Understanding Systemic Abuse and How it Impacts Domestic Violence Survivors

Systemic abuse happens when institutions—like the legal, health, or immigration system—fail or harm survivors. This guide helps you understand how survivors face injustice beyond the abuser, and what supports are available in Ontario.

Domestic violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Survivors often face abuse from systems that are supposed to help—courts, police, child welfare, housing, immigration. This is known as systemic abuse, and it can leave survivors feeling unheard, re-traumatized, and unsafe.

Systemic abuse happens when institutions or systems:

• Ignore, dismiss, or minimize survivor reports

• Fail to respond quickly or appropriately

• Impose harmful policies or barriers

• Reinforce power imbalances or biases

• Make survivors jump through hoops to get help

Systemic abuse isn’t always intentional—but its impact is very real.

• Police dismissing DV reports or blaming the victim

• Family court forcing joint custody despite abuse

• Survivors being disbelieved due to race, disability, or immigration status

• Lack of accessible shelters or supports for disabled or LGBTQ2S+ survivors

• Child protection threatening to remove children from survivors

• Immigration systems making survivors dependent on their abuser for status

• Delays or denial of legal aid based on income that doesn’t reflect real-life risk

• Delays in getting protection (e.g., restraining orders or safe housing)

• Emotional retraumatization when survivors are not believed

• Fear of losing children or being deported

• Feeling trapped, disempowered, and isolated

• Survivors giving up on seeking help altogether

• Document everything – dates, names, what happened

• Seek help from advocates or legal support workers

• Connect with trauma-informed organizations that know how to work around systems

• File complaints if safe to do so (e.g., Human Rights Tribunal, Legal Aid appeals)

• Consider media or advocacy routes with trusted support

• Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic – Legal and advocacy help

• OAITH (Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses) – Survivor advocacy

• ARCH Disability Law Centre – For survivors facing accessibility and disability rights issues

• DAWN Canada – For disabled and gender-diverse survivors

• Legal Aid Ontario – 1-800-668-8258 (appeals and support possible)

• 211 Ontario – Referral to trauma-informed services and complaints processes

• ✅ Systemic abuse is when institutions fail or harm survivors

• ✅ It can look like disbelief, legal loopholes, or biased responses

• ✅ The emotional toll is real and can worsen the trauma

• ✅ You have the right to advocacy, documentation, and support

• ✅ Help exists—even if the system feels broken