Some news stories about domestic violence

From earlier this year, another IPCC report on how police are failing the victims of domestic violence. To my shame, this is my local police force. Sort yourselves out, people.

Love it or hate it, the Men's Football World Cup is almost upon us. Apparently reported incidents of domestic violence increased by around 30% on England match days during the last World Cup. The Guardian has a brief story on how police are keeping an eye on persistent offenders this time around. Hopefully they're not going to be too inept about it.

Following up from that, in West Yorkshire a campaign has been launched to target domestic violence perpetrators during the World Cup. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with well-meaning campaigns, it perpetuates at least as many harmful stereotypes as it challenges. The Curvature has analysis here. I only wish to add that the choice to show disembodied backs of people in the posters is objectifying and dehumanising, which is very problematic IMO. Thankfully, we have Women's Aid and Grey London to show us how it's done. Good going, people, and thanks to the poster men for getting involved.

North of England, you are failing at tackling domestic violence on the evidence of this post. Please do something about this before I fade away from the shame of it.

Exploring some trends on how domestic violence is covered in the news, Fannie's Room picks on a story about a murdered woman that heavily hints she deserved to be killed. I have this game with reporting of domestic violence. Every time an article implies a woman is to blame, as illustrated here, I score a point. Every time the headline about the serious assault or murder of a woman is just that the guy accused denies the attack (hey, he denies it, it's ok everyone!), I score another. I have a lot of points right now. I'm hoping they make prizes or something. I suspect not though.

Evil Giraffe
I'm going to share with you four stories of women who experienced domestic violence, with names changed. Two are from Refuge's own literature, which I received in their fundraising pack. The third and fourth are contained in an extract from the chapter I quoted recently in The Equality Illusion by Kat Banyard. There is some description of violent physical and sexual abuse. You can choose not to read any of this, and that's fine. The people living these stories didn't get to choose not to have these things happen. This is why there should be help for anyone who suffers domestic violence, and why it's so shocking how poorly funded any help services are. Please do something today to help change that.

Meet Catherine, Simone, Elaine and Eleanor )

Evil Giraffe
The following is an extract from Kat Banyard's The Equality Illusion, from the fourth chapter, entitled 'Tough Love'. For context, a young woman has just been describing the emotional, physical and sexual abuse she comes home to each night from her boyfriend. I've tried to select an extract that conveys some good points but won't be too difficult to read for people who have been through similar experiences, so there's nothing especially graphic here. I'm not always going to stay away from graphic description, because it has its place, and I will give warnings when it appears. This piece discusses domestic violence and rape.

Tough Love )

Evil Giraffe
It's soapbox time again. Part of what I want to do here is tackle some commonly held misconceptions that get in the way of preventing domestic and sexual violence and limit the support that's available to those who experience and commit it. I may be stating the obvious, preaching to the converted. If you know all this stuff, good for you. I didn't always.

Why Don't Women Just Leave? )

Evil Giraffe

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Evil Giraffe

January 2011

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