Rising cases of misidentification for Aboriginal Women

There have always been buzzwords in the community service sector. With changes of government, new policies and shifts in priority areas, new buzzwords emerge and evolve. In 2024-2025 the phrase ‘misidentification’ popped up as one of these newest buzzwords. But what exactly does it mean and what impact does it have for Aboriginal women experiencing family violence?

In a family violence context, misidentification occurs when  a victim is wrongly identified by authorities as the  person using violence or the predominant aggressor in a family violence incident.

Notably, Elizabeth Morgan House Aboriginal Women’s Service (EMH) has observed an increasing trend in the number of Aboriginal women being misidentified by Victoria Police as respondents or Persons Using Violence (PUV) in family violence incidents.

Using a text mining approach, EMH identified the first instance of the term ‘misidentification’ (and related terms to the same effect) being used in our case notes in 2019. Since this time, 133 case notes have referenced ‘misidentification’ for 69 unique women.

Misidentification has been an area of concern for EMH for a number of years. Through frequent and ongoing staff training and reflective practice, EMH staff are well equipped to listen for and assess signs of misidentification. EMH staff monitor signs of misidentification through:

-          Ongoing systems violence including cross applications for Intervention Orders, fictitious and vexatious reports to Child Protection.

-          Reading L17 narratives and assessing how and what the police have written. A common sign that a woman has been misidentified includes the Affected Family Member having scratch marks to their face. This is often identified by EMH as being a self-defence infliction of injury.

-          Listening to our women’s stories and journeys. Whilst they might not use the text book terminology, they are aware that a mistake has been made, and are able to verbalise why they think this has occurred.

This evidence suggests to us that, in many cases, women may be:

·       Using resistant violence in response to ongoing family violence; and

·       Experiencing trauma responses during police intervention.

What leads to Aboriginal women being misidentified? ?

There is an expectation that a person experiencing family violence should be timid and afraid. There is a racial stereotype that Aboriginal women are “angry bla(c)k women”. So, when Police attend an incident of family violence and find an Aboriginal woman experiencing family violence who isn’t timid or afraid, this can scramble the narrative and lead to misidentification.

When police attend a family violence incident, and they misidentify an Aboriginal woman as being the PUV, they are often removed from the property and referred to crisis accommodation or refuge providers. When misidentified, the women are being referred to these critical service providers as a PUV.

Consequences of Aboriginal women being misidentified

Misidentification often results in Aboriginal women incorrectly being deemed ineligible for support from family violence refuge accommodation. Being deemed ineligible for family violence supports, women are often referred into housing services and turned away due to the housing service being chronically under resourced, or unable to be referred into shared short- and medium-term accommodation due to having a history of violence.

These misidentified women are often left with the difficult decision of sleeping rough or returning home, despite the ongoing family violence and potential legal consequences. For Aboriginal women who are misidentified and not removed from their home, they can still face housing instability and homelessness as the result of misidentification.

The legal consequences from misidentification can result in women being unable to meet Working with Children and Police Check requirements, resulting in a loss of their employment or volunteer positions or being unable to find employment in their chosen field, despite many years of study.

Women may also lose their employment or volunteer positions due to their employer perceiving that they are a risk to their business or others. This loss or limiting of employment can impact upon a woman’s financial stability—and in turn, her housing stability.

How can the systems help Aboriginal women who have been misidentified?

The EMH Court Support Program is at the forefront of supporting Aboriginal women who have been misidentified and are before the courts. Our Court Support Case Managers provide advocacy and education to Police members, lawyers and Magistrates around signs of misidentification in Intervention Order applications and criminal charges.

There are also several ways that Police and mainstream community service organisations can bring awareness to and help prevent misidentification of Aboriginal women.

These include:

·       Ensuring that police are facilitating appropriate referrals to support services.

·       Learning about power dynamics in relationships that lead to misidentification and systems violence.

·       Increasing transparency and accountability around charging practices.

·       Learning about trauma and implement a trauma-informed approach across your organisation.

·       Reading Police narratives and raise questions and concerns you might have around inconsistencies or signs of misidentification.

·       Following EMH on social media and visiting our website for more resources around misidentification.

Reducing harm

Misidentification is a growing problem for Aboriginal women, with long-lasting negative impacts on their housing, employment, mental health and healing journeys. Everyone has the right to live free from violence and discrimination.

By having the community and emergency services sectors understand and acknowledge power and control in relationships, resistant violence and trauma responses during police intervention, we can work together to reduce the harm caused by misidentification of Aboriginal women.