Paper short abstract:

Explores the paradox between the competing needs of women effected by violence, and the biomedical framework's demand for full disclosure.

Paper long abstract:

Violence against women has recently been described as an Australian 'epidemic', (further) cementing its place within biomedical discourse. Yet, chronic underreporting remains a primary obstacle for service providers to tackle the problem.

Attempts to incorporate female lived experiences within the biomedical framework are notoriously fraught and have been criticised as iatrogenic (harm-causing). In interviews with women who had experienced violence, I asked what precisely they needed to feel/be safe when discussing their experiences and whether they made official reports. The theme of 'safe spaces' was unanimously agreed upon, and the lack of anonymous reporting meant that few reported attacks, either to health professionals or legal services.

The fear of incurring legal intervention was too high a risk, and was a barrier from seeking medical help. This suggests a systemic paradox of anonymity versus explicit disclosure, which could explain chronic underreporting.

From an anthropological perspective working within a multidisciplinary space, looking at the relationship between women's lived experiences of violence and health agencies, I suggest the combination of anonymous disclosure that these women designate as essential, with what can be argued as a moral imperative for service providers to protect clients from further harm, can be accomplished as a by-product of rigorously applied ethnographic methodological practice.

The paradox of ethnography—that we engage and have relationships with our participants, as well as provide them with anonymity—can address the paradoxical structural requirement for women to announce their 'victimhood', with health practitioners' imperative to prevent further harm.