ACPO REPORT IGNORES MALE VICTIMS BUT IS IT THEIR FAULT?

What is so worryingly predictable (issues of common law aside) about the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) recommendations to the Home Office was the lack of mention about male victims of domestic violence.

The proposals (5th down and beware may slow your computer) formed the ACPO response to the violence against Women and Girls strategy, a long-running Government consultation that completely and purposely ignores male victims of domestic violence and rape because those people don't matter. New powers were asked for such as a 'right to know' about violent men when a woman takes a new partner and a new criminal offence based on a body of evidence rather than a specific crime.

 Of course, any new powers will have to be applied to both female and male perpetrators and whilst the response only referred to women, what was noticeable was the gender neutral quotes given by Chief Constable Brian Moore who is in charge of this area for ACPO. The Guardian, Telegraph, BBC, Daily Mail (with debate) and others in their usual 'balanced' way only spun it about being against male perpetrators but Brian Moore seemed careful to avoid gender stereotyping too much (he does just mention women in the Telegraph). The politicians were happy of course just to mention female victims.

One wonders though that if the Government had asked ACPO to look at this not under the guise of Violence Against Women and CHildren but just under violence against people ina domestic relationship, whether the report would have mentioned men or would have been gender neutral. The impression is that with glacial recognition that men can also be victims, it may be the case that it would have been. Perhaps I am being too optimistic...

Pity of course, the Equalities Commission have no shame in just talking about female victims.

Comments

[John Kimble]

It was rather depressing reading the media spin on this today. Some papers even used the term "wife-beaters" in the headlines thus exlcuding not only all homosexuals, and heterosexual men, but also unmarried women too, not to mention all the child victims/perportrators of domestic violence.

[Groan]

ACPO guidance does toe the feminist line. However officers find it difficult to deal with cases of male victims partly due to stereotyping but also because of the dearth of services to refer to. It is a chicken and egg situation. One thing that has helped is the development of independent advocate services which generally will accept male referrals unlike many women's Aid or Refuge branches. Public services find it hard to recognise a problem unless there is a referral route ,otherwise you are left with a problem with no solution. Hence DV remained invisible until Erin Pizzey set up the first refuge. This is why the small services that struggle into existence need support.