Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 July 2008 19:23:39
I am currently in "one of those moods", you know the sort the kind of moods which did you not know your own body clock you would put down to PMT, but well it's not the right time of the month. I need something to vent what I'm feeling out at and on the BBC I found this article which seems to fit the bill.
The article, for those of you who can't be arsed to follow the link is about a piece of research amongst students in Wales relating to domestic violence. The message from this article and other research I recently heard referred to during child protection training is that domestic violence is still (and may even be increasing) as an acceptable form of behaviour in our societies.
The article is also highlighting that far from being a "private secret" domestic violence is something people know their friends are going through but feel powerless to help. Now, I am all too aware this may because domestic violence is a complicated thing. The "victim" may feel ashamed, or due to either the fear of or strong emotional feelings of love towards the perpetrator actually be willing to forgive and pursuade their friends that their decision to stay in that situation is the best thing. Alternatively the victim may even feel it is somehow their fault and they somehow deserve it.
Let us not fall into the trap of thinking this is specifically a one gender, feminist issue - men suffer domestic violence aswell. The issue it does raise is how we deal with this in a "civillised" society. Rather than simply being encouraged to report it as a crime (which an advertising a couple of years ago encouraged) perhaps it would be better if people were given more knowledge on how to help people going through this and where they could signpost them to for help.
There is no excuse for domestic violence and there is little excuse for turning a blind eye. Yet, the "victim" has to come to their own decision to remove themself from the dangerous situation. How this is all done I don't know, but as a society we need to deal with this type of problem and not transmit the message to our young people that violence by them or against them is "normal" or "acceptable".