Cher Jimenez
A Morwell police sergeant honoured by the state for his work within the multicultural community suspects the incidence of family violence among culturally and linguistically-diverse communities is under-reported.
“Family violence is a very big issue for us at the moment and we suspect that there is under-reporting of family violence within our CALD community,” Sergeant Ben McWilliam said.
Sergeant McWilliam, who received the Police Multicultural Award by the Victorian Multicultural Commission said people’s experiences with police in their homeland may be why there was low reporting of family violence among CALD backgrounds.
He said police were working closely with service providers to help people feel confident to report family violence and other crimes within the multicultural community.
Sergeant McWilliam’s assessment was seconded by Gippsland Multicultural Services chief executive officer Lisa Sinha who said migrant women often faced a number of barriers that prevented them from reporting family violence including lack of support, concern for children, lack of security and income if leaving the relationship, shame, and social isolation among others.
“It’s often a long journey back to a strong sense of self,” she said.
“A key aspect of family violence is that the woman is made to feel that she is to blame for the problems or issues in the relationship and will usually internalise what she is repeatedly told about herself as being no good.
“Multiply these for a situation where the woman from a CALD background also has limited or no social and family supports, limited knowledge of local services and agencies, a lack of understanding that what she is experiencing is illegal due to differing concepts of family violence – then there is a very solid reason for under-reporting.”
Ms Sinha said another important factor that prevented women from reporting family violence was if the perpetrator was sending money to the victim’s family overseas.
Likewise, women on provisional spouse visas may fear possible deportation unless they have access to provisions in the migration act where this was prevented if one left a violent relationship in the first two years of arrival and prior to having permanent residency.
Ms Sinha said women may also came from backgrounds where reporting family violence was ignored or dangerous.
