Rural survivors of abuse

Rural areas can pose particular problems for domestic violence survivors:

• Geographical isolation; fewer roads, cars, buses, trains, communications, public transport, doctors
• Less police/legal help
• Harder to get a protective order
• Lack of a support system; limited services, daycare, less health insurance
• Fewer jobs
• “Old-fashioned” values regarding women, marriage, money and guns
• “Everybody knows everybody” including medical personnel and the police, and shelters (if any)
• Bigger problems with alcohol, drugs, poverty
• Sometimes a woman’s life and career consist of the farm she shares with the abuser, with no pension or Social Security