NOBODY could see bruises on Jean’s neck.
But in the heat of an argument with her partner, he tried to strangle her and today Jean often struggles to breathe and endures nightmares, anxiety and depression.
Under proposed new laws, perpetrators will go to jail for up to seven years for such a crime.
We are being urged, before Friday, to provide feedback regarding those proposed laws and more.
The proposed new laws will also sweep in perpetrators whose victims include children, grandchildren, siblings any others in familial relationships.
So when step-dad Steve repeatedly drags his crying “daughter” by the hair and arm to sit by herself on a cold concrete floor in a shed for three hours, hopefully it will be a criminal offence.
But do the new laws stretch far enough to include psychological and emotional abuse?
Mary’s partner “banned” her from talking to her mother and sister about any problems they might have, isolating her from those who could help her the most.
Regularly he belittled Mary and each of their four children.
Such unrelenting, demeaning put downs made Mary and each of her children feel embarrassed, ashamed and trapped in a pit of anxiety, dread and fear.
While Jean and Mary are fictional, their journeys are real.
Constant criticisms, sarcasm, angry threatening behaviours, extreme moodiness, guilt trips and emotional blackmail are all forms of abuse used by perpetrators to control another.
Sometimes perpetrators threaten to break up with a partner unless he or she “behaves” in a particular way.
And those who take charge of and control the money and assets of a partner, child or grandchild are also perpetrators of non-physical domestic violence.
Officially, domestic violence encompasses all behaviours – physical and non-physical – whereby one person intentionally uses violence and abuse to gain and maintain power over another who they share an intimate or familial relationship.
And the abusive behaviours can be direct or indirect, actual or threatened, according to the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network.
On average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner.
Eight women every day are hospitalised after being injured by a current or former partner.
One in four women has suffered physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner.
One in four women has experienced emotional abuse by an intimate partner.
One in five women has been abused by a partner they either live with, or previously lived with.
One in three women has experienced violence since the age of 15.
Most Australian women have been sexually harassed during their lifetime compared with one in four men.
More than 17,000 SA women were stalked in 2016, the highest number in the nation.
And in SA last year there were 7700 official reports of domestic violence assaults and sexual assaults.
Attorney General Vickie Chapman is calling for public input on proposed changes to SA domestic violence laws.
In addition to jail terms for strangulation, Ms Chapman aims to double penalties for those who repeatedly breach intervention orders as well as expand the definition of domestic violence to include more relationships.
Public feedback about the proposed new laws is being sought until this Friday, August 17.
Visit yourSAy.sa.gov.au to give your opinions.
• Chris Oldfield can be contacted by email at christobel47@bigpond.com
