Domestic violence: the police have finally trained themselves to deconstruct their stereotypes

In the end avenues for concrete improvements facilitate the reception of victims of domestic violence in police stations?

This is the evaluation of a large project carried out from May 2021 to May 2022, funded by the Regional Council of Île-de-France, which was presented in a few figures this Monday 10 October. A “Pioneering project” as described by Marie-Pierre Badré, president of the Hubertine Auclert center, a feminist organization in the Ile-de-France region that is at the origin of the system.

Over the course of a year, 157 training sessions were held, which reached 1,609 members national police (representing three quarters of trained people), national gendarmerie and municipal police throughout the Ile-de-France.

A project that hopes source of inspiration to engage “A political, budgetary and social revolution” in the fight against domestic violence.

Hubertine Auclert center initially noted that police and gendarmes receiving this training participate voluntarily in 51.97% of cases. They are 45.66% acknowledge that they have not chosen to benefit from it. However, when the module was released, the training received near unanimous approval, both for the content and the tools presented.

During the presentation of the results of this first year of training carried out with the police, several speakers were able to provide their feedbacksatisfactory observations on the ground, but also where improvements will be needed.

These training courses address several specific issues of the issue of domestic violence, describes Anne-Charlotte Jelty, trainer at La Maison des femmes de Saint-Denis: legal, psychological, socio-medical, but also sociological. One way to understand “the extent of the phenomenon” and to make the agents realize “The systemic aspect of violence against women”to work to deconstruct the culture of rape, the racist and sexist prejudices surrounding this topic.

A sign of a necessary improvement, Sonia Pino, psychologist and trainer at the Elle’s Imagine’nt association, points out that the discussion groups in which the women of her structure take part are getting closer less domestic violence suffered compared to the difficulties encountered during legal proceedings. As if a second wave of violence were added to those already experienced.

The brakes of good reception

This is the first step: walking through the door of a police station. And then ? Will confidentiality be guaranteed when submitting a complaint? Officers sometimes plead for simple material constraints which do not allow a separate and more reassuring reception for the victim.

The participants in the presentation of the financial statements speak of the differentiated reception system for victims of sexual or domestic violence identifiable by a color codetested in July 2021 (and which had elicited a lot of reactions) and currently in development, or even the possibility ofan intercom to be able to speak directly with a specialized agent in the collection of this type of complaint.

Another participant also called for more emphasis on the online reporting platform for gender and sexual violence, accessible to victims but also to witnesses, which allows them to be recalled and received directly by a police officer.

However, as Anne-Charlotte Jelty recalls, these means do not replace each other “Humans in the field who are trained in these questions” and that effectively exclude people who are already vulnerable, those who do not speak French or who cannot read, for example: “It has to be an advantage, but it doesn’t replace funded positions. “

Disassemble the prejudices about the victims

An incoherent or detached victim, whose speech is disjointed, who does not remember certain details, who bursts out laughing as he recounts the violence, who collapses in front of a harmless detail, which he ends up retracting … So many signs that the police and gendarmes learned to identify as credibility gaps of a testimony, reports Julia Poirier, lawyer and trainer at the CIDFF in Paris:

“It is sometimes destabilizing for some professionals to realize during training that they did not have information to understand the specifics of psychotrauma. “

It was in particular the discovery of the symptoms of psychotrauma that affected the training participants, confirms Anaïs Juhe, social worker and trainer, who nevertheless observes difficulty in recognizing the systemic nature of domestic violence by agents.

There are also blind spots and very vulnerable victims. which remain unrecognized or away from devices. Need better anticipate the diversity of victims of domestic violenceinsists Julia Poirier, who points out that she is unprepared for certain scenarios: young underage girls who are victims of domestic violence, women with disabilities, LGBTQIA + people, but also people in an irregular situation. Expenses that prevent these victims from being properly cared for.

A promising year, what next?

In early 2022, a report by the Hubertine Auclert center showed how much the reception of victims of domestic violence in the police stations of Île-de-France leaves something to be desired.

And now ? If the training courses are widely acclaimed by those who benefit and build a solid network of associative and local interlocutors to guide, welcome and best support the victimsthere are still areas for improvement.

Continuing education is good, but and initial training? To avoid anchoring bad practices and habits that will then have to be deconstructed, workers recommend training at the police academy about this topic.

Night squads are also a difficult group to engage in training, particularly due to a lack of staff, when they too are in direct contact with victims and should also have access to new knowledge on domestic violence treatment. The same observation by the magistrates, assure other association leaders, for whom a deconstruction of certain prejudices would also be necessary in this profession.

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