System Failure

How effective are protective orders at keeping domestic violence survivors safe?

For three years “Lisa” endured mental, emotional and physical abuse, all at the hands of a man who was saying “I love you.”

“The first incident I can remember was right after I found out I was pregnant with our child,” said Lisa, 25. “We got in a fight and I was trying to get in my car and leave, and as I was stepping into the car he slammed the door as hard as he could, and he came inches from slamming my head in the door.”

As the abuse became more physical, Lisa realized she was living in constant danger, all while her very young daughter was witnessing a devastating cycle of violence. With encouragement from friends and family, she filed for an order of protection in February.

“The worst part was the mental turmoil,…he would scare me so much, and he’s so manipulative, that more than anything I really just wanted it to work. I wanted my child to have both of her parents together, but at some point it’s just not worth it,” Lisa said.

On multiple occasions, Lisa’s partner physically abused her before she filed for an order of protection. Aside from manipulative and controlling behavior, she said her abuser had shoved her head through glass windows, strangled her, bitten her and even left her walking along the side of a highway while she was seven months pregnant after he kicked her out of her own car.

“The statistic is that it takes seven times of attempting to leave a domestic violence situation before the victim will actually make an attempt to leave,” said Heather Brack, director of the Family Justice Center of Washington County.

Some victims make repeated attempts at leaving on their own, but are never able to fully remove their abuser from their lives. After Lisa was unable to successfully leave her abuser on her own, she sought help from the authorities.

“He slammed me to the ground and put me in a choke hold. That was the first time I ever believed he might kill me.” –Lisa

“There are victims that may never leave, and they are fully aware of the environment they are in, and the time they do try to leave is usually the most lethal,” Brack said.

One of the worst incidents Lisa experienced occurred when her abuser was under the impression she might be leaving. A Thanksgiving celebration quickly went awry when he went into another uncontrollable rage.

“He slammed me to the ground and put me in a choke hold. That was the first time I ever believed he might kill me…I fought him off, but he found me again and put me in another choke hold then began biting me,” she said. “Somehow I got away, and he ended up just going to sleep like it was nothing. I can remember sitting there just holding clumps of my hair he had pulled out.”

There are internal and external factors that inhibit a victim’s ability to separate from their abusive partner, according to a 2016 Research Report conducted by the Criminal Justice Center at Sam Houston State University on breaking the cycle of intimate partner violence.

Internal factors may include fear, loss of control, manipulation and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or depression resulting from the abuse. On top of that, external factors such as victim-blaming and a confusing and drawn-out court processes also stop victims from seeking remedies to leave.

Many of these factors stopped Lisa every time she considered calling the police or making an effort to file an order of protection, even though she says she knew she needed it.

Orders of protection can provide survivors of domestic violence with at least temporary relief from their abusers, but they must be filed at a local courthouse, and they require the victims to diligently monitor the status of the protective order.

“It’s really the responsibility of the victim to regulate if it gets violated, and unless they report it, it’s pretty much going to go unknown.” –Leon Marshall

“A lot of times what happens is a victim will come in, and they’ll try to get an order of protection, but when they come to the hearing, the person they’re trying to take this order of protection out against comes in with a lawyer,” said Leon Marshal, assistant district attorney serving Washington, Carter, Unicoi and Johnson counties.

“Although the victim may have a great reason as to why they need that order of protection, they may have a hard time articulating that in court,” he said.

After Lisa obtained an order of protection, she soon realized that it would require great effort on her part to ensure it was enforced in addition to the fact that her abuser was seeking clever ways around the protective order to insert himself in Lisa’s life.

“The first indication that the order of protection wasn’t working was just a few days after I had gotten it,” she said. “I had a few friends over at my place. He must’ve been driving by my house because he repeatedly kept calling all of my friends that were at my house, asking where I was and demanding to know what I was doing.”

One limitation of protective orders is the survivor’s burden of having to repeatedly reach out to law enforcement officials. It is their responsibility to report each violation, but it may have taken years for a victim to gather the strength to initially report the abuse or tell someone.

“It’s really the responsibility of the victim to regulate if it gets violated, and unless they report it, it’s pretty much going to go unknown,” Marshall said. “They’re really a great tool if they’re used right, but it’s pointless to take out an order of protection if you’re not going to hold the person accountable that you’re taking it out against.”

Marshall says that a major limitation of protective orders is that they are commonly misused. They may be taken out for the wrong reasons, or a petitioner will file them and dismiss them a short time later.

Lisa’s protective order was dismissed when she missed the court date assigned when she originally filed the order. Protective orders are dropped when the petitioner fails to appear at their court date in an attempt to decrease the misuse of protective orders. It can also endanger survivors who may have had good cause to miss their court date.

“I think it must’ve been a mistake on the clerk’s part because I can specifically remember them saying March 29 for the next court date, and everyone else that was there with me also heard them say March 29,” said Lisa. “I had no idea the order of protection was going to be dropped.”

For the year 2014–2015, 70 percent of the orders of protection filed for Washington County were dismissed, and 60 percent were dismissed in Carter County, according to the annual report of the Tennessee Judiciary.

The Family Justice Center in Washington County, set to open June 1, will be armed with a team of professionals with resources to assist survivors with filing protective orders, planning for their future safety, receiving medical attention, counseling services and other valuable tools.

“We’re doing it now, in what I’ll say is the right way, we’re looking at the victim’s side of things,” Brack said. “We’re looking at not just one piece of it…but now we’re finally saying that everyone has to work together on this issue.”

(Lisa’s real name withheld at her request)