SANCTUARY SCHEMES- MEDIA SILENCE ON MALE NEEDS

Just before Christmas, Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly MP, announced a £74 million scheme to provide extra support for victims of domestic violence in their own home (Link).

The money is to be made available via local authorities who are to provide Sanctuary Schemes for their residents. Currently, 120 local authorities offer sanctuary schemes. This scheme includes providing a safe room (sanctuary) within a home fitted with safety measures, including the; installation of alarms, mortice locks, security lights and CCTV.

In addition, the addresses with a safe room will be flagged on police computers to ensure a swift response if an incident occurs.

Ignoring the argument that this one of the usual gimmicks from the government that gained the headlines for a couple of days and then disappears into the ether, there is one clear thing missing – the mention of male victims of domestic violence by the media covering this story.

Home Office statistics (Link) show that of those who are victims of domestic violence 60% will be women, 40% will be men and the government’s press release whilst mentioning women (‘to support women’s choices’), is largely gender-neutral. Yet, the media coverage spins the story into a gender-specific story, painting the issue of domestic violence as one that only affects women.

BBC News online for example (Link) is headlined “Abused Women offered safe rooms” and the only links to other sites are for Refuge and Women’s Aid, nothing for The ManKind Initiative which helps male victims of domestic violence. The article throughout is women-centric not helped by the usual and by default biased comments from the Minster for Women and Equalities, Meg Munn MP.

The story and the BBC coverage was challenged on their own blog (“Have Your Say”) on the subject, including comments by women. The very first comment on the blog was from a Rachel Miller who asked, “Will the installation of ‘safe rooms’ also be made available to men who are victims of domestic violence?”

The Daily Telegraph (Link), not for the first time, has  treated the issue in a one-sided fashion. Their headline in the story written by Nicole Martin and Laura Clout was “Safe rooms plan for houses of battered women” and The Evening Standard ran the story un-bylined under the heading “Panic rooms for abused women”.

The Daily Telegraph has plenty of ‘previous’ on this issue. On 8th December 2006, they ran a story by Joshua Rozenberg under the headline "Remorse : no way out for wife-beaters" (Link) and on 12th April 2006, they ran a front-page story by James Burleigh under the headline “Wife beaters who say sorry to go free” (Link) when both stories were about domestic violence generally. The latter article actually stated the 60%:40% Home Office statistics.

This lazy journalism and sub-editing reinforces the one-sided coverage and attention on the subject of domestic violence. This percolates through to the lack of attention that male victims of domestic violence receive from the public authorities ranging from the police, local councils and law-makers.

It is an issue worth complaining to the media or individual journalists about else the lack of balance will continue.

Comments

[David Mortimer]

Are you aware the BV225 Domestic Violence definitions discriminate against male victims of domestic violence and their children ?

http://www.auditcommission.gov.uk/performance/Downloads/ACBestValuePerformanceindicators.pdf

Definition

2. 'Places' means the number of rooms providing bed spaces for a woman and her children. Rooms not normally designated, as bedrooms should not be counted towards the total. 'Refuge' means emergency accommodation for women and children who have been referred for help having experienced threats to their physical safety. It must provide help, advice and advocacy support as well as being part of an integrated local approach involving partnership with other local and statutory bodies. Calculate 'Local Authority population' using the latest ONS mid-year estimates.

7. A sanctuary type scheme must provide security measures to allow the woman to remain in her home where she chooses to do so, where safety can be guaranteed and the violent partner no longer lives within the home. It must be available across tenures where the landlord of a property has given permission for the work to be carried out. It must consist of additional security to any main entrance doors to the accommodation and locks to any vulnerable windows. Wherever possible it must provide a safe room in the home secured with a solid core door and additional locks. It is essential that this service is only provided where it is the clear choice of the victim. The scheme should be implemented through partnership with the police and/or the voluntary sector that could provide supplementary support. It may be provided directly by the local authority or through a third party funded as part of the local authority's homelessness prevention work through grants that may be available for crime reduction initiatives.

8. The indicator is met if there is a percentage reduction in homelessness acceptances due to domestic violence. Acceptances who were previously homeless in another local authority area should not be included. Reductions achieved in preventing repeat homelessness should be clearly linked to positive measures adopted to provide genuine alternatives for women to either remain in their own home or be placed in alternative accommodation, removing the need to become homeless. Alternative accommodation may be secured by arranging a reciprocal property with another social landlord, or a safe management transfer. Any options or measures to prevent repeat homelessness must only be taken with the full consent of the victim of domestic violence.

[BEV]

Agreed, the media coverage totally slants this in an inaccurate, sexist manner as usual...

But the truth is, women no inflict more DV than men now!

http://tinyurl.com/ysnwhb

[BEV]

^ Oops:

...women now inflict more DV than men...