Domestic Violence And Financial Dependency

It's clear that many people don't understand why women who have left abusive relationships often return. Many people place blame on the victim for returning by suggesting that the victim even likes or thrives on the abuse. The attitude is: If they didn't like being abused they would leave and not return, right? But the reasons why women return to abusive relationships are extremely complex and have less to do with the content of the woman's character and more to do with the effects of abuse. It's widely known that an abused woman may leave her abuser seven to eight times before she leaves permanently. Former Wall Street Executive Speaks On Surviving Domestic Violence Article Controls Eighty-five percent of women who leave an abusive relationship return. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, a significant proportion of women who return to the relationship attribute their inability to deal with their finances as a major contributing factor, which is often enhanced by the fact that the abuser often has all of the economic and social standing and complete control over the family finances. These women's options are further limited by the fact that many who leave often face one or more additional barriers including having at least one dependent child, not being employed outside of the home, possessing no property that is solely theirs, and lacking access to cash or bank and credit accounts. For these reasons it is very likely that many of these women would experience a decline in living standards and security of life for themselves and their children if they were to leave their partner. As a result of all of these combined factors, many survivors of domestic violence who summon the courage to leave the abusive relationship eventually return for financial reasons. In most cases women arrive at shelters with few more resources other than the clothes they are wearing. Some are burdened with debt--in many cases their partners. Still others tumble into debt after they have left the abusive relationship because they overspend on impulse or budget poorly. Very few of them are yet to have addressed the emotional and psychological issues that have dictated their poor financial choices. Rarely is a battered woman accustomed to managing her own money.