“It’s Like We Have to Die Before Anyone Takes Us Seriously”: Institutional Revictimization in the French Justice System Among Women Survivors of IPV

Institutional revictimization refers to additional harm generated through institutional practices, procedures, interactions, or omissions after survivors seek formal protection. This study examined how women survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) in France experienced and interpreted potentially revictimizing responses across their justice-system trajectories, with particular attention to socially shared meanings surrounding victimhood, credibility, violence, and institutional protection. Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 46 women who had initiated at least one legal action. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, with Social Representations Theory serving as a sensitizing framework. Five interrelated themes captured how survivors’ agency, credibility, institutional continuity, cumulative harm, and experiences of protection were negotiated across justice trajectories. Survivors described disbelief, victim-blaming, repeated testimony, deficient communication, procedural delays, fragmented case management, and limited recognition of non-physical violence. Protective encounters were characterized by attentive listening, validation, clear information, continuity, and specialized support. Institutional revictimization emerged as a cumulative process rather than a series of isolated encounters, highlighting the importance of responses that preserve survivor agency, strengthen protection, and challenge gendered assumptions surrounding IPV and victim credibility.