DARVO is a tactic used to publicly discredit accusers and privately subdue victims with shame and a sense of shared guilt – however false. Like the term gaslighting , you may have seen it used in discussions about domestic and sexual violence, but what does it describe exactly?
DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.
Professor Patrick O Leary from Griffith University told
SBS Voices that perpetrators often use DARVO to shame victims into believing they are responsible for the abuse.
An abuser might say if you really cared about me, you wouldn t do that to justify an act of violence because he says his victim s behaviour provoked him – she was spending too much time with friends, for example. The victim believes that the abuse is their fault, at least in part, says Prof O Leary, and they could stop it if they behaved a certain way.