Violence against women and girls: shifting culture
It is increasingly questionable whether government policy is keeping pace with the growing dangers to women and children
Editorial
•The Guardian, Saturday 25 May 2013 06.43 AEST
This week we have learned the following: the police still make catastrophic mistakes in the protection of women at risk of domestic violence; that children everywhere have access to pornography, and that this is influencing behaviour in dangerous ways; and that most parents think relationship education in schools is inadequate. In the background, Mark Bridger’s trial for the murder of five-year-old April Jones is a running reminder that while rare, there is still murderous child abuse as well as the far more widespread exploitation revealed most recently by the Oxford grooming trial.
Bleak as it feels, perhaps some of this may be evidence of a long-overdue change in a moral climate which, as the Savile affair has revealed, was lethally complacent until all too recently. But it is also true that both technology and family breakdown have hugely increased the range of dangers girls and women face, and it is increasingly questionable whether either government policy or the wider culture is keeping up with the need for action.
Earlier this week, the family of Maria Stubbings, murdered by a former boyfriend who had already murdered another woman, launched a petition for a public inquiry that they hope could produce its own Stephen Lawrence moment – shocking government and society into self-appraisal and action in the same way that the Macpherson inquiry did with racism. They deserve support. For all that Theresa May’s Home Office is tackling child sexualisation and violence against girls and women with renewed energy, it hasn’t gone far enough. New research has shown that buy-in from other departments is limited. At Education, Michael Gove’s emphasis on schools and his political commitment to a hands-off approach militate against promoting campaigns like the Home Office’s excellent This Is Abuse initiative to alert young people to respect in relationships. Schools aren’t obliged to teach students about appropriate behaviour, and there is slacker monitoring of what is taught in personal health and education classes than other subjects.
But the real argument for an inquiry is not just the accumulation of evidence. There are plenty of experts diligently toiling on inquiries and task forces. What an inquiry would do differently is wake everyone up to the sheer extent of violence and abuse, and the patterns of behaviour that support it. It would ensure that every police force prioritises vulnerable women and listens to abused children, that every teacher is familiar with the signs of abuse, and that every parent has the confidence to help make their children resilient in the face of internet porn. It is time to stop the endless repetition of the cycle of shock – and start acting.
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Maria Stubbings was killed by one man. The question is: who let it happen?
The failure of police to prevent her murder has been admitted. An apology is not enough – we need a public inquiry into domestic violence
•Julie Bindel
The Guardian, Wednesday 22 May 2013 05.34 AEST
Maria Stubbings is dead, strangled by a former boyfriend and let down by the police who could have done more to keep her safe, but didn’t. Maria Stubbings is dead and, it would seem, not much has changed since I began campaigning on this issue over three decades ago. The statistics are consistent, year after year: on average, two women die each week in England and Wales as a result of domestic violence, a number etched into the minds of those of us who keep asking why nothing has changed.
In calling on the home secretary, Theresa May, to set up a Stephen Lawrence-style public inquiry into why victims of domestic violence are not getting sufficient protection, the Stubbings family join a large number of feminists who have been arguing the same point for years.
We need a formal inquiry because investigations into domestic homicides often result in nothing but cliches: there were mistakes; opportunities were missed; communication lines were faulty; the police are sorry; lessons have been learned. But the fact is, domestic violence accounted for 10% of emergency calls in 2011/12, according to the Office for National Statistics, and there were 2 million cases of domestic abuse. Lessons were not learned. No amount of apologising is enough.
The Macpherson inquiry happened because campaigners insisted Stephen died not only of a stab wound inflicted by violent racists, but because there was a culture of racism in the police.
Maria Stubbings died not only of strangulation at the hands of a violent man, but because there is a culture of misogyny within the police and wider society – as the IPCC report five years after the murder so chillingly demonstrates. But as Davina James-Hanman, director of the charity Against Violence and Abuse, puts it: “We have had IPCC reports, assurances, and apologies for two decades, and yet we still have dead body after dead body and the same mistakes made over and over.”
I recall the first domestic murder case I was involved in as a campaigner, in 1983. Keith Ward killed his partner, Julie Stead. She had complained many times to the police about him, but was ignored. Ward pleaded provocation and was sentenced to three years in prison. My campaign group, alongside Julie’s family, petitioned the court, calling for a longer sentence. We were ignored. In 1990 Ward killed another woman, Valerie Middleton while on weekend release from a two-year sentence for a previous attack on her. This time he was convicted of murder. Two sets of children had lost their mother; two women had lost their livesJulie Stead died 30 years ago, and so much remains the same.
The root of the problem is that women are routinely disbelieved and disrespected when reporting domestic abuse, not just by police but across the statutory agencies. Any public inquiry must include in its remit not only the police, but other organisations that routinely fail women, such as health and social services.
And if there is anyone who doesn’t think the victims’ suffering is reason enough for a public inquiry, consider the costs. Research by Crime Concern in 1998 found that the cost per annum of domestic violence to statutory agencies was at least £5m, but it was probably closer to £7.5m because that research excluded the costs of murder inquiries and rehousing council tenants (Counting the Costs: Estimating the Impact of Domestic Violence in the London Borough of Hackney, Elizabeth A Stanko et al).
There is the wider human cost too. Living in a violent household is horrific for children. A National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) study of 139 child abuse cases in England in 2009-11 found that almost two-thirds had have domestic abuse as a risk factor: men who commit acts of serious sexual violence against women often abuse children too. Mick Philpott, convicted of killing six of his children in an arson attack, has since been accused of rape and domestic violence.
Women’s Aid Federation England has identified a number of ways in which children who witness domestic violence are affected. These include developing anxiety and depression, having difficulty concentrating at school, and suffering from flashbacks; bed-wetting, aggression and self-harm are not uncommon. Later, some will self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, and many will find relationships difficult. If they become parents, the violence they witnessed can impact on the way they relate to their own children, resulting in a lack of connection, or even further violence.
Protecting women is the best way to protect children, yet some women cite inappropriate child protection intervention as one of the reasons they cannot escape. One woman I spoke to called police to her home following a serious assault, and subsequently received a letter from social services warning her that if she did not take steps to address the “unsafe environment”, her two children – who were in the home at the time of the attack – would be in danger of being removed. This woman is now too scared to ask police for help in case it leads to her losing her children.
Some men are victims of domestic violence at the hands of female partners, and deserve services and recognition. But domestic violence is primarily a crime against women and children by men. A public inquiry into domestic violence must examine domestic homicides in the context of patriarchy and discrimination against women or, once again, nothing will change.
• Refuge and Maria’s family have launched a petition calling for a public inquiry into domestic violence
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Harm caused to children by viewing domestic violence
The Guardian, Monday 27 May 2013 06.00 AEST
Further to the article by Julie Bindel (Let this be the Macpherson moment for domestic abuse, 22 May), fMRI brain scans from the US show, perhaps surprisingly, that to an even greater extent than actually being abused themselves, exposure to and directly witnessing domestic violence has the most profound effect of all on the developing brains of children in terms of patterns associated with features of post-traumatic stress disorder. Referral rates of such children presenting with behavioural problems and/or symptoms of PTSD, to child and adolescent mental health service clinics in this country by GPs and social workers, provide further evidence that the harm done to them by seeing their responsible adults – almost always their mums – being subjected to violence is therefore both psychological and physical. Subsequent, potentially lifelong, elevated cortisol levels when faced with stressful situations mean that they risk “hidden costs” for the rest of their lives in terms of things like drug and alcohol problems and relationship difficulties, to name but three. While EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) and other treatments recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for trauma can have a beneficial effect in terms of reducing and even repairing the damage done, most children witnessing domestic violence will not be able to access such help. How right Julie Bindel is to draw attention to the need for an inquiry which might come up with recommendations to help prevent domestic violence on women and children happening in the first place.
Cairns Clery
Consultant family psychotherapist, London
child sexual assault H.o.P.e 