What is DARVO?

Definition of DARVO

DARVO refers to a reaction perpetrators of wrong doing, particularly sexual offenders, may display in response to being held accountable for their behavior. DARVO stands for “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender.” The perpetrator or offender may Deny the behavior, Attack the individual doing the confronting, and Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender such that the perpetrator assumes the victim role and turns the true victim — or the whistle blower — into an alleged offender. This occurs, for instance, when an actually guilty perpetrator assumes the role of “falsely accused” and attacks the accuser’s credibility and blames the accuser of being the perpetrator of a false accusation.

Institutional DARVO occurs when the DARVO is committed by an institution (or with institutional complicity) as when police charge rape victims with lying. Institutional DARVO is a pernicious form of institutional betrayal.

Anti-DARVO refers to ways to reduce the negative impact of DARVO and also more constructive responses to allegations.

 

Theory & Empirical Research

Concept: DARVO was introduced in this article:

Additional articles developed aspects of the relationship between DARVO, grooming, and betrayal trauma theory. (See section History of term on this page.)

Research: DARVO and Self-Blame

Empirical research is more recent. In a 2017 peer-reviewed open-access research study, Perpetrator Responses to Victim Confrontation: DARVO and Victim Self-Blame, Harsey, Zurbriggen, & Freyd reported that: “(1) DARVO was commonly used by individuals who were confronted; (2) women were more likely to be exposed to DARVO than men during confrontations; (3) the three components of DARVO were positively correlated, supporting the theoretical construction of DARVO; and (4) higher levels of exposure to DARVO during a confrontation were associated with increased perceptions of self-blame among the confronters. These results provide evidence for the existence of DARVO as a perpetrator strategy and establish a relationship between DARVO exposure and feelings of self-blame. Exploring DARVO aids in understanding how perpetrators are able to enforce victims’ silence through the mechanism of self-blame.”

Research: DARVO’s impact on third parties and Anti-DARVO

In our most recent published research Sarah Harsey and I completed several experiments (Harsey & Freyd, 2020). In one experiment we presented participants with accounts of abuse followed by a DARVO response versus a control response. We found exposure to the DARVO response was associated with less belief of the victim and more blame of the victim. In another experiment in the same report Sarah Harsey and I examined whether learning about DARVO could mitigate its effects on individuals’ perceptions of perpetrators and victims. DARVO-educated participants (compared with control) rated the perpetrator as less believable. While much more research is needed, these results suggest that DARVO is an effective strategy to discredit victims but that the power of the strategy can be mitigated by education.

More Research – Written Reports Coming Soon:

 

DARVO in the News (Selected Examples)

Podcasts:

Videos:

south park

In print and on-line (selected):

DARVO Illustrated:

Public events have been remarkably illustrative of the pattern we see in DARVO. From some of my tweets about this, referencing a New York Times article:

  • “None of this ever took place” — the Deny of #DARVO (1 of 3)
  • “You are a disgusting human being,” the Attack of #DARVO (2 of 3)
  • “making up the allegations to hurt him” — Reverse Victim & Offender of #DARVO (3 of 3)

And strikingly: “Trump on sex assault allegations: ‘I am a victim'” (CNN reports)

For more see: Fitzgerald, L.F. & Freyd, J.J. (2017) Trump’s DARVO defense of harassment accusations. The Boston Globe, 20 December 2017.