“Does the State have any further witnesses today?” the judge asks, looking down at the prosecutor with a quizzical glance. The jury leans forward, waiting to see if the State will finally call the one person they want to hear from: the victim. The prosecutor looks back from his seat at the counsel table and briefly glances out the courtroom door. He sighs, stands up and says “Your Honor, we had one more witness, but they aren’t here. The State rests.” A sigh of disappointment ripples through the courtroom. The victim hasn’t shown up to testify.

All too often, this is the unfortunate reality for cases involving domestic violence. Many domestic violence victims openly refuse to participate in ongoing prosecutions against their abuser, while others simply avoid showing up for trial. Sadly, these situations act as serious hurdles to effectively prosecuting domestic violence, as most domestic violence prosecutions must proceed without a victim. But why is this such a persistent phenomenon? Are victims avoiding court or refusing to participate because they don’t care about their own abuse?

The Department of Justice has recognized several factors that may influence a victim’s decision to testify in a criminal prosecution. These factors include financial dependency on their abuser, having shared children with their abuser, having sincere feelings of care for their abuser, fear of ridicule or harassment from their peers, fear of not being believed by their peers, or aversion to the prosecutorial process. Adding to these factors is the inherent trauma that must be endured when victims testify about their experience in court. Victims are required to testify about their abuse while sitting mere feet from the perpetrator – not to mention in front of a panel of complete strangers. They are often required to testify about the very emotional circumstances that led up to their abuse, to view and explain graphic photos of their own injuries, and to detail their abuse itself in explicit detail.

On top of this, the abuser’s primary goal in domestic prosecutions is often to portray the victim as a liar, and to criticize any flaws in the victim’s memory regarding the trauma they endured. Consequently, a victim must publicly relive and confirm their own traumatic experience in an overwhelmingly hostile setting, being relentlessly interrogated about something they would rather forget. In light of this harsh reality, it’s not very surprising that many victims of domestic offenses simply do not want to show up and testify in court, even if they do feel strongly about surviving their domestic abuse.

As a result of these factors, most domestic violence prosecutions must proceed without a victim. We may then be tempted to consider the following question: why should we care about allegations of abuse if the victim doesn’t care enough to show up to talk about it?

First, we must be careful to avoid the fallacy that a victim who doesn’t show up doesn’t care. As outlined above, there are numerous valid reasons that a domestic violence victim may not want to testify. The fact that they may choose not to do so does not mean their experience didn’t happen. Second, even if we are to assume that a victim’s absence stems from indifference, we must be careful to avoid the fallacy that if a victim doesn’t care about their experience of domestic violence, we shouldn’t either. That a victim is not present doesn’t mean that the victim isn’t in danger, it doesn’t mean that they don’t need help or protection, and it certainly does not mean that their abuser shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. In the ongoing battle against domestic violence, it is important that we make our decisions based on the evidence presented in Court, and such evidence should not be discarded solely because a victim is absent from Trial.

In a case involving domestic violence, it may be concerning if a victim doesn’t show up to testify, and we may be tempted to think that we shouldn’t care about the case anymore. However, this thought does not embrace the complexity of domestic abuse and the challenges faced by victims of domestic violence in testifying. All in all, our focus should be on the evidence presented and whether it establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, not the victim’s attendance in Court. To do so would not just ensure justice is reached for victims of domestic violence but would serve as a powerful development in our ever-raging battle to end domestic violence.

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Seth Strahan is an assistant Marshall County Attorney.