-For context, I am in the US. Curious about UK and other places as well if anyone has knowledge to share.-
I am two years out of a relationship where I was abused for years. I've been in trauma therapy with a social worker for roughly a year and a half. About a year ago I was able to gather enough courage to call in a report against my ex. I told them about number of incidents that I didn't have the courage to call on at the time (largly because I wasn't sure it the incidents counted as illegal while I was going through them). Within about a month, another of his ex's called in her own report on him. Their relationship predates ours, yet she had much stronger evidence than I did. The two main reports were in different counties. The incidents happened in several counties and across state lines. We tried desperately to get the officers to combine the reports with no luck. We, of course *eye roll*, never heard anything from the officers after the reports were given. I wasn't expecting much when I made the report because of the time lapse. I think it was my way of kind of being done with it, like "I've told my truth, now don't come dragging me into court when he finally k!lls a woman.". Yet, I still wonder if it was worth the humiliation of going over some of the worst moments of my life on the phone with a random police officer who I'm sure did not care at all and probably recorded next to nothing if anything. Can someone tell me if these reports amount to anything? I hope there is a paper trail for when he finally does the unspeakable, but I don't know how these reports work. If there is no evidence of anything actively happening, I realize they are limited in their ability to take action. I wasn't expecting an arrest and I'm too grown up now to believe in justice, I just want to believe they took five minutes to archive the report somewhere if they didn't bother to investigate him.
Does anyone else who has made it out ever struggle with the lack of justice and the emotions that come with it? Do these reports matter? I realize they don't show up in background checks for employment or dating.