be socially isolated and unable to disclose because they do not have confidantes.

 3.4 Responses of social networks to disclosures: impact on survivors

Survivors in the pathways study said that support from informal systems was one of the most important factors in their recovery process. Positive reactions to disclosure helped some to take the next steps towards recovery or to report the crime to police. Some said that naming the incident as sexual violence and telling others was empowering.

Bringing it out into the open is the best thing to happen. It has helped me to move on, taking that first step. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 147)

However, social networks were not always well equipped to respond to disclosures, nor were they necessarily supportive. Some were judgemental, did not believe the survivor, or blamed the survivor for the assault. This might occur for several reasons. Sexual violence often occurs during or after social occasions. Behaviour and events can be ambiguous, particularly when memory is clouded by alcohol. Added to this, widespread rape myths obscure understanding of the nature and dynamics of sexual violence. These include the belief that most rapists are strangers, that ‘no’ means ‘yes’, or that women are ‘asking for it’ if they dress or behave in certain ways.

Negative responses to disclosures could have severe impacts, including survivors feeling excluded and isolated, or withdrawing socially. This contributed to a sense of pain and feeling misunderstood. Some survivors found that the person in whom they confided did not understand what they were going through or was not interested in listening. Sometimes survivors were given bad advice, such as being put under pressure to stay in a relationship with a partner who raped them. Some felt ‘hurt’ by how other people perceived them and responded to them.

I knew that if anything happened to me I was on my own. I got no support from my family or church when I was 16. When my husband was raping me I knew that there would be no support for me and I just had to handle it on my own. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 143)

Anya’s story (in Box 2) shows how informal support systems can be instrumental in helping survivors take further steps to seek help. It also shows how misperceptions about sexual violence can result in hostile reactions from social networks. Survivors can doubt themselves, and their silence can allow a perpetrator to offend again.

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Box 2: Anya’s story

Source: Excerpt from Kingi and Jordan. (2009: 33-37).

3.5 Impact of sexual violence on informal networks

The effects of sexual violence are wide-reaching. They are not confined to victim/survivors. People close to the survivor can become distressed through exposure to the survivor’s trauma. This is known as secondary traumatisation (Morrison, Quadara and Boyd, 2007). The effects can also ripple out to wider circles, such as friends, sexual assault workers and the wider society. At this point, we look at the ways that sexual violence affects survivors’ closest social networks.

Impact on partners and relationships
Women with male partners (who were not the perpetrators) often said that the sexual violence had a negative impact on their partners and on the relationship. Some men struggled to respond; others became angry and violent, scaring the survivor even more; some did not believe it had really happened. In several instances, the strain was too great and the relationship ended.

He had to look after me over the years. It stopped him from being himself. He was always trying to protect me. It had a huge impact on me. We are now separated. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 136)

Some relationships ended because the male partner was the perpetrator.
It helped me see clearly the type of guy he was. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 136)
On the day of the rape I ended the relationship. I didn’t want to be touched. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 136)

Impact on children
Survivors who had children spoke about the different ways children had been affected. Children had:

• been witnesses to yelling and shouting in relationships where violence was present
•  seen relationships end and mothers lose custody because they were unable to care for the children
• experienced their mother’s reduced ability to be emotionally available
•  seen their mother crying but did not know why – just that their mother was keeping a secret.

These effects played out in children’s behaviour: some became angry and hate filled, while others withdrew and became anxious and fearful. Although the numbers were small, there were indications that the sons of female survivors tended to react with hate and anger; threatening to kill the perpetrator, for example. Daughters were more likely to become anxious and fearful, to the point where women felt their daughters also needed support and counselling. At least one woman recognised the potential for her children to repeat the violence they had witnessed in their parent’s relationship:

They know there was yelling and shouting. It shows in them – they’re having counselling. My son is so angry – he became my ex-partner and my daughter became me – she’s so withdrawn. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 136)

Impact on parents, other family or whānau, and friends
A consistent finding was that wider social networks – parents, other family or whānau, and friends – were divided in terms of belief and support.

Survivors said it was often difficult to decide whether to tell parents and other family and whānau about the sexual violence. Some opted not to tell their parents, either because they were afraid they would respond with anger, blame or violence or because they wanted to shield their parents from the pain of knowing. While some parents responded lovingly, many did not know how to deal with the disclosure. Reactions from other family or whānau were similarly divided.

On the one hand, some disclosures were met with disbelief, blame and ostracism for bringing shame on the family. Some family members went into denial, or felt confused, threatened and sad. On the other hand, some siblings, aunts and grandmothers provided much-needed practical and emotional support. Other family members expressed anger that threatened to boil over into violent retaliation.

Dad was really, ‘I’ll go find him!’ it was like ‘No Dad, you’re just going to make matters worse, just leave it up to the police’. He was very, very angry. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 139)

Some survivors chose to remain silent, rather than deal with this anger.

Some friends were supportive and continued doing ‘normal things ... not mak[ing] a big issue of it’ (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 140). Some were not interested in discussing it, while others took sides. Although some participants said they received ‘awesome’ support from their social networks, others said that their disclosures split their social networks apart, and they felt criticised and ostracised. This often happened when the perpetrator was part of the same network, community, family or whānau.

Some were protective, and some called me a slut and said I deserved it. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 140)
I would have lost all my friends of my age. They thought I was doing the wrong thing ... I was very, very close friends with a family who, up until the court case, actually included me as part of the family and when the court case came round they just disowned me. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 140)

Survivors often struggled when their female friends turned against them or did not validate their experience. They also noted that some friends became more anxious and fearful, although their own disclosure sometimes prompted others to speak out, leading them to realise how widespread sexual violence is.

I didn’t realise how many had been abused; it isn’t talked about. Why is it so taboo? (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 140)

Survivors indicated that the most helpful thing for other people was seeing them getting better. Others stated that their informal support system also benefited from receiving support from counsellors or information from police.

Impact on Māori survivors’ informal support networks
The interviewees in the pathways study described similar effects on the informal support systems of Māori and non-Māori survivors. At a general level, and within the framework used for this project, this is a valid finding. However, we acknowledge that, for Māori, sexual violence has additional implications for whānau and for whakapapa. Exploration of these issues requires a kaupapa approach that was not possible in this project.

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3.6 Summary

This chapter has dealt with some of the reasons that victim/survivors disclose sexual violence to informal support systems, the impact this has on those systems, and the impact of other people’s responses on survivors.

The pathways study confirmed that informal support systems are potentially an important source of immediate and ongoing help, because most survivors told a trusted friend or family or whānau member that they had been sexually violated. They often needed validation, support and help to decide what to do next. However, their responses could be random and ad hoc.

Limitations of informal networks
Informal social networks often do not:

• understand the nature and dynamics of sexual violence
• have the tools and knowledge to provide survivors with the help and information they need
• have access to information that would help them refer survivors to formal agencies that could offer effective interventions.

Some members of informal support systems could respond to survivors’ needs and helped them access formal help. Others were less equipped to deal with disclosures, even if they wanted to help. Some were traumatised by disclosures, which in turn compromised their ability to support the survivor as needed. Others were weighed down by their own anger, guilt or other feelings, so the survivor had to deal with having caused them pain, or try to dampen threats of retaliation.

The impacts of sexual violence, including rifts in social networks, ran particularly deep when the perpetrator was part of the survivor’s family or social network. Disbelief, ostracism, isolation and victim-blaming were common. This was extremely difficult for survivors, especially because sexual violence often undermined their trust in others.

The findings also raise a question about how well we understand the nature, extent and implications of secondary traumatisation, and secondly, how well we are able to respond to it. As noted, sexual violence has been estimated as the most costly crime for the New Zealand economy. This primarily reflects the impact on victims (Roper and Thompson, 2004). It might well be impossible to calculate the tangible and intangible costs associated with damage that flows on to survivors’ wider networks.

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4 Criminal justice system

4.1 Introduction

Most victims of sexual violence do not report the crime to police. Even when they do, their personal goals are not always consistent with the objectives and purposes of the criminal justice system. Not all victims who report sexual violence to police want or need to see the perpetrator convicted or jailed.

In a criminal justice system with finite resources it is neither possible nor desirable to prosecute all recorded sexual crimes. Decisions about which cases should be prosecuted are made at different stages. Only a proportion of incidents recorded by police will proceed to trial, but indications are that some amount of attrition is avoidable.

This chapter addresses some of the central questions that guided the research. It looks at the key points at which cases involving sexual violations against adults enter the criminal justice system, as well as the key points at which they fail to proceed through successive stages. It also looks at reasons that contribute to high attrition and low conviction rates of sexual violation cases involving adult victim/survivors.

For consistency, we continue to refer to ‘victim/survivors’, rather than ‘complainants’ or ‘witnesses’ in this chapter. We refer to ‘the accused’, ‘suspect’ or ‘defendant’ when discussing findings from the attrition study that relate to cases that entered the criminal justice system.

What is attrition?
In this research, ‘attrition’ refers to the proportion and types of cases that do not proceed through successive stages of the criminal justice process. If we use a broader definition, it becomes clear that there are at least two points of attrition before cases enter the criminal justice system. The first of these, and by far the largest, involves victims’ decisions not to report sexual offences to the police. The most recent New Zealand estimate is that around 90 percent of sexual offences are not reported (Mayhew and Reilly, 2007).

There will also be some attrition during the police processing of the initial complaint, sometimes because victim/survivors decide not to proceed to a formal interview or because of police decisions not to continue. The scope of this research did not extend to estimating the magnitude of and reasons for attrition at this point.

4.2 Why and when do victim/survivors report to police?

Previous research has established several reasons why most victim/survivors do not report sexual violence to police, as well as barriers to reporting for different groups. While this is valuable information, fewer studies have asked what makes it possible for other survivors to report sexual violence. Understanding this is critical to endeavours to encourage reporting.

Victimisation surveys have shown that victim/survivors are more likely to report sexual violence to the police, if they perceive it as a serious crime. However, survivors’ perceptions of what constitutes a ‘serious crime’ can be subjective and are not always in line with the views of criminal justice agencies. Surveys commonly find that respondents whose experiences fit the legal definition of sexual violation do not identify them as ‘real’ crimes.

One of the issues here is that survivors must be able to name their experience as sexual violence and recognise that it is a crime before they decide to report. ‘Sexual violence’ is a broad term that potentially covers a continuum of acts, from inappropriate behaviours to indecent assault to rape. Different forms of sexual violence can have different impacts, and different community and legal responses.

Sexual violence often occurs under ambiguous circumstances, which can make it difficult for survivors to come to terms with what happened. Alcohol is often involved, and this can impair understandings and recollections of what happened. Historically, sexual violence perpetrated by strangers was more likely to be reported to police that sexual violence perpetrated by people known to the offender. Victim/survivors might be more likely to perceive these incidents as serious crimes because they more closely resemble the ‘real rape’ scenario, while women who are sexually violated by partners or other known acquaintances may be reluctant or unable to name their experience. Associated with this is the misunderstanding that sexual violation invariably involves physical force and always results in physical injury. This may make it more difficult for a victim to identify as sexual violence a situation in which she acquiesced to sex as a result of express or implied threats of the application of force, or fear that force might be used.

An unusually high proportion of participants in the pathways study (50 percent) had reported an incident of sexual violence to police. Their main reasons for reporting were similar to reasons given in victimisation surveys internationally. Survivors reported because they:

• did not want the perpetrator to get away with it
• wanted to protect others
• were scared of repeat victimisation
• felt they should report
•  wanted to expedite a protection order application
• felt it would to help their recovery
• realised it was a crime
• wanted to inform police about the offence or the perpetrator.

Changed understandings of sexual violence over time
Findings from the attrition and pathways studies point to a shift in social understandings about sexual violence over time. In particular, there seems to be increased recognition that forced sex by partners and other men known to the victim is a crime.

Compared with a 1981 New Zealand study, the attrition study showed an increased proportion of sexual violation offences perpetrated by current or ex partners (Triggs et al., 2009). This is consistent with findings from other countries, where recorded sexual offences by intimate and other known perpetrators have increased over time (Harris and Grace, 1999). This trend may partially reflect the abolition of spousal immunity from prosecution for sexual violence, as well as changed understandings of the nature of sexual violence.

Whose idea was it to report?
Most participants in the pathways study said it was their own idea to report to police. Friends, family and whānau were instrumental in helping a sizable number to decide to report.

Around two-thirds of those who reported to the police voiced concerns such as: fear of not being believed (n=7); previous negative experiences with, or lack of trust in police (n=6); and shame and embarrassment (n=3). New Zealand Europeans were most likely to express these concerns (13 out of 17), followed by Māori (four out of seven).

When was the incident reported?
The time taken to report the offence is critical for collecting forensic evidence.

• Eighty-five percent of incidents in the attrition study were recorded in the same month as the offence occurred.
• Two-thirds of survivors in the pathways study reported within a week.
• A small number of incidents, most involving family, whānau or an intimate partner, were not reported until several years or several decades afterwards.

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4.3 At what points and why does attrition occur?

There are several potential points of attrition for cases that enter the criminal justice system and different ways of calculating attrition and conviction rates. Most studies begin by using the entire sample of cases as the baseline, even though some incidents will subsequently be deemed not to be offences. This is an accepted way of calculating attrition and conviction rates, because cases cleared by the police as ‘no offence disclosed’ represent a valid point of attrition.

The attrition triangle in Figure 2 presents the major points of and reasons for attrition found in this study. Both the points of and reasons for attrition are consistent with international research (Kelly, Lovett and Regan, 2005; Metropolitan Police Service, 2005).

Figure 2: Attrition and conviction rates of recorded sexual violation (SV) offences

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Attrition during the police investigation phase
As noted, the largest point of attrition occurs before reporting. The attrition triangle shows that the next largest point is during the police investigation stage. This is to be expected, because only the strongest cases with reasonable prospects of conviction should go to court. The police must establish that there is evidence a crime was committed, the suspect committed the crime, and the statutory elements of the offence are satisfied. Cases did not proceed past this stage when:

• there was no evidence an offence had occurred (for example, incidents did not meet the legal definition of sexual violation)
• a suspect could not be identified
•  a suspect was identified but not charged, for reasons including the victim’s wish not to proceed, inability to locate the suspect, and insufficient evidence.

Attrition during the court process: conviction rates
The study found high attrition of sexual violation cases recorded by the New Zealand Police. Conviction rates for the sample, calculated using different baselines, were as follows.

• Of the total 1,955 cases recorded by the New Zealand Police, 13 percent resulted in a conviction (8 percent found guilty; 5 percent pleaded guilty).
• Of the 1,288 cases remaining after ‘no offence’ cases were excluded, 20 percent resulted in a conviction.
•  Of the 601 cases in which charges were laid, 42 percent resulted in a conviction.

Cases that went to trial had an equal chance of resulting in a guilty verdict or an acquittal. In a small proportion of cases, defendants who were not convicted of sexual violation were convicted for related offences, such as other sexual or violent crimes.

Cases that are less likely to proceed or result in conviction
Table 4 shows the complex association between victim, suspect, and case characteristics and criminal justice outcomes.

Table 4: Characteristics of cases associated with criminal justice outcomes

Source: Triggs et al. (2009).

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High-level findings relating to attrition are as follows.

• The most commonly recorded offences were less likely to result in convictions – that is, those involving acquaintances and intimate partners.
• Cases involving victim/survivors in vulnerable population groups were more likely to be classified as ‘false complaints’ – that is, those where the victims were young, had a disability, or had made previous allegations of sexual or physical violence.
• Cases that had characteristics known to be common in sexual violation offences were less likely to proceed or result in convictions – that is, those where the suspect knew the victim, was her partner (in the case of older women), where alcohol or other drugs were involved, and for victims in vulnerable population groups.
• By contrast, if prosecuted, cases that were less common (but more likely to resemble the stereotypical ‘real rape’) were more likely to result in a conviction – that is, those involving strangers, force or injury.

These findings are consistent with a study conducted by the London Metropolitan Police Service (2007). It found that the majority of victims who reported rape had one of four vulnerabilities: they were aged under 18 years; they had mental health issues; they had ingested alcohol before the rape; or they had been or were in an intimate domestic relationship with their attacker. These vulnerabilities had a cumulative effect at each attrition point. They had the greatest impact on the attrition of cases involving the most vulnerable victims. While victims with no vulnerabilities were more likely to have better outcomes, attrition nevertheless remained a significant problem.

Cases involving current and ex-partners
In the current study, the prosecution rate for cases involving current partners and boyfriends was relatively high. This may indicate that police and others in the criminal justice system nowadays have a better understanding of the nature of sexual violence. However, the low conviction rate for these cases, together with the finding that half of the partners and boyfriends prosecuted were convicted for other violent crimes, points to the:

• ongoing difficulty of proving non-consent in word-against-word cases, particularly where there is a pre-existing sexual relationship
• relatively greater ease of obtaining convictions for physical or domestic violence, coupled with the view, expressed in the environmental scan, that if a conviction for sexual violence is not achievable, the offender should be held accountable for at least some aspects of the offence.
  

Some sex offenders are being convicted and possibly jailed because they are also domestic violence offenders. However, at only 3 percent of the total sample, these convictions do not offset the fact that cases involving partners are over-represented in attrition statistics.

Reasons cases do not proceed
Victim withdrawal
‘Victim withdrawal’ from the criminal justice process is a contentious issue. Knowledge about the precise factors that contribute to this outcome is lacking. In particular, complex social and interpersonal dynamics are likely to underpin these ‘decisions’. This issue has been minimally explored, and indications are that decisions that appear to be ‘free choices’ can be strongly influenced by others (Frohmann, 1998; Lievore, 2005). In this project, it was not possible to determine whether or how often the investigation and trial process played a part in survivors’ wishes not to proceed.

‘Victim withdrawal’ is not an official police investigation outcome category, so was not explicitly included in the attrition study. However, the file notes indicated that victim/survivors did not want to proceed or would not co-operate with the investigation in at least 20 percent of cases. This was most likely during the police investigation stage and is consistent with the results from the pathways study. Victim/survivors did not want to proceed for four main reasons: the victim–offender relationship; pressure to withdraw; issues related to the criminal justice process; uncertainty around the offence.

The victim–offender relationship
In the attrition study, withdrawn or discharged cases were significantly more likely to involve ex-partners or boyfriends, and significantly less likely to involve strangers. This could happen because survivors:

• simply wanted the accused warned and the sexual violence to stop
•  did not want their partner to be criminalised or sent to jail
• had forgiven or reconciled with the accused
• felt threatened or afraid of the consequences of proceeding.

Pressure to withdraw
The pathways study confirmed that some survivors came under pressure from family, whānau, friends, the perpetrator or even the public to withdraw the complaint. This was often when the perpetrator was a partner, family member or part of the same social network as the survivor.

On the other hand, mobilisation of formal and informal support systems might be an important factor in overcoming a survivor’s doubts about proceeding. Most of the pathways participants who considered withdrawing said they were encouraged to continue by family, whānau, friends, police and staff from specialist sexual violence services and refuges.

Issues related to the criminal justice process
Responses from the pathways study and environmental scan made it clear that the court process was almost unanimously regarded as a harrowing experience for victim/survivors and a deterrent to continuing. Particular issues for survivors involved:

• the length of time it took to go to trial and reach an outcome
• wanting to move on with their lives
•  not wanting to relive the attack
• feeling unable to face the criminal justice process
•  fear of the legal process and associated publicity
•  having to face the offender in court
•  cross-examination tactics, which were seen as intimidating and degrading.

Survivors in the pathways study who had been to court reported that they felt ‘violated all over again’ as a result of experiences that reproduced the disempowerment, humiliation and lack of control experienced during the original offence.

Most respondents in the environmental scan said they would recommend reporting sexual violence to the police. Substantially fewer said they would recommend going through the criminal justice system. This was largely associated with the potential for re-traumatisation in a system that was set up to ensure a fair trial for the accused, not to support the survivor.

Uncertainty around the offence
In some cases, victims have limited memory of the incident and can be uncertain whether a violation occurred. Alcohol is often involved and survivors might decide, after sobering up, that they do not want to continue, or might feel that they contributed to the assault.

Other factors
Other factors contributing to ‘victim withdrawal’ included:

• the survivor wanting police to know what happened, but not take further action
• the victim/survivor retracting the allegation
• a third person reporting the incident
•  the police informing the survivor that the case had poor prospects of conviction.

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Police and prosecutors’ views on high attrition and low conviction rates
Police and Crown prosecutors who took part in the environmental scan were asked about specific factors that contribute to high attrition and low conviction rates in sexual violation cases. An over-riding theme was that it was particularly difficult in sexual violation cases to achieve the evidential threshold required to convince jurors that the accused was guilty ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. Factors contributing to this include:

• the nature of the evidence, particularly a lack of corroborating evidence, which resulted in poor prospects of conviction
• inconsistencies within the victim’s statements or contradictory evidence from other sources, leading to inferences that the complaint was false
• concerns about victim credibility, often related to inconsistent evidence
• cross-examination tactics, especially the ability of the defence to discredit the victim/survivor’s credibility by referring to her history, attacking minor inconsistencies in her statement, or making her sound unreliable
•  the rights of the accused, particularly the right to remain silent and the inability of the prosecution to challenge him
•  the jury’s lack of understanding of the nature of sexual violation and of consent, particularly when the survivor knew the accused.

These issues are related. Most cases boil down to the word of the victim against that of the accused. Juries often look for corroborating evidence such as injuries, eyewitnesses or other forensic evidence, even though these are often not available and they are told they can convict on the victim’s word. They do not seem to be aware that stranger attacks are the exception; nor do they have an adequate understanding of phenomena such as the ‘freeze response’ that prevents victims from fighting back and can protect them from physical injury. Some behaviours consistent with dealing with the trauma of sexual assault, such as taking drugs or suicidality, are used by the defence counsel to destroy the survivor’s credibility. This contributes to the perception that ‘the complainant is more on trial than the accused’ (Police officer in Mossman et al., 2009b: 104).

This lack of understanding of the nature, dynamics and impacts of sexual violence is compounded when juries have unrealistic expectations about the availability of evidence, based on television programmes. Both police and prosecutors referred to the ‘CSI effect’  and how the standard of proof seemed to have gone from ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ to ‘beyond all doubt’.

[It’s a h]igh threshold of proof considering there is unlikely to be independent witnesses. The ‘CSI Effect’, where juries seem to believe there will always be compelling forensic evidence, or admissions from the offender. Crown prosecutors need to be hammering this point with juries. CSI is not reality and the case must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, not ‘all doubt’. (Crown prosecutor in Mossman et al., 2009b: 102)

4.4 Diverse cultural groups

The attrition study found that socio-demographic factors such as ethnicity, gender or sexuality were not associated with case outcomes. However, the numbers of cases involving different groups of victims were quite small and may not have had sufficient statistical power for an effect to be detected. In addition, different ethnic and cultural groups are likely to feel that the criminal justice system is not suitable for them.

Māori survivors and the criminal justice system
Just over a quarter of the cases in the attrition study involved Māori victim/survivors. While they were over-represented relative to the total population, this is likely to be a fraction of the real number of Māori women who are sexually assaulted. We were unable to find information on whether Māori are more or less likely than other population groups to report sexual violence to police. The 2006 New Zealand Crime and Safety Survey found no statistically significant differences in reporting between ethnic groups, once the seriousness of crime types was taken into account (Mayhew and Reilly, 2007). Group differences might be more apparent with a larger sample of offences.

Less than half of the Māori sample in the pathways study reported sexual offences to police. The main reason for reporting was to protect others. Most preferred to report to a Māori police officer.

Responses to the environmental scan survey suggested that there can be huge pressure on Māori not to report to police or to resolve these matters within the whānau or community. Reasons for this include the lack of Māori police in some areas and historical grievances between Māori and the Crown and, by extension, the criminal justice system. There was also a view that the criminal justice system is not suitable for Māori. Some felt that Māori were less likely to do well within the system because of its monoculturalism and lack of tikanga, because of institutional racism, or because Māori were less likely to be perceived as credible witnesses.

Survivors from Pacific and other ethnic groups
Pacific peoples made up 6 percent of victim/survivors in the attrition study. In the pathways study, Pacific survivors were the least likely ethnic group to report to police, followed by Māori. Respondents in the environmental scan believed Pacific survivors were likely to come under pressure from their families and churches not to report to police or go through the criminal justice system. Information from the pathways study appears to support this view.

Survivors from Asian, Indian and other ethnic groups made up 6 percent of the attrition sample. In 2007, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs held workshops with representatives of Ethnic communities. These representatives said women would be deterred from reporting by the shameful nature of evidence-gathering and the lack of specialist police investigators. They also felt the justice system favoured New Zealand male citizens over migrant and refugee women, and that women might be deterred from seeking help because of the perception that the laws are inflexible (Ministry of Women’s Affairs, 2007).

Participants in the environmental scan felt that jury perceptions of credibility were likely to work against Pacific peoples, people with disabilities, young people (especially when alcohol and other drugs were involved), men, sex workers, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex victims.

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4.5 Summary

Sexual violations against adults tended to be reported to police fairly soon after they occurred. Survivors’ reasons for reporting often centred on wanting the perpetrator to be held accountable and protecting themselves and others from future sexual victimisation. Most attrition occurred at the police investigation stage and only a small proportion of those accused were convicted.

Cases involving victim/survivors who were most at risk of sexual violation were least likely to proceed through the criminal justice system and to result in a conviction. In particular, the criminal justice system seemed to work better for victims of stranger rape than for those who knew the accused, although the chances of conviction remained fairly low.

One explanation for this, offered in a London Metropolitan Police Service (2007) study on attrition, could be that victims’ vulnerabilities – age, mental health, alcohol use and relationship to the offender – might influence the ‘provability’ of charges in complex ways and at various stages of the criminal justice process.

For example, they acted as ‘hindrances’ or ‘obstacles’ to the confidence the victim him/herself had in understanding what happened. A young victim, a victim who may have difficulty clearly recalling what happened, a victim torn by their personal histories with their attackers – the reasons were many and varied. (Metropolitan Police Service, 2007)

There is also room to consider the influence of non-legal factors on criminal justice processes and outcomes. These factors include common misunderstandings about ‘real rape’ and ‘real victims’ that can influence the perceptions and reactions of different actors in the criminal process. These stereotypes can also affect perceptions of what makes a ‘credible’ witness.

Previous researchers have found that credibility is not an inherent feature of a victim/survivor, but is constructed through subjective and interactive processes (Stanko, 1982). There are various aspects to this, beyond defence counsel attacking survivors on the basis of their sexual history, character or behaviour (particularly in terms of deviation from moral and gender norms). In the jury’s eyes, credibility can be affected by the survivor’s age, intellectual ability, socio economic status and ethnicity. Because a trial is an oral procedure, victims who have difficulty recalling what happened, have poor oral communication skills, are unable to understand and respond to questions, or become confused may seem to be less credible than the offender (Lievore, 2004).

In relation to alcohol, questions about the reliability of the survivor’s evidence represent a major legal obstacle to credibility. Intoxication can impair the survivor’s recall of factual events. In cases where it is one person’s word against another’s, assessments of the relative credibility of the survivor and the accused are central to jury decisions. If the survivor’s account does not satisfy the jury members beyond reasonable doubt, they cannot convict the accused, even if they do not believe he is telling the truth (Lievore, 2004). In no circumstance does this warrant the view that the survivor was responsible for the assault or that she was ‘asking for it’.

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5 Formal support systems

5.1 Introduction

Compared to victims of other crimes, survivors of sexual violence exhibit some of the most persistent and destructive effects of trauma. According to a leading expert on trauma and violence, this is directly related to the nature of sexual violence.

The purpose of the rapist is to terrorize, dominate, and humiliate his victim. Thus rape, by its nature, is intentionally designed to produce psychological terror. (Herman, 1992: 58)

While some women experience relatively short-term mental health impacts, others develop chronic mental health and physical symptoms. Short- and long-term effects include low self-esteem; post-traumatic stress disorder; suicide; injury; permanent disability; pregnancy complications; chronic pain syndromes; and injurious health behaviours, such as smoking, alcohol and other drug use, and sexual risk-taking (Mossman et al., 2009a). These effects are amenable to treatment, but many survivors might encounter barriers to accessing effective and appropriate services.

The core elements of trauma are disempowerment, destruction of the survivor’s identity and loss of trust in and connection with others. Recovery, therefore is based on empowerment (or regaining control), rebuilding a new sense of self and establishing new connections. Other people can influence the outcome of the trauma. Supportive responses can mitigate the impact, while negative responses can compound the harm (Herman, 1992).

In chapter 3 we saw that informal support networks are an important source of support. However, they are rarely, if ever, able to give survivors the range of supports they need, as they might not understand the impacts of sexual violence, and they might also have difficulty dealing with their own reactions. Accordingly, some survivors access formal support systems, including counselling and other support services, as they try to deal with the impacts of sexual violence.

In this chapter, we draw on findings from the pathways study and the environmental scan to describe the basis for and pathways through which survivors accessed help from formal support systems. These issues were among the main focuses of the research. This chapter links to chapter 3, in that both chapters look at different aspects of survivors’ help-seeking.

The pathways study tended to focus on survivors’ pathways to support for emotional or mental health needs: specialist sexual violence services play an important role in meeting those needs. As a result, this chapter largely reflects this focus. It includes a discussion of issues raised as important by specialist sexual violence services: funding, workforce capacity and the implications of different world views for service delivery. Discussion of the last issue draws on two stocktakes conducted for the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence.

5.2 Context of service delivery in New Zealand

The formal support system encompasses services funded and delivered in both the government and non-government sectors. There is no overall or co ordinated response among the different types of agencies that victim/survivors of sexual violence might contact. This also means we do not know exactly who provides what, or where services might be located.

The environmental scan canvassed agencies and services across New Zealand that adult victim/survivors are likely to contact, either immediately after a sexual assault or in the longer term. It was not an exhaustive survey and did not encompass agencies that survivors might contact for other reasons (for example, midwives or providers of child health services). Broadly, the services canvassed included:

• medical providers, such as general practitioners and family planning or other sexual health clinics
• mental health service providers, such as counselling agencies and self-employed counsellors
• victim services, such as specialist sexual violence services, women’s refuges, and Victim Support, which offer very different types of services as a result of their different levels of specialist knowledge about sexual violence
•  other community agencies, such as Māori community social service agencies, sex-worker organisations and stopping violence services.

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Specialist sexual violence services
The environmental scan found that specialist sexual violence agencies, such as HELP or Rape Crisis, are the predominant providers of services to victim/survivors of sexual violence. They also provide dedicated services for sexual violence survivors, based on their knowledge of the dynamics and impacts of this particular form of violence against women (Mossman et al., 2009b). The services tend to encompass two broad categories of service responses.

Crisis support services provide emergency psychosocial support or practical and emotional assistance in the period immediately after sexual violence. These services might be provided by phone or face to face, and include support at police interviews and forensic medical examinations.

Support and recovery services provide ongoing and possibly long-term support, such as therapeutic and advocacy services for both recent and historical assaults. Crises can be triggered well beyond the immediate post-rape period and are likely to be dealt with by support and recovery services.

Specialist sexual violence support agencies provide both crisis support and recovery services, as well as sexual violence prevention programmes. Some work with only women, while others work with men and children. Many extend their services to survivors’ families and whānau, although they are not always funded to do so (TOAH-NNEST – TC, 2009).

5.3 When, why and how do survivors contact formal support systems?

The time between the sexual assault and the survivor seeking treatment has implications for the types of services required. Some survivors seek help soon after the assault and need crisis intervention. Others do not seek help for some time, but might be in crisis when they do contact a formal agency. Regardless of when they first seek help, many will need support and therapeutic intervention, such as counselling, over a longer time period.

Most community agencies that responded to the environmental scan said they mainly worked with survivors of historical sexual assaults (for the research, this was defined as assaults occurring more than 12 months before help-seeking). This was particularly true for mental health service providers (91 percent) and specialist sexual violence services (75 percent). Recent sexual assaults were more frequent for Victim Support and women’s refuges.

Other research has shown that many survivors seek help from multiple services, particularly if they have high and complex health and social needs. Most participants (81 percent) in the pathways study had contact with at least one formal agency. Depending on where they lived, they might have been able to contact a variety of agencies, with different levels of specialisation, to meet different needs.

Overall, survivors in the pathways study were more likely to access specialist sexual violence services than other services such as a refuge, generic counselling or mental health services, or culturally-based (Māori and Pacific) services. This might indicate that they were most likely to identify these services as a source of support that could meet their needs. Around a fifth had been to more than one agency, most often a refuge and a specialist sexual violence service. These findings reflect the fact most participants were recruited through victim services and many were victims of intimate partner sexual violence.

Reasons for contacting formal support systems
For some survivors, formal support services are central to their efforts to deal with the crisis of sexual violence and on their journey to recovery. The widespread impacts of sexual violence on survivors and their informal networks, coupled with the inability of informal support systems to provide appropriate support, are some of the reasons that survivors contact formal agencies. To recap, survivors in the pathways study described the ways sexual violence had affected their lives, for example:

• a major impact on life overall
• feelings of whakamā
• mental and emotional health issues
•  sex and intimacy issues
•  behavioural impacts
•  cognitive impacts
•  personal and social impacts
•  physical impacts
•  trauma to partners, children, parents, other family, whānau and friends
•  impacts on close personal relationships, including reduced emotional availability to children, marriage breakdowns, social ostracism, and divisions in social networks.

To a large extent, the link between sexual violence and its emotional and mental health impacts are more easily recognised than some of the physical effects. These can manifest considerably later and might not be obviously related to the sexual violence. This was reflected in the pathways study, where survivors’ discussions about seeking help from formal systems focused primarily on emotional support and mental health. It could also reflect that many participants heard about the research through victim services.

Pathways to formal support systems
Survivors can take multiple pathways to accessing formal support services. In both the pathways study and environmental scan, self-referral was cited as the most common way for survivors to access any formal service provider. Table 5 shows results from the pathways study, in which survivors identified their own pathways to formal agencies.

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Table 5: How survivors contacted service providers (pathways study, n=47)

Note: Survivors in the pathways study identified different pathways to formal agencies. Generic services include counselling services, doctors, women’s centres and support groups, men’s support groups, mental health services and church services. Cultural services are Pacific and Māori counselling services.

Source: Kingi and Jordan (2009: 106).

Service providers who responded to the environmental scan were also asked about the most common referral mechanisms to their service providers (Table 6). Responses were broadly similar to the findings from the pathways study. The exceptions were Victim Support, where most referrals came from police; and Māori services, where referrals were least likely to come from police, and more likely to come from informal support networks and other services.

Table 6: Most common referral mechanisms (environmental scan, n=166)

Source: Mossman et al. (2009b: 40).

The high number of self-referrals indicates that some survivors are very aware of their needs, determined to have them met, and highly motivated to find the right source of support. It is important that the general public is aware of specialist services, given that almost half of those who contacted specialist sexual violence services were referred by other parties.

Around 40 percent of survivors in the pathways study said they encountered difficulties in arranging counselling. The barriers came down to three categories.

•  Lack of information on:
  - services available
  - counselling options
•  Availability, for example:
  - long waiting times
  - too few sessions
  - the lack of 24-hour services
  - the lack of culturally appropriate services.
•  Practical barriers, for example:
  - finding transport to services
  - having to fill in forms
  - the cost of counselling
  - availability of childcare.
  

Information was the most common barrier, with most saying they would have benefited from more information about services available. Other important needs were the ability to access counselling as needed, and the need for accessible, culturally appropriate services.

These responses are consistent with information from the environmental scan. Service providers were asked to indicate which of seven information requests were commonly made by victim/survivors. The most frequent responses were for therapeutic interventions, particularly counselling (84 percent) and how to feel better (67 percent). Some service providers commented that survivors often need information about what services are available or on the definition of rape or unlawful sexual violation, particularly when the rapist was their partner, or they were sexually abused as children and did not realise that what was happening within their marriage was rape. Information on reporting to police, victims’ rights and court processes was also frequently requested.

Overseas research indicates that a relatively small group of survivors (possibly around a quarter) seek help from sexual violence services (see review in Lievore, 2005). While this degree of underutilisation reflects many factors, it might also be associated with a lack of service visibility, accessibility and cultural appropriateness. Services might hesitate to allocate scarce resources to advertising and rely on other ways of coming to the attention of survivors or their informal support systems. Levels of funding and associated levels or experience of staff can affect waiting times, the availability of services when they are most needed, and availability of culturally appropriate services.

5.4 World views and service delivery

Different cultural and world views underpin service responses to sexual violence. We explore the implications of different world views, cultures and ethnicities for service delivery by drawing on the findings from two national stocktakes of non-Māori (tauiwi) and kaupapa and tikanga Māori sexual violence response services. The stocktakes were conducted as part of the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence. The following discussion is necessarily brief, so cannot capture the rich information in the original reports.

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‘Mainstream’ services (non-Māori services)
The stocktake of non-Māori services reminds us that when services are designated as ‘mainstream’, they can be seen as the ‘normal’ way of doing things, because it is what the majority does. Their cultural and conceptual underpinnings often go unquestioned and unarticulated. This can be disadvantageous for services premised on co-existing world views, because it suggests that these views are in some way less legitimate than those underpinning ‘mainstream’ services (TOAH-NNEST – TC, 2009).

The early development of many ‘mainstream’ sexual violence services was underpinned by Western or European world views, particularly Western feminist ideology. Although some service provider groups have shifted away from a feminist position, many ‘mainstream’ sexual violence services continue to support some central principles, including:

• victim/survivor-centred practices (with recognition of the need for specialist help for survivors’ families)
•  a belief in the value of specialised responses to sexual violence
•  the view that political advocacy is a part of service delivery
•  a belief that sexual violence is caused by a combination of individual and social factors, and that healing must also reflect these factors
•  a commitment to practices that oppose the power dynamics underpinning sexual violence (TOAH-NNEST – TC, 2009).

Within a Western world view, ‘crisis’ is defined in individualistic and psychological terms. The primary role of the crisis support worker is to ‘minimise the psychological consequences of trauma by attending to the emotional and psychological needs of the complainant’ (TOAH-NNEST – TC, 2009: 156). In terms of service delivery, this can involve:

• providing psycho-social support and therapeutic interventions for the immediate and longer-term psychological and life impacts on the survivor
• helping survivors access their own resources, or providing external resources when they are unable to access their own
•  giving accurate information on legal and court procedures relating to sexual violence
  
• providing a variety of services for survivors and their families, such as emergency and ongoing counselling, social work and work in the community, and support during police interviews and in court (TOAH-NNEST – TC, 2009).

The research did not seek evidence of the clinical effectiveness of any interventions, but, for the most part, participants in the pathways study were satisfied with the services they received from specialist sexual violence services (most of which were ‘mainstream’ services). Overall, satisfaction with specialist agencies was higher than for generic agencies. However, there were indications that responses were not consistently supportive or appropriate. Some survivors were unable to get help when they needed it, or felt unsupported, disappointed or retraumatised by what they perceived as a lack of care and service. One participant emphasised the need for support agencies not to add to the victimisation experience for those who are presenting with a history of trauma. Inconsistencies in service delivery could be related to a need for more experienced and qualified staff identified by many specialist services.

Kaupapa and tikanga Māori services
The stocktake of kaupapa and tikanga Māori services showed that these services usually developed ‘through culturally specific frameworks informed by local communities’ perceptions of service provision underpinned by a collective vision of well-ness’ (Hamilton-Katene, 2009: 11).

The centrality of relationships to Māori cultural values means that sexual violation affects the mana or personal power of both the survivor and their whānau. The most effective services restore mana to the survivor and their whānau, in ways that are based on Māori cultural values, practices and beliefs. In addition, whānau often present to kaupapa and tikanga services with a spectrum of issues related to sexual violence, although the basis for presentation might initially be obscured.

For kaupapa and tikanga services, ‘crisis’ describes the level of help needed by the individual and their whānau. Primary crisis responses are delivered immediately following the initial contact. The concept of ‘periodic crisis support’ recognises that whānau members might need to re-access support to deal with crises that occur at any time in their lives. Crisis responses, then, need to address a wide range of issues, as well as the complexities associated with understanding cultural identity (Hamilton-Katene, 2009: 15).

Māori responses are premised on holistic models of health and service provision. Services that place the individual within the context of their whānau often need the involvement of external support to meet the needs of whānau members. This is often provided by volunteers who have expertise and strong community links. These individuals might provide advocacy and support for survivors who wish to report to police, but reporting to police is not part of a Māori service’s approach unless it is specifically requested by the whānau member accessing the service. Approaches to healing are diverse and might involve the use of tools such as genograms to work with whānau members (Hamilton-Katene, 2009).

At a basic level, this means kaupapa and tikanga services require different cultural competencies from ‘mainstream’ services and they can be configured and work quite differently. The stocktake found that these organisations encompass specialist services, as well as more broadly based Māori health services, bicultural organisations and independent service providers. While some specialist services provide dedicated sexual violence services, others specialise in domestic violence or mental health. Few of the services canvassed in the stocktake held contracts to provide services specifically for sexual violence: they generally responded under the umbrella of contracts for other services, such as domestic violence (Hamilton-Katene, 2009).

5.5 Funding and workforce issues for specialist sexual violence services

In New Zealand, specialist sexual violence services may be fully or partially funded by government agencies, depending on each service’s contractual arrangements. Services that are partially funded by government often seek additional money from sources such as philanthropic trusts and community funding bodies, as is common in the non-governmental organisation sector. Ongoing funding from these sources is not guaranteed, and some funding sources on which these services rely are contestable (TOAH-NNEST – TC, 2009).

Service providers that took part in the environmental scan were asked to indicate which factors, from a list, would help their agencies to provide better services to clients. They were also asked to identify the most important factor and given an opportunity to add additional factors. The results presented below appear to be consistent with the two national stocktakes.

The majority of specialist sexual violence services that took part in the environmental scan could be classified as ‘mainstream’. Together with women’s refuges, and more than any other category of service provider, specialist sexual violence services identified funding and related workforce issues as major needs.  They also identified the broadest range and generally highest level of needs related to service delivery. There were indications that current demand and service delivery levels were higher than resource levels: they said that services are under-funded, staff are under-paid, and a lot of work is done on a voluntary basis. These service providers regarded themselves as having better inter-agency connections and better access to rape-specific information than other service providers had.

The issues prioritised by more than half of the respondents from specialist sexual violence services and refuges are highlighted in Table 7. Because of the small number of respondents, the results should not be generalised.

Table 7: Constraints on service delivery – specialist sexual violence services and Women’s Refuges

Source: Mossman et al. (2009b: 46).

Over two-thirds of specialist sexual violence services said there was a need for improved service access for victims, compared with around one-third or fewer respondents from other services. This reflected a concern, held by specialist services, about the relatively low level of community awareness of their services, as well as what they see as community misunderstandings about the nature of rape and barriers associated with the stigma of rape:

The services are there but there is an accessibility thing – they will hesitate to come to rape crisis, it’s that ‘R’ word. Also misinformation in community about rape is hard to combat. (Specialist sexual violence service, Mossman et al., 2009b: 46)

Barriers to access might also be associated with how funding is used, as organisations are more likely to allocate scarce resources to front-line services than to advertising, websites and other forms of public communication. This might contribute to a relatively low level of awareness about specialist sexual violence services among informal support systems. At the same time, it points to the importance of referral from other formal agencies.

Several pathways are needed for survivors to get to services that are easily accessible and transparent to all i.e. through doctors, Police, CAB [Citizens Advice Bureaux], Health, Education, etc. (Specialist sexual violence service, Mossman et al., 2009b: 46)

5.6 Workforce issues for Māori service providers

The environmental scan canvassed the views of 13 Māori services. They included specialist sexual violence services, refuges, and more broadly based services, such as community social service agencies. Māori service providers identified workforce issues as their primary need for improving service delivery.

• Ten of the 13 services said their service delivery would benefit from more qualified and experienced staff.
•  Eight of the 13 services identified increased staffing levels as a way of improving service delivery.
•  Eight of the 13 services identified the need for better inter-agency collaboration.
• Seven of the 13 services identified increased funding as a way of improving service delivery.

Given that Māori women are over-represented as victims of sexual violence, the findings raise questions, on the one hand, about services’ capacity to respond to Māori women who prefer a kaupapa Māori service to a ‘mainstream’ service. Comments from Māori service providers indicated that not enough Māori counsellors were available and that staffing issues were particularly important because Māori services aim to treat the whole whānau. There was also a view that funding could be better targeted to meet Māori community needs. This included funding for home visits or travel to outlying areas where no services exist, and targeted funding for a wrap-around service for whānau.

Respondents also said that specialist counsellors were needed for different age groups, although they were not necessarily referring to ‘specialist’ knowledge about sexual violence. For example, counselling older people can involve generational dynamics that require specialist cultural knowledge. One Māori counsellor commented that it might not be appropriate to counsel both the offender and the survivor if they are family members, and said that Māori counsellors are at risk of feeling overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of the work. This is exacerbated in rural areas, where staff might have to cover wide geographical regions to see and support clients.

In [name of rural area] I’m the only Māori one. And if I knew that before I went there I probably wouldn’t have gone … Well there were times when I thought … Geez, I’m ‘it’ and I’m ‘it’ and I’m ‘it’. And there are times that I thought ‘Well, I’m not going to be “it” forever’. (Mossman et al., 2009b: 47)

These issues, in conjunction with the holistic approach of Māori services, might account for the number of Māori service providers who said that better inter-agency collaboration would help them deliver better services. Improved collaboration could help mitigate gaps in staff experience and levels. It would also be a more culturally appropriate form of support, given the collective vision that underpins these services and the often varied issues with which Māori survivors and their whānau present.

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Experiences of Māori survivors
The pathways study generally showed that the experiences of Māori survivors mirrored those of the larger sample, although they hinted at some differences. The lack of involvement of kaupapa Māori services in recruiting participants, together with the Western framework of the research, means the findings are not representative of te ao Māori, or the way Māori live in the world today.

Most of the Māori participants (14 of 21) had contact with a formal support service: six of these had contact with multiple services before they found an appropriate counsellor or support person. Some wanted additional support, including religious counselling or help from whānau and friends, nurses, and social workers. Some felt that they would have benefited from more highly skilled health professionals. At least two survivors said their recovery process would have been easier if they had had access to a kaupapa Māori service or spiritual support from kaumātua.

One woman said she appreciated having a Māori counsellor because:

She won’t let me hide. She makes me look at what I’m doing. I prefer a Māori counsellor – she won’t let me ‘bullshit’. We speak the same language and I feel comfortable with her. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 126)

Still, there were some Māori survivors who accessed ‘mainstream’ services – whether by choice or lack of other options – and found that they helped with recovery. Some preferred to see counsellors from different backgrounds because they were concerned about confidentiality in their home towns, because ‘everybody talks’ (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 126). These survivors suggested that Māori should not automatically dismiss ‘mainstream’ services, but ‘give this Pākehā counselling system a chance’ (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 153). A fundamental principle of counselling involves establishing and maintaining a rapport between the client and the counsellor, and cultural similarity is not the only way to establish rapport. One Māori survivor said this connection was established when her counsellor disclosed she was gay.

I knew she would have had to go through a lot of crap to come out of the closet, which would make her a less judgemental person. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 126)

Around a third of non-Māori service providers in the environmental scan said they had limitations in meeting the needs of Māori clients. The main limitations related to the lack of Māori counsellors, including male counsellors to work with male victims, lack of tikanga and lack of te reo Māori.

Given that not all Māori survivors want or have access to a kaupapa Māori service, a major issue for consideration is how to make ‘mainstream’ services more responsive to Māori.

5.7 Pacific services

Pacific service providers who contributed to the tauiwi stocktake said they prefer to address violence in a holistic way, using practices and models that reflect ethnic-specific values. Compartmentalisation of different forms of violence and approaches to responding to violence is problematical from a Pacific perspective. Pacific people see violence, in all its forms, as a serious breach of human relationships. Acts of sexual violence are performed within broader behavioural, family and social contexts, and families are an integral part of supporting and working towards positive outcomes for survivors. The role of Pacific workers is to understand and assess both perpetrators and victims within the circumstances of their extended family and community (TOAH-NNEST – TC, 2009).

Pacific service providers identified Western models of practice as an important barrier to effective service provision, because culturally inappropriate processes can revictimise Pacific survivors and their families, rather than helping them through the trauma. Pacific providers said they use Western models because funding agreements are often linked to practice models. At present, there is little evidence on the effectiveness of ethnic-specific models, due to a lack of data and because the data do not fit the funders’ models. There is also a paucity of funding for research to capture Pacific world views and concepts, translate them into theoretical models, and develop Pacific models of practice (TOAH-NNEST – TC, 2009).

The environmental scan suggested that there were major gaps in services responding to Pacific survivors. Almost half of the service providers said they had limitations in providing services for Pacific peoples. This was second only to gaps for Ethnic communities. Gaps in service provision were mostly associated with a lack of Pacific services and limitations of ‘mainstream’ services, such as a lack of knowledge of Pacific languages and cultures. Unavailability of Accident Compensation Corporation funding for counselling for sexual assaults that occurred outside of New Zealand was also mentioned.

Experiences of Pacific survivors
Only eight Pacific women took part in the pathways study. For some, finding a counsellor from the same ethnic group was important, so that they could feel accepted and understood.

Now I am with a Samoan counsellor. She understands me. I can relate to her. But mostly she just listens to me. It doesn’t matter what I do or say, she listens and then the story comes out. This is when I started pouring out my anger and all my hurt inside. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 126)

Some were initially anxious about seeing a Palagi (non-Pacific) counsellor, but were relieved when the counsellor turned out to be understanding and helpful. Others said that they related more easily to people from other ethnicities. Some Pacific women said the professionalism of the service provider could be more important than ethnicity in some circumstances.

I would prefer more professional counselling services, even if by Europeans. The Pacific ones were quite substandard in my view. (Kingi and Jordan, 2009: 137)

5.8 Gaps in services for other population groups

The environmental scan highlights the general lack of specialised services for diverse population groups. Service providers were asked to rate how well they felt their service was able to provide services for different social and cultural groups. Their responses indicated that groups that might experience the most difficulty in having their needs met were:

• Ethnic communities (65 percent of agencies rated their service delivery as average or less)
•  Pacific peoples (49 percent of agencies rated their service delivery as average or less)
•  people with disabilities (47 percent of agencies rated their service delivery as average or less)
•  Māori (30 percent of agencies rated their service delivery as average or less)
•  men (29 percent of agencies rated their service delivery as average or less)
•  sex-workers (24 percent of agencies rated their service delivery as average or less).

This does not necessarily mean that services are able to meet the needs of Pākehā women. Overall, the findings suggest this is not the case.

Ethnic communities
Responses to the service provider survey indicated that survivors from Ethnic communities are likely to experience the greatest difficulty in accessing appropriate services. Around two-thirds of service providers said they experienced limitations in meeting the needs of migrant and refugee survivors. This was mainly because of their lack of knowledge of the cultures and languages of these clients, lack of networks or links into these communities, and lack of culturally appropriate services to refer clients to.

Accident Compensation Corporation funding is not available for historical sexual violence that occurred before immigration. According to service providers, this is a significant issue for this group. For example, other research has shown that many refugees may have experienced sexual violence prior to migration (Lievore, 2005). 

Given the lack of culturally-specific services and funding for pre-migration sexual violence, the issue becomes how to ensure that ‘mainstream’ specialist sexual violence services, as well as generic services that survivors might contact, are equipped to respond to these survivors.

People with disabilities
Almost half of the service providers said they had limitations in meeting the needs of survivors with disabilities, making this the third-highest group after Ethnic and Pacific survivors. These survivors face a range of barriers to accessing ‘mainstream’ services. Some of the areas identified include a lack of wheelchair access to buildings, information in Braille, access to sign language interpreters, and professional development for sexual violence staff who work with people with intellectual disabilities.

Male survivors
There is increasing recognition that male survivors of sexual violence need specialised assistance from male counsellors. Over a quarter of service providers said they experienced limitations in meeting the needs of male survivors. Some ‘mainstream’ specialist sexual violence services try to fill the gap by providing counselling for men, while other women-centred services provide information.

We are a feminist organisation, with a women-centre empowerment philosophy of valuing the need to have a ‘woman and child only space’. This limits men being able to come to the centre; however, we have begun to offer [information] and support to men over the phone. We are not experts on the impact sexual violence has on men, and we are all women. We are not altering the ‘women only’ aspect of our service, but would love to see a specialist service for male survivors run by men. (Specialist sexual violence service, Mossman et al., 2009b: 45)

Young people
Poor inter-agency links and ‘clumsy’ referral processes were seen as barriers to effective service provision for younger survivors. Some services said they were not well trained to work with young clients and had difficulties bridging the generation gap. Counsellors may also have difficulty meeting the level of need of some young survivors.

I have concerns regarding young people who have no adult supervision in their lives and who are not connected to other services. With such clients, mobility, poverty, drug abuse, not showing for appointments and suicidality are big issues. (Mental health counsellor, Mossman et al., 2009b: 44)

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5.9 Summary

In the aftermath of sexual violence, survivors may seek help from both informal support sources as well as a range of formal support systems, including different government-funded and non-government–funded service providers. The number of self-referrals to specialist sexual violence services indicated that these survivors were highly motivated to find help to deal with the impacts, and that specialist services are an important source of help. Still, almost half of the survivors who contacted a specialist sexual violence service did not know where to go: referrals from police, family, whānau and friends were central to these survivors’ efforts to get help.

Access to high-quality and culturally appropriate services is essential to meet survivors’ crisis and longer-term needs and to promote recovery, but results from the environmental scan drew attention to the limitations of existing services in meeting the needs of diverse social and cultural groups. Service providers indicated that groups that might experience the most difficulty in having their needs met were:

• Ethnic communities
•  Pacific peoples
•  people with disabilities
•  Māori
•  men.

Some survivors had to be persistent to get the help they needed. Contacting a formal service did not necessarily guarantee high-quality and consistent support. This finding is probably at least partially related to the context in which services operate. For some survivors, access to specialist sexual violence services was hindered by a lack of information and the unavailability of services when needed. These issues mirrored service providers’ reports that their ability to meet survivors’ needs was affected by funding and available workforce capacity and capability, including competencies required to meet the needs of diverse population groups. These barriers could be compounded by low levels of awareness or low levels of visibility of specialist services within the community.

Māori and Pacific participants in the pathways study varied in their views on whether only service providers from the same ethnic or cultural group as the survivor could provide effective support. While the numbers were small, and the research approach might have influenced who took part, we cannot assume that all survivors want or will benefit from an ethnic-specific response. Added to this is the small number of qualified, ethnic-specific counsellors in New Zealand. Aside from ethnicity, service providers’ professionalism and skills can be crucial factors in the effectiveness of counselling. Qualified, experienced and culturally competent counsellors are best placed to help survivors in their recovery processes.

In an ideal world, survivors would be able to choose and access a range of high quality services that best meet their needs. This raises several issues. Firstly, it is unrealistic to expect that all survivors will be aware of and access specialist sexual violence services. Generalist services, therefore, have a role to play in referring survivors to appropriate help. These services could also play a bigger role in screening for sexual violence as an underlying factor for presentation and, potentially, having some specialist staff capacity that would enable them to support survivors until appointments could be arranged with specialist services. Ideally, ‘mainstream’ agencies would also find ways to ensure that they offered effective services for Māori, Pacific and other groups of survivors.

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Published in October 2009
by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs | Minitatanga Mō Ngā Wāhine
PO Box 10 049, Wellington 6143, New Zealand

Phone: 64 4 915 7112
Fax: 64 4 916 1604
Email: mwa@mwa.govt.nz
Website: www.mwa.govt.nz

ISBN 978-0-478355-00-0 (Digital)
ISBN 978-0-478252-47-7 (Print)