"to report
or "not to report
This is where the real battle begins
Scenario 4: Four months pregnant, packing and leaving, her boyfriend is enraged and severely beats her. She reports the incident to the police, and they refer her to a hospital where a J88 form (key document recording medical evidence that may be needed to obtain a conviction in an assault case) needed to be completed. Whilst there, she receives a call from a policewoman stating that a case number could not be issued as the systems were offline. Furthermore, they could not just go and arrest the man – instead, they were going to his home to take a statement.
Scenario 5: She gets off the floor and gathers her strength to carry her battered and bruised body onto the bed. This time it was really bad! For many years he had committed countless crime sprees on her body, but tonight’s beating was the worst of them all. As usual, after beating her he would abandon her and run off to his mother’s house. As she lay there in pain, she pondered her next move. Weighing her options, she is unemployed and financially dependent on him – “What will happen to me and the children if he goes to prison?” she thought.
Dec 2022 | Collective Action Magazine
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