Safety or baby food, a choice no parent should have to make

by Marna Anderson

Recently, a WATCH monitor returned from a sentencing at the Hennepin County Government Center. The defendant was charged with strangling his girlfriend with whom he has two children. The victim requested that she be allowed to have contact with the defendant because she needs his financial support. She stated that, “One can of formula costs more than I make in an hour.” In another domestic violence case, a woman requested that her order for protection be dismissed because she could not manage the increased cost of driving her child three times a week to meet with the father or pay for additional child care without him in the home. This is not a choice anyone should have to make.

Scenarios like these are played out in courtrooms all across our state and country. Battered women are sacrificing their safety so their children have food on the table or a roof over their heads.

The increase in Minnesota’s unemployment rate and the number of people living in poverty means more people are seeking help from food shelves, losing their homes to foreclosure, or moving in with friends and family. The instability in the economy and the stress it causes takes its toll on families, as everyone knows, and it should come as no surprise that incidents of domestic violence also increase. While an economic downturn and financial worries do not cause domestic violence, they exacerbate the factors that contribute to it and reduce victims’ ability to flee.¹

Statistics are bearing this out. Nationally and locally, shelters have experienced an increase in women seeking services since September 2008. According to a survey by the Mary Kay Foundation, our region, the Midwest, ranks second in the country for increased need for services—a staggering 74 percent increase in the past three years. To make matters worse, government budget deficits have resulted in cuts to shelter and other services that battered women and families desperately need.

As mentioned elsewhere in this newsletter, it was reported in the New York Times earlier this month that the city of Topeka, Kansas, decriminalized domestic violence because neither the city nor district attorney’s office had the funds to prosecute misdemeanor cases. After much outcry, the DA’s office did resume prosecution, but in the meantime, at least 30 domestic abuse suspects had charges against them dropped during the debate about who would take on the financial burden. That represents at least 30 domestic violence victims who were denied legal protection.

In Minnesota, services for victims of domestic violence were deemed “essential” by Special Investigator Kathleen Blatz during the state’s government shutdown, and all violent crimes were ranked high priority during the 2011 legislative session when the legislature considered significant funding cuts to court services. That the political will in Minnesota exists to ensure that our criminal justice system is addressing cases of domestic violence is good news. However, that does not change the fact that many battered women cannot seek their own safety due to financial constraints. When we don’t respond to the social and economic constraints women face, we put them in an impossible situation and make it difficult to take advantage of the legal gains we have fought so hard to achieve.

And, the consequences are not only the obvious, immediate ones. Long-term consequences exist as well, particularly when children are in the picture. Research shows that children who witness domestic violence are more likely than their peers to suffer depression, chemical dependency, and anxiety, and boys who witness domestic violence are at greater risk of becoming abusers. Again, failing to attend to the social and economic needs of families means that the struggle to end domestic violence will always be that—a struggle.

So, the next time you hear someone say he or she doesn’t understand why women stay in abusive relationships, tell them the stories of the women (representing hundreds more) who traded their own safety for baby food and gas money. In our community. Here, at the Hennepin County Government Center. And then let’s work together so families can be safe in their homes and have food on their tables.

¹ National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Fact Sheet