Losing his or her children can cause even more grief to the victim than the victim is experiencing at home. A wrongful arrest means that the financial and psychological energies of the victim are diverted to dealing with the need to defend him or herself against legal charges, rather than to find the best way to escape the situation. Many domestic violence victims often require the services of an overburdened public defender, particularly women who do not have financial resources independent of their partners. Victim's rights advocacy groups may feel wary of appearing to help the accused through the court system, even the wrongfully accused. This is especially true of the gay or lesbian persons who do not fit the conventional demographic profile of a domestic violence victim.

A defense attorney, who has many cases and is not well-educated in domestic violence law, may urge the victim to plead guilty in the...

Then, once the victim has a record, gaining a needed restraining order later on can be more difficult. So can prosecuting the real perpetrator, if the situation continues to escalate. This can cause physical and emotional harm to both the victim and any children who are involved in the matter.
A wrongful arrest of the victim can also give an abuser more confidence, and cause the abuser to feel untouchable. The abuser may remind the victim of the arrest later on, to illustrate that the victim is crazy or simply that no one will ever come to the victim's aid. All of these potential scenarios underline that a wrongful arrest of the wrong person in a domestic violence situation is not merely a momentary lapse of judgment by an officer, but can have spiraling consequences beyond the parameters of the arrest itself.