How can she still love him? Domestic violence and the Stockholm Syndrome

Headnote

Abstract

Working with women living with domestic violence has always been a sensitive and potentially stressful issue for frontline workers. It is essential that workers have a good understanding of the impact that living with domestic violence has on women and that they have identified some positive ways to work with women living with domestic violence if they are to feel confident when dealing with this topic. Stockholm Syndrome is recognised as a psychological phenomenon whereby hostages identify and ally with their captors. This article explores the parallels between this syndrome and domestic violence and explains why women living with violence often behave in a way that seems bizarre to an onlooker. Then it identifies how this can be used in a training context to enable participants to be able to work more effectively with women living with domestic violence.

Key words

Stockholm Syndrome, domestic violence, training

Introduction

Stockholm Syndrome is recognised as a psychological phenomenon, where hostages identify and ally with their captors. Graham et al1 suggested that the Stockholm Syndrome experienced by hostages provided a useful model for understanding the experience and behaviour of women living with domestic violence. It shows that the psychological characteristics often observed in these women result from being in a life-threatening situation and are not pre-existing characteristics that may have contributed to the violence. It also illustrates how the power imbalance between abusers and victims/survivors can result in strong emotional bonding. Research has shown that the effects on women include low self-esteem, dependence upon the perpetrator, feelings of hopelessness about ending the violence, a tendency to minimise or deny the violence.2

This article outlines how we have used the parallels between Stockholm Syndrome and domestic violence to develop training packages for front line workers, to enable participants to work more effectively with women living with domestic violence. The authors have worked in the domestic violence field for a number of years, with one having been a health visitor for 14 years.

Throughout this article we use the term 'she' when referring to the woman living with violence and 'he' when referring to the perpetrator. While acknowledging that there are male victims, and victims in same sex relationships, this article is written from the understanding that the majority...