Science

How domestic abusers use drugs and alcohol to control their victims

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At least 30 years of research on the relationship between substance use and domestic and family violence has consistently shown that the frequency, severity and impact of violence increases when perpetrators use alcohol and other drugs.

Approximately 24% to 54% of domestic violence incidents reported to police in Australia are classed as alcohol-related, with other drugs involved in 1% to 9% of incidents. This is consistent with international evidence showing that drug use is involved in 25% to 50% of domestic violence incidents.

Several studies have found that domestic and family violence is exacerbated when drugs are involved: A study of 240 women who were murdered by current or former male partners between 2010 and 2018 found that more than 60% of male perpetrators were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the fatal incident.

Other studies have shown that alcohol-related domestic and family violence is two to three times more likely to involve serious physical violence, including life-threatening injuries and broken bones, than cases where alcohol is not involved.

But our research looks specifically at the role that alcohol and other drugs play in perpetrators’ violent and abusive tactics – sometimes called “coercive drugging” – a form of coercive control.

Understanding Drug Coercion

Coercive control is a repetitive pattern of emotional, verbal, sexual, economic or technological abuse that creates fear and exerts control over another person.

A set of national principles for addressing coercive control in family and domestic violence recognises that substance use can be misused in the same way as technology or economic abuse.

Our research identifies several ways in which perpetrators use alcohol and other drugs as a form of coercive control – in other words, leverage their drug use to consolidate their power. These include:

To justify their violence (“I did it because I was drinking”), to shift the focus from their violence to other problems (“I have a drug problem, that’s more important”), or to control others through their drug use. For example, when an abusive person is intoxicated or in withdrawal, victim-survivors are likely to comply with their demands or avoid arguments in order to calm the abusive person.

Perpetrators may also use their victims’ drug use as a weapon: Research has shown that victims may begin to use drugs to ease the physical and psychological pain caused by family violence.

Perpetrators often encourage this behavior in order to increase their power and control over the victim and to make the victim appear less credible if authorities intervene.

Similarly, perpetrators may exacerbate a victim-survivor’s existing substance use by, for example, pressuring them to drink alcohol or take drugs more frequently, or they may sabotage a victim-survivor’s recovery efforts and prevent them from accessing treatment services.

Another tactic is to lie about the nature and extent of the victim’s drug use, which can undermine the victim’s credibility with authorities such as child protective services or family courts.

Children are suffering too

Essentially, when a child hears their father come home drunk and violent, it scares them. They fear both themselves and their mother, and the abuse that follows often leads to a situation where neither parent is able to meet the child’s needs.

Fathers may also be involved in coercive drug use. For example:

“If you don’t shut those kids up, I’m gonna drink.”

Child protection data shows that having one or both parents with drug addiction has a devastating impact on children living with violence.

A recent New South Wales study reported on children living in situations of domestic and family violence: Children with one or both parents having substance use problems or poor mental health were three times more likely to be identified as at risk of harm requiring statutory intervention than those experiencing domestic and family violence alone.

Children living at the intersection of drug use and domestic and family violence are some of the most vulnerable children in Australia.

What can we do?

Both in Australia and internationally, policy and practice responses to the intersection of domestic violence and drug use have tended to focus on a single issue: either domestic violence or drug use.

While many families feel that domestic violence and substance use are deeply intertwined, service systems often fragment the experience and treat the two as unrelated issues.

Our research explores how these two highly siloed sectors can work together in the form of a 17-week group programme targeting fathers whose violence and abuse have been linked to their substance use. These men had more severe histories of violence and abuse than men who participated in a similar programme that only targeted violence.

International evidence shows that programmes addressing both drug use and domestic violence have been developed but are rarely sustained, despite their proven effectiveness.

We want to see more nuanced policies and practices that recognise the complex intertwining of domestic and family violence and substance use. Crucially, these approaches must provide appropriate responses to address children’s experiences of these intertwined issues and promote their safety.

Courtesy of The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.conversation

Source: How domestic violence perpetrators use drugs and alcohol to control their victims (September 17, 2024) Retrieved September 17, 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-09-perpetrators-domestic-violence-drugs-alcohol.html

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