You asked about how a woman faces repercussions from phoning in. I worked as a health worker at Cumberland House for many years and I did have to work with women when they were going to court. They'd ask me to go in there and help support them.
As for what they were going through, believe it or not, it's in the Criminal Code.... Their partners come in, practically kicking in the door, kicking and screaming and threatening that they're going to kill them, yet when she takes one of their children's toy trucks and hits her husband or boyfriend with it, the woman gets charged with assault. She gets put through the whole judicial system, gets embarrassed and humiliated, and has a criminal record. Then when she applies for a job later on, it comes up on her criminal record check that she assaulted another individual.