Women's Views on News |
| New programme takes on perpetrators Posted: 24 Feb 2016 09:30 AM PST
To reduce the number of domestic abuse victims, perpetrators must be challenged to change their behaviour, say specialist charities and three leading Police and Crime Commissioners. Two women die a week as a result of domestic homicide, and 100,000 people are at high risk of being murdered or seriously harmed every year, but less than 1 per cent of the perpetrators receive any specialist intervention to ensure they change their behaviour. There has been and is a failure to respond to perpetrators coherently – or in many respond cases at all. The response to domestic abuse in the UK has always focused on expecting the victim to leave and start a new life in a new community, an action which causes major disruption and takes them away from their support network of family and friends. Often the perpetrator is left to continue their life as normal and then frequently repeats the same behaviour with new partners, creating more victims. Providing an extensive system of support for victims and their children is essential, but on its own it will not stop domestic abuse. But if long-term change in the prevalence and patterns of domestic abuse is to be achieved, perpetrators must be challenged to stop. So on the grounds that we need to develop effective interventions for perpetrators that minimise repeat and serial patterns of abuse and complement support for victims and children, leading social sector organisations, Respect, SafeLives and Social Finance, are now working with Police and Crime Commissioners and local authorities in Sussex, Essex and South Wales and the Lloyds Bank Foundation – and launched the Drive project. Drive aims to develop and evaluate a new approach to hold the perpetrators of domestic abuse to account in order to keep the victims and children safe. Starting in April 2016 a pilot project will test an innovative approach to challenge the behaviour of perpetrators, and co-ordinate the response they receive across all agencies. For the first time in England and Wales, Drive's case managers in the three areas will work with some of the most dangerous perpetrators, on a one-to-one basis, to reduce their abusive behaviour. Drive is funded by Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, the Tudor Trust and the Police and Crime Commissioners in Sussex, Essex and South Wales. The project has also benefited from local authority support. Commenting on the initiative, Diana Barran, chief executive of SafeLives, said: "SafeLives is committed to reducing the number of victims of domestic abuse – this is not possible without reducing the number of perpetrators. "The victims we work with have asked us why they are always the ones expected to change – and why too often the perpetrator is left free to continue their abuse of them and others. "We want to help victims today and reduce the number of victims of tomorrow. "We are evidence-led and will therefore be testing this intervention in three areas, with the aim of proving it could work and be rolled out nationally." Jo Todd, CEO of Respect, said: "Keeping families safe from domestic violence requires a focus on the perpetrator, a sustained focus on both reducing further harm and changing behaviour. "When we fail to do this effectively, it allows perpetrators to continue to abuse from one relationship to the next." And as Emily Bolton, director of Social Finance's Impact Incubator, pointed out: "We work hard to tackle many of the most serious social issues we face in the UK. "But we cannot break the cycles of vulnerability and harm if we do not properly address the causes of domestic abuse. "To really improve the life chances of the children and victims, we must develop a national and coordinated response to deliver long-term change in perpetrators' behaviour." Nick Alston, Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex, said: "All too often, when an individual has been subject to domestic abuse, the question is asked 'why didn't they try to leave their situation'. "However it is the behaviour of the perpetrators of domestic abuse that must be questioned and challenged as they are at the root of this crime." But, as Sandra Horley, chief executive of Refuge, told the Guardian: "Domestic violence is not about the actions of individual men, it is a social problem. "Helping a handful of perpetrators – it is expected that 900 offenders will be asked to take part in the Drive programme over the next three years – will do nothing to address the root causes of domestic violence. "Domestic violence is all about power and control. It is not about managing the perpetrator's anger or his drinking problems – it is about addressing his need to control 'his woman'." "The perpetrator is the problem," domestic abuse victim Rachel Williams said, "Why is it that the victim is the one who has to move and seek refuge, when the perpetrator carries on as normal? "If we don’t deal with them – then they just move on to the next victim," she continued, "We have to at least try and change their mindsets."  |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2016 09:00 AM PST
In the UK today, a woman who ends her own pregnancy can be sent to prison for life under laws created before women could even vote. Current laws do not prevent the vast majority of women ultimately accessing abortion care in the UK – with the exception of Northern Ireland – but they do compromise that care at many levels. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) launched the We Trust Women campaign recently to get abortion taken out of criminal law throughout the UK. Campaigners are calling for the current Victorian-era legislation, which threatens women with prison for ending their pregnancies, to be scrapped. They want instead a framework that puts women centre-stage, and trusts women to make their own decisions about their own pregnancies. Here are 5 reasons why we should take abortion out of criminal law and regulate it just like other clinical procedures: criminalising abortion denies women fundamental rights; women can be imprisoned for causing their own miscarriage; criminalising abortion deters doctors and compromises women's care; it is at odds with fundamental legal principles; and public opinion supports women's choice. Criminalising abortion denies women fundamental rights. In 2016, a woman cannot choose for herself to have an abortion. Our abortion laws are still underpinned by the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act (OAPA), which made it a crime punishable by like imprisonment for any woman to deliberately cause her own miscarriage. The 1967 Abortion Act did not get rid of the OAPA; it allows an abortion only when two doctors agree and certify that the woman wanting one meets certain criteria. And this 1967 Act has never been extended to include Northern Ireland. This campaign feels that women in every country in the UK should be trusted to make their own decisions about their own pregnancies. To compel a woman to endure pregnancy and childbirth unless doctors give her legal authorisation to have an abortion is to deny her the right to control her own body, plan her own family and determine her own life course. Women can be imprisoned for causing their own miscarriage. A woman who uses at home the abortion medication now widely available online can be sent to prison for life. The UK has one of the harshest penalties for self-induced abortion of any other country in Europe – with the exception of Ireland. Our neighbours in countries such as France and Sweden do not imprison women for causing their own abortions – and even in Poland, where abortion is highly restricted women cannot be prosecuted. Criminalising abortion deters doctors and compromises women's care. A doctor who provides safe abortion care to a woman who has requested it without the approval of a second doctor, or fails to provide Government officials with a certificate to show that the abortion was carried out on legal grounds, can be sent to prison. This threat of prosecution, unique to abortion, deters doctors from entering this field of women's healthcare. On occasion therefore women are unable to find a doctor willing or able to help them. Treatment can be delayed because doctors must comply with unnecessary laws that have no clinical benefit, and are open to perverse interpretation. Nurses and midwives who can provide highly skilled, complex care in other fields are excluded from offering straightforward abortion care to women who need it because the law permits only doctors to practice it. It is at odds with fundamental legal principles. The fact that abortion remains within criminal law sits at odds with other well-established legal principles that a person's body is their own. No-one can be compelled to undergo medical intervention against their will – including pregnant women whose foetus may die as a result. Life-saving organs cannot be taken from the dead body of someone who made clear they did not wish to donate, yet a living woman can be compelled to sustain a foetus against her will from the moment a fertilised egg implants in her womb. Public opinion supports women's choice. Public opinion on abortion is now more liberal than the law, with two-thirds of people believing that abortion should be allowed according to a woman's choice, compared to just over a third (37 per cent) 30 years ago. There are around 200,000 abortions a year in the UK and one in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime. Sexual health policy supports the provision of abortion as a back-up to contraceptive failure, and 98 per cent of abortions are funded by the NHS. Taking abortion out of criminal law will not change the numbers of women having abortions, but regulating it in the same way as any other healthcare procedure would be far more suited to the beliefs and values of our society today. It would be a statement that we trust women. It would recognise just how far we have come since 1861. Women should decide if, when and with whom they have children. We should trust women to make those choices. The campaign is supported by a range of women's rights groups, reproductive rights campaigners and professional bodies including the Royal College of Midwives, Women's Aid, Fawcett Society, Maternity Action, the British Society of Abortion Care Providers, Birthrights, Lawyers for Choice, End Violence Against Women, Equality Now, IPPF European Network, Voice for Choice, Southall Black Sisters, Alliance for Choice NI and Doctors for a Woman's Choice on Abortion. Join the We Trust Women campaign to decriminalise abortion today. Please write to your MP, MSP or MLA asking them to show they trust women by pushing for this Victorian-era law to be overturned. Specifically, you can ask them to call for a parliamentary inquiry into abortion law. Click here to find your MP, MSP or MLA and to see a template letter to send them.  |
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