Finding Our Voice, Sharing Our Vision

Ending Violence Against Women and Children

Interview with Louise:

NOTE: This article previously appeared in the April 2003 issue of The Portland Alliance, and is reprinted here with their permission.

Louise Bauschard, MSW, LCSW, has been working to end violence against women and children for over two decades. She has been involved with numerous non-profit organizations including South Asian Women's Empowerment and Resource Alliance (SAWERA) and Women Embracing Freedom Together, a group devoted to reintegrating battered women into society following incarceration. Bauschard's approach to domestic violence focuses on amplifying and empowering women's voices rather than marginalizing the victim. She is currently the coordinator of volunteer services with the Washington County Community Corrections Center for Victims Services. I recently spoke with Louise Bauschard about Battered Women's Syndrome, prison and immigrant women's experiences.

Emilie Raguso: Could you tell me about what led you to Oregon and your work in domestic violence?

Louise Bauschard: I started providing social work services in 1976 when I got my degree from Washington University in St. Louis. As I went through school I became immersed in the whole issue of women and what women suffered from. It provided me with an incentive to start a program, the Women's Self-Help Center. It was the first of its kind in that state, providing services directly to women who were battered. One of the features there was the Justice Program. That one I'm most proud of because it served women who went to prison. I began to go to the trials where women were convicted of killing their partners. Out of that grew the book I wrote in 1986, "Voices Set Free", which is a description of 20 women who were serving time for that crime. Ultimately we organized a hearing of the legislators to come in to the prison to hear testimony. Women who were doing life sentences for killing their batterer testified. That caused some alarm bells because I never was allowed back into those prisons again. It really tempered my enthusiasm that I was getting somewhere, so in 1989 I left the actual practice of working with battered women. I ended up having an opportunity to come out west and I landed in Portland. From there on I've just been getting more involved with battered women, with the justice system, with women in prison, and it's been a phenomenal, exciting thing to see the voices of these women getting out there. Sometimes, because of the experiences these women have had, people just think, "Women who go to prison are people you just throw away, they're garbage." And really they're not. So I get to teach it now and I get to live it in terms of working in corrections.

ER: What groups are you involved with here in Portland?

LB: Six years ago I helped start Voices Set Free, which is a program on the campus of Portland State. It's a compilation of our experiences of working with perpetrators of domestic violence and survivors of domestic violence. We also look at childhood abuse, how the law works, clemency and how to get advocacy going.

ER: You also work with SAWERA?

LB: Actually they were in one of my first classes, members that were thinking of starting a program to reach out to South Asian women. Now I'm on the board. They've taught in my class at least five times. Women who have been served by SAWERA are on panels and talk to students about what it means to get help when you're in another country where the customs are different.

ER: Can you talk about the Battered Woman's Syndrome a little bit more in depth?

LB: The term Battered Woman's Syndrome was coined by Dr. Lenore Walker. She did a study showing similarities across battered women. There are about ten characteristics that, when seven or more are present, you've got the syndrome. These include low self-esteem, believes the batterer, feelings of worthlessness. This nexus of problems spirals over time into a three-stage cycle: build-up, battering and release. This can be ongoing for years in a relationship without the people in it recognizing what they're into; it's called trauma bonding. I wish, when I was testifying, I had known that term to answer the question, "Why didn't she leave?"

ER: Actually, I was going to ask you that question.

LB: First, there's no place to go that won't be found by the batterer if he's intent on finding you. The trails of exit are often so dangerous that it's safer to remain in the relationship. A woman is killed when she's leaving more often than any other time. There is hope though. We now have more batterers' intervention projects where men are referred for education. We could innoculate the community against this trouble if we had enough education, enough determination, enough understanding, if we got into the high schools.

ER: Do some batterers actually want to change?

LB: It's only a very small portion that are incorrigible. And if we get to them earlier they're less incorrigible. If we get to them with a method that doesn't just shame them, which is unfortunately the way we get to anybody who does anything we don't like. There's something called Restorative Justice that's come from the native people where justice is not something that you do to somebody. It's where you put the survivor of crime in the middle of the process, which helps them heal. In our system, we've almost eliminated these survivors. They have no voice and are often only considered helpful if they testify. But are they getting healed?

ER: How many women are in prison for killing their partner?

LB: There aren't good details on this. I would say 10 percent of all women incarcerated, maybe even higher. And that's pretty high when you think it's usually a life sentence.

ER: Why isn't it viewed as self-defense?

LB: Publicly, these women are considered guilty because they chose to stay. What often happens is that they know the exit is going to be the one that might kill them. And in fact the battered woman senses that the batterer changes by the degree of freedom she seeks in the relationship. And if you've run away seven times and seven times he's dragged you back by the hair or by threats to your children or your parents, it's hard to overcome those fears. They say "leave" but really it's escape. It's a war zone in that house.

ER: You mentioned that you aren't allowed in the Missouri prisons. Do you go to the prisons here?

LB: Yes, I go every week. I'm going tonight. I'm running a recovery group based on Dr. Charlotte Kasl's book "Many Roads, One Journey".

ER: Are the batterers' killings usually in the heat of the moment?

LB: No. Women get convicted on what's called a premeditated strike. It may be that they shoot him in the back or when he's sleeping. Unfortunately, in the state of mind of a battered woman, you're always about to be killed. It doesn't stop just because he's asleep or because it's Monday. Once you've been strangled to the point of blacking out and you don't know if you're going to live, or you've had a gun clipped into your head and it could have had a bullet in it that trauma doesn't just vanish after three months. What happens many times is that after the event a woman talks to the police freely because she thinks people will understand her point of view. If those conversations are used against her there's such good evidence to hang her with. These trials are something else, watching a woman get sentenced to 50 years... how do you live after that sentence? It's not the death sentence but it's certainly close enough. You walk away from your kids, from your families. And women's voices are silenced at that moment. You never hear from them again.

ER: But you can't just condone the killings, can you?

LB: Definitely not, but I've met too many women in prison whose lives were potentially at an end point prior to the killing. And many women do die at that point. A lot more women die from domestic violence than who ever act in self-defense. Over 2500 a year are actually killed by partners, whereas around 350 actually go into the justice system as defendants for homicide. If you look at the pattern of homicide between men and women, homicide towards men has been dropping off significantly whereas women are at the same level. The shelters, the restraining orders and the programs haven't yet stepped high enough to protect women.

ER: Do you feel that the impending war is having an impact on domestic violence?

LB: War grows out of our experience in our homes and there is a thread to be followed. I believe that it's always increasing the likelihood of violence. The war machine is up and running. People are being locked up and removed in the night, and being silenced. People fear each other, people don't trust. So that's the root of violence.

Emilie Raguso is a frequent Portland Alliance contributor. At the time of this printing, she worked primarily as an intern for Willamette Week.