This story is part of Stopping Domestic Violence, a CBC News series looking at the crisis of intimate partner violence in Canada and what can be done to end it.
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Showing posts with label domestic violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label domestic violence. Show all posts
4th International Report on Crime Prevention and Community Safety
"The fourth edition of the International Report is concerned with the overarching theme of the movement of people and how cities, their new arrivals, and existing residents are adapting to this increasingly pressing global phenomenon. As always, the Report begins with a review of trends in crime and violence internationally, and in the practice of crime prevention. Four separate chapters look in more detail at issues which have significant impacts especially at the local level in all parts of the world, and at how cities in particular are responding. They examine the rapidly expanding migration of people - across borders and regions, and within countries - to cities and urban areas; the migration of indigenous peoples to urban areas; the continuing issue of human trafficking and its prevention; and the persistent and troubling problem of intimate partner violence against women. Migration and trafficking are all global problems with strong local impacts, and often closely linked."
"The fourth edition of the International Report is concerned with the overarching theme of the movement of people and how cities, their new arrivals, and existing residents are adapting to this increasingly pressing global phenomenon. As always, the Report begins with a review of trends in crime and violence internationally, and in the practice of crime prevention. Four separate chapters look in more detail at issues which have significant impacts especially at the local level in all parts of the world, and at how cities in particular are responding. They examine the rapidly expanding migration of people - across borders and regions, and within countries - to cities and urban areas; the migration of indigenous peoples to urban areas; the continuing issue of human trafficking and its prevention; and the persistent and troubling problem of intimate partner violence against women. Migration and trafficking are all global problems with strong local impacts, and often closely linked."
Law schools fail on domestic violence training, experts say http://t.co/UcIl2lsrFK via @torontostar
— Crim Library UTL (@CrimLib) February 4, 2015
Man Convicted Of Domestic Violence Can’t Possess A Gun, Supreme Court Rules
When it comes to “domestic violence,” even pushing or grabbing can be
sufficient to bar federal gun possession, the U.S. Supreme Court
concluded in a unanimous ruling issued Wednesday morning.
The ruling could have significant implications in interpreting which state domestic violence laws bar gun possession. For women in particular, domestic violence is one of the biggest risks associated with gun ownership. A Violence Policy Center review of 2011 FBI crime data found that 94 percent of female homicide victims were murdered by a male they knew, and 61 percent of those killers were a spouse or intimate acquaintance. Female intimate partners were more likely to be killed by a gun than any other weapon.
Read on...
The ruling could have significant implications in interpreting which state domestic violence laws bar gun possession. For women in particular, domestic violence is one of the biggest risks associated with gun ownership. A Violence Policy Center review of 2011 FBI crime data found that 94 percent of female homicide victims were murdered by a male they knew, and 61 percent of those killers were a spouse or intimate acquaintance. Female intimate partners were more likely to be killed by a gun than any other weapon.
Read on...
The realities of intimate partner homicide
Just like OJ Simpson’s 1994 trial for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, Olympian Oscar Pistorius’ trial for the murder of his girlfriend
Reeva Steenkamp has catapulted intimate partner homicide back into the
news. Simpson was acquitted of criminal charges, but was found liable
for his former wife’s death in a civil suit. Pistorius’ guilt or
innocence remains an unanswered question.
While the unfortunate truth is that husbands and boyfriends kill their partners with disturbing frequency, these cases are the ones that we watch with rapt attention to every trial detail. Our culture is obsessed with falls from grace, especially when it involves a fabled sports hero and his beautiful partner.
Regardless, the problem of a partner killing a loved one is real. And while the overall rate of homicide has declined, the proportion of female homicide victims that are killed by their intimate partners remains stubbornly high.
Read on...
While the unfortunate truth is that husbands and boyfriends kill their partners with disturbing frequency, these cases are the ones that we watch with rapt attention to every trial detail. Our culture is obsessed with falls from grace, especially when it involves a fabled sports hero and his beautiful partner.
Regardless, the problem of a partner killing a loved one is real. And while the overall rate of homicide has declined, the proportion of female homicide victims that are killed by their intimate partners remains stubbornly high.
Read on...
Men on Domestic Violence: 'Society Empowers Men to Abuse ... I'm Sorry We Failed You'
Join AlterNet as it engages in a conversation across generation, race and gender when it leads a Twitter chat with GlobalGrindNews — another media partner for this campaign — on Thursday, Oct. 24, at 3 P.M. ET. It will be 140 character conversations on men, domestic violence, engagement, silence, masculinity and rage.
Read on...
ACLU Seeks Accountability for Police Violation of the Rights of Domestic Violence Victims
In 2008, 66 year old Baerbel Roznowski sought a protection order to
keep herself safe from her estranged boyfriend, Chan Kim, who had a
history of violence. A court issued the order, which said that Kim must
stay away from Roznowski and her home and stop contacting her. The order
included instructions for law enforcement explaining that Kim did not
speak English well and would need an interpreter to fully understand
what was happening, and that Kim would likely react violently against
Roznowski when he received news that they would be separated.
Unfortunately, the police officer who brought the order to Kim didn't
bother to read these instructions. He gave the order to him at
Roznowski's home, did not bring an interpreter, and left them together
without ensuring that they were safely separated. Just hours later,
Baerbel Roznowski was dead. Her boyfriend had stabbed her 18 times,
murdering her in her own home.
This tragic loss is just one example of a widespread and serious problem. Police in the United States frequently do not take domestic violence seriously. Gender-based violence, and domestic violence in particular, are often viewed as less serious crimes, with law enforcement believing that disputes can be resolved with no or minimal police intervention, even in situations where there is a protection order in place. This perception is more than just inaccurate; it is discriminatory against women, results in negligent behavior by law enforcement, and can end in serious injury, or even death.
Read on...
This tragic loss is just one example of a widespread and serious problem. Police in the United States frequently do not take domestic violence seriously. Gender-based violence, and domestic violence in particular, are often viewed as less serious crimes, with law enforcement believing that disputes can be resolved with no or minimal police intervention, even in situations where there is a protection order in place. This perception is more than just inaccurate; it is discriminatory against women, results in negligent behavior by law enforcement, and can end in serious injury, or even death.
Read on...
NYPD Policy Will Deter Reports from Domestic Violence Victims
As if being beaten within an inch of their lives wasn't enough, now
domestic violence victims can be jailed if they have an open warrant and
report their beating to the police.
The New York Post reports that NYPD cops are required to run criminal background checks on victims of domestic violence.
Women who report domestic violence are exposing themselves to arrest under a new NYPD directive that orders cops to run criminal checks on the accused and the accuser, The Post has learned.
The memo by Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski requires detectives to look at open warrants, complaint histories and even the driving records of both parties.
“You have no choice but to lock them up” if the victims turn out to have warrants, including for minor offenses like unpaid tickets, a police source said.
Read on....
The New York Post reports that NYPD cops are required to run criminal background checks on victims of domestic violence.
Women who report domestic violence are exposing themselves to arrest under a new NYPD directive that orders cops to run criminal checks on the accused and the accuser, The Post has learned.
The memo by Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski requires detectives to look at open warrants, complaint histories and even the driving records of both parties.
“You have no choice but to lock them up” if the victims turn out to have warrants, including for minor offenses like unpaid tickets, a police source said.
Read on....
Excusing killers for self-defence is now more political than judicial
The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision regarding Nicole Ryan – the Nova
Scotia woman who tried to hire a hit man to kill her husband – has
attracted considerable attention. This is, in part, because of the
dramatic nature of the facts and, in part, because it highlights the
troubling legal position of women who try to escape abusive
relationships. But the Ryan case also underscores the delicate
relationship between the courts and Parliament in the development of the
criminal law. The McLachlin Court’s deferential attitude to Parliament,
long apparent in its constitutional law decisions, is now just as plain
in its approach to criminal law.
Read on...
Read on...
Women who killed husbands ‘rarely gave a warning,’ and most weren’t abused, study finds
Conventional wisdom suggests that women usually kill their spouses in
self defence or as a final, desperate reaction to chronic battery, the
burning-bed syndrome that is sometimes cited as a defence in murder
trials. A new Canadian study, however, suggests that barely a quarter of
husband-killers are victims of domestic abuse, less than half suffer
from any identified psychological problem, and fewer still have had
trouble with police.
The majority of the slayings – perpetrated by knife, gun and strangulation — appear generally unheralded, suggests the analysis of 20 years of Quebec homicide files.
"Women rarely gave a warning before killing their mates,” concluded the study, co-authored by Dr. Dominique Bourget, a forensic psychiatrist at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. “In the vast majority of cases of women who killed their mates, there were very few indicators that might have signalled the risk and helped predict the violent, lethal behaviour.”
Women who end their partners’ lives have been an under-examined group, the researchers note, given they represent a minority of the total partner homicides. Almost 80% of the 738 spousal killings in Canada between 2000 and 2009 were committed by men, who the study said are also responsible almost exclusively for bloody massacres where children, as well as the partner, are murdered in one act.
Read on...
The majority of the slayings – perpetrated by knife, gun and strangulation — appear generally unheralded, suggests the analysis of 20 years of Quebec homicide files.
"Women rarely gave a warning before killing their mates,” concluded the study, co-authored by Dr. Dominique Bourget, a forensic psychiatrist at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. “In the vast majority of cases of women who killed their mates, there were very few indicators that might have signalled the risk and helped predict the violent, lethal behaviour.”
Women who end their partners’ lives have been an under-examined group, the researchers note, given they represent a minority of the total partner homicides. Almost 80% of the 738 spousal killings in Canada between 2000 and 2009 were committed by men, who the study said are also responsible almost exclusively for bloody massacres where children, as well as the partner, are murdered in one act.
Read on...
The Poverty of Domestic Violence
More women are turning to shelters, and the jobs crisis is part of the problem.
In late April, the Police Executive Research Forum released a new survey finding that police officers are encountering more cases of domestic violence as the economy continues to struggle. In 2010, 40 percent of the agencies in the survey reported an increase in domestic violence calls; this year, that number has risen to 56 percent. Numbers from women’s shelters, released by the Mary Kay Foundation, are even more alarming. 78 percent of shelters have seen a rise in the numbers of women seeking help, and 58 percent report that the abuse they are seeing has become more violent.
These numbers seem shocking, but in fact, we’ve known about the connection between abuse, economic stress and poverty for a very long time. But it’s rarely covered by media. I’d argue that this is in part because doing so requires us to stop adhering to prescribed boundaries – “economic issues” versus “women’s issues,” psychology versus politics – and to start making connections.
Read on...
In late April, the Police Executive Research Forum released a new survey finding that police officers are encountering more cases of domestic violence as the economy continues to struggle. In 2010, 40 percent of the agencies in the survey reported an increase in domestic violence calls; this year, that number has risen to 56 percent. Numbers from women’s shelters, released by the Mary Kay Foundation, are even more alarming. 78 percent of shelters have seen a rise in the numbers of women seeking help, and 58 percent report that the abuse they are seeing has become more violent.
These numbers seem shocking, but in fact, we’ve known about the connection between abuse, economic stress and poverty for a very long time. But it’s rarely covered by media. I’d argue that this is in part because doing so requires us to stop adhering to prescribed boundaries – “economic issues” versus “women’s issues,” psychology versus politics – and to start making connections.
Read on...
Domestic violence costs Canadians $6.9 billion a year: Study
VANCOUVER — The aftermath of abusive relationships is costing Canadians an estimated $6.9 billion a year, according to new research out of the University of British Columbia.
The study, published in a recent issue of Canadian Public Policy, found that women who have ended relationships involving "intimate partner violence" continue to face persistent health issues, legal troubles and economic burdens, totalling $13,162 annually per woman — a cost spread across private and public domains.
The assumption has always been that when a woman leaves an abusive relationship "things ought to get better," said the lead researcher, UBC nursing Prof. Colleen Varcoe. "But we didn't know that."
It turns out that many consequences continue to plague abused women well after their relationships are over, disrupting their own lives, but also straining public coffers.
The other side of the story on domestic abuse
Remarkably, a PhD student in Criminology at the University of Toronto, Alexandra Lysova, has been awarded one of 14 2011 scholarships from the prestigious Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
I say "remarkably" not because Ms. Lysova herself is unworthy -on the contrary -but because of the nature of her research project. Of which more anon.
According to the Foundation's spokesperson, "The Trudeau Foundation rewards excellence [in the humanities and social sciences] and provides young researchers with the best conditions to ground their work in the real world."
In academia, for ideological reasons, there have always been, and continue to be, areas where "the real world" makes an uncomfortable fit with sacred myths based in theory, not evidence. One such theory is that in domestic violence -or "intimate partner violence (IPV)," as it is now called -women always are either passive victims of male aggression or violent only in self-defence. This myth has so permeated the academy, social service agencies, charities, schools, the police and the legal system, that the truth about the "real life" of intimate partners caught up in dysfunctional scenarios has been ignored, suppressed or attacked to the point that most researchers stay far away from it.
Alexandra is a PhD student at the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies. Tom
Domestic Violence: A Pre-Existing Condition?
By Amy Goodman
March is Women’s History Month, recognizing women’s central role in society. Unfortunately, violence against women is epidemic in the United States and around the world.
Domestic violence is on the minds of many now, as reports published by The New York Times implicate New York Gov. David Paterson in an alleged attempt to influence a domestic violence case against one of his top aides. The Times reports, based in part on unnamed sources, say that the Paterson aide, David W. Johnson, attacked his girlfriend on Halloween night, Oct. 31, 2009, “choking her, smashing her into a mirrored dresser and preventing her from calling for help.” New York state police from the governor’s personal protection detail contacted the victim, despite having no jurisdiction. Then the governor himself intervened, the Times alleges, asking two aides to contact the victim and to arrange a phone call between him and the victim. The call occurred on Feb. 7 of this year, the night before the victim was to appear in court to request an order of protection from Johnson. She did not appear in court, and the case was dismissed. After the exposé, the governor ended his bid for election and suspended Johnson without pay.
Denise O’Donnell, Paterson’s deputy secretary for public safety and commissioner of the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services, resigned last week, saying, “The behavior alleged here is the antithesis of what many of us have spent our entire careers working to build—a legal system that protects victims of domestic violence and brings offenders to justice.” The National Organization for Women, a longtime ally of Paterson, has called on him to resign.
Tiger's Best Reason To Lie
If he admits she hit him, she could end up in jail, whether he likes it or not.
In his defensive half-apology yesterday, Tiger Woods went out of his way to turn his wife, Elin Nordegren, into the heroine of his latest adventure. The "rumors" that she scratched up his face and smashed the rear window of his Escalade were "malicious" and "false," he said. In fact, she "acted courageously when she saw I was hurt." Should we believe him?News reports have mentioned the big, obvious reason why Woods would want to erase the image of his wife in a jealous rage wielding a golf club. His endorsement deals, reportedly worth billions, depend on his reputation as a "boring" guy, as he likes to call himself, a family man with a wife and two kids and no bouncy, boozy mistress or other tabloid bait in his life. But there is another less obvious reason for Woods to lie (if that's what he's doing): Because of Florida's domestic-violence laws, admitting to the police that Nordegren in any way harmed him would virtually guarantee that the glamorous Elin would be led out of their mansion in handcuffs, even if he protested it.
Read on...
Does anyone know? Is Tiger obligated to speak to the police? Does he have the right to remain silent? Tom
Cover Girl or Bad Girl: How the Media Blew the Rihanna Story
By Andy Wright, AlterNet. Posted March 24, 2009.
The media frenzy that followed Rihanna's assault was predictably crass and damaging to domestic violence victims.
When news broke that 19-year-old R&B artist Chris Brown had been arrested by Los Angeles police Feb. 8 for allegedly attacking a woman in his car, the saga that unfolded was as predictable as a track on Billboard's Top 10.
As speculated, the woman was revealed to be his pop-star girlfriend, Rihanna. On Feb. 19, a photograph of the star's face covered in bruises was leaked and posted on gossip site TMZ.com and then reproduced across the Web. And the media frenzy that followed was predictably crass.
When Jane Velez-Mitchell writes on CNN.com, "Unfortunately, despite her incredible looks and talent, I think she is now the poster child for battered woman's syndrome," she neatly sums up one of the most maddening angles that much of the coverage adopted: Who would expect the poster child of battered women's syndrome to have such "incredible looks?" Domestic abuse, Velez-Mitchell intimates, is one of those hardships visited upon the less shiny.
Read on...
The media frenzy that followed Rihanna's assault was predictably crass and damaging to domestic violence victims.
When news broke that 19-year-old R&B artist Chris Brown had been arrested by Los Angeles police Feb. 8 for allegedly attacking a woman in his car, the saga that unfolded was as predictable as a track on Billboard's Top 10.
As speculated, the woman was revealed to be his pop-star girlfriend, Rihanna. On Feb. 19, a photograph of the star's face covered in bruises was leaked and posted on gossip site TMZ.com and then reproduced across the Web. And the media frenzy that followed was predictably crass.
When Jane Velez-Mitchell writes on CNN.com, "Unfortunately, despite her incredible looks and talent, I think she is now the poster child for battered woman's syndrome," she neatly sums up one of the most maddening angles that much of the coverage adopted: Who would expect the poster child of battered women's syndrome to have such "incredible looks?" Domestic abuse, Velez-Mitchell intimates, is one of those hardships visited upon the less shiny.
Read on...
Like Rihanna, I Returned to an Abuser
By Lea Lane, Huffington Post. Posted March 13, 2009.
On average, it takes six attempts before a woman leaves an abusive relationship. How could I have accepted the unacceptable? Judge for yourself.
Battered singer Rihanna has returned to her boyfriend, the angelic-faced hip-hop singer, Chris Brown. Young, beautiful, talented and rich, they seemed to be living a fairy tale life. Except for her being beaten, punched, choked and bitten by him.
Rihanna wants to stay and work it out. On average, it takes six attempts before a woman actually leaves an abusive relationship. According to statistics quoted on CBS yesterday, one in every four women at some point in her life is a victim of domestic violence, and this abuse results in approximately 1,300 deaths a year.
Read on...
On average, it takes six attempts before a woman leaves an abusive relationship. How could I have accepted the unacceptable? Judge for yourself.
Battered singer Rihanna has returned to her boyfriend, the angelic-faced hip-hop singer, Chris Brown. Young, beautiful, talented and rich, they seemed to be living a fairy tale life. Except for her being beaten, punched, choked and bitten by him.
Rihanna wants to stay and work it out. On average, it takes six attempts before a woman actually leaves an abusive relationship. According to statistics quoted on CBS yesterday, one in every four women at some point in her life is a victim of domestic violence, and this abuse results in approximately 1,300 deaths a year.
Read on...
Women's Day Marks Crisis of Poverty, Violence for Some
NEW DELHI - Indian activists marked International Women's Day on Sunday by protesting over a spate of violent attacks launched on women by religious extremists in the name of "moral policing."
A collective formed by residents in Bangalore, in India's south, met in parks and open areas where young Hindu extremists have targeted women for wearing jeans, or being seen in public with men.
While women from Australia to Liberia gathered to hail achievements and to campaign on issues such as work equality, voting rights and abortion access, there was little to celebrate for the female population in many parts of the world.
Read on...
A collective formed by residents in Bangalore, in India's south, met in parks and open areas where young Hindu extremists have targeted women for wearing jeans, or being seen in public with men.
While women from Australia to Liberia gathered to hail achievements and to campaign on issues such as work equality, voting rights and abortion access, there was little to celebrate for the female population in many parts of the world.
Read on...
Domestic Violence: "Why Doesn't She Leave?" Is the Wrong Question to Ask
By Amanda Marcotte, Pandagon. Posted March 4, 2009.
Abusers often taunt their victims with just this question, because they grasp the psychological power and the self-esteem erosion behind it.
Confession: Every time I see a feminist write about the reasons women don't leave abusers, and they focus to financial constraints and the physical ability to leave to the exclusion of all other factors, I flinch. I flinch, though I've been guilty of this myself. It's just such an easy, obvious way to get sympathy for women who have very little sympathy in the public, who tend to share 51-100% of the blame for the beatings that they avoid and wish deeply didn't happen. You want to get the question off, "Why doesn't she leave?" and onto the one that people hate asking, "Why does he beat her?", and focusing on the most helpless of cases is the quickest, easiest way to do that. But what it does, I realize, is separates "good" victims who deserve our sympathy from "bad" victims who deserve to carry 51-100% of the blame. You see the same effect when it comes to rape -- the public offers its sympathy to the woman who was wearing a potato sack and a stranger jumps out of the bushes, and we do so in part so we can blame other women for raping themselves by being, and you know the drill, sexually active before, wearing that, stupid enough to drink around men, willing to go out with men she should have known were rapists -- name your "date rape/gray rape" cliches that take the heat off calling it what it is, which is rape.
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