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member. “Someone has got to be told.”
Ms. Roberts, who is on the SAFE board of directors, and Sam Vala, the shelter’s executive director, said their biggest problem is getting the word out into the five counties served by the shelter that there’s help available.
“My hope is to get enough recognition that if people have a problem they know there’s someone who can help — a place they can go,” Mr. Vala said.
Apparently, .the message is slowly getting across. In 1986, SAFE served 122 women and children. Last year, the total was 149, an 18 percent increase.
In 1987, 3.3 percent of the shelter’s clients came from Rappahannock, a a decrease from six percent of the total in 1986. Mr. Vala hypothesized that the drop was due not to a decrease in violence, but to the fact that the shelter is not widely known in the rural counties, and that transportation is often a problem for victims of abuse.
Mr. Vala explained that in domestic abuse situations, the abuser often exerts control by limiting the freedom of his spouse; for instance, not allowing her to drive, or prohibiting her from going anywhere unless he goes along. In many cases, those limitations are reinforced by his suspicions about where she is going or what she plans to do if she insists on going out alone, he added.
By contrast to the small percentage of victims from Rappahannock, half the shelter’s clients come from Culpeper County, 16 percent from Orange, 15.4 from Madison and six percent from Fauquier. The remaining 9.3 percent are referrals from out of the area and even out of state, in cases where the victims are so fearful or the threats so serious that they cannot even stay in the same area with the abuser.
Deputy Jenkins agreed with Ms. Roberts and Mr. Vala. In cases of domestic violence, “you’ve got to get help, someone who can defuse the situation.”
The saddest part of domestic situations for the law enforcement personnel involved is that “many times, within a week the couple is back together. It’s got to be love,” he said, shaking his head, “to go back to someone after they’ve been beating on you.”
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