The Policing of Girls in Everyday Life

Deconstructing Masculinity and Femininity

War and Rape

The Representation of the Body in British Rape Trials

The Decriminalisation of Domestic Violence

Will Boys Be Left On The Shelf?

Television Research and Domestic Violence

Combating Violence Against Women

Marital Rape and Marital Violence

Health, Rape and Domestic Violence

Sexuality and Citizenship Education

Young Female Asylum Seekers

Sue Lees 1999

INTRODUCTION

There has been increasing concern internationally about violence against women. In 1986 the European Parliament endorsed a wide-ranging report submitted by its Women's Committee on all aspects of violence against women (European Parliament 1986). In the United National Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women in 1994 violence against women is defined as

any act of gender based violence that results in, or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.

The UN adopted a Global Platform for Action to improve the status of women world wide. One of the commitments made by the UK government was to 'take action to tackle the causes of violence against women... including legislation against perpetrators, improving police and other agencies' responses and raising awareness of the issue'.

In the 1970s Britain was one of the first countries to set up crisis centres and refuges where women could escape from violence by their partners, husbands or fathers. In 1997-1998 there were 54,000 women and children staying in 240 refuges in England and a further 145,000 sought advice and help from Women's Aid services (Women's Aid Annual Report 1998). There is an urgent need for funding for the Women's Aid National Helpline to enable the development of existing services to respond to the continuing increase in calls from women survivors. A number of reports including one from the British Medical Association (1998) estimated that as many as 1 in 4 women may be affected by domestic violence.

Feminists have also been involved in a long-running campaign to give women more protection from the police, the courts and the law. During the 1990s, important changes in police practices and a changed climate of opinion had encouraged more women to report sexual and domestic violence to the police. Policies on sexual harassment have been developed by employers in both the public and private sectors . Over 200 multi-agency domestic violence forums have been set up. In 1995 the Labour Party launched their first consultation document on violence against women entitled Peace at Home where they optimistically stated that they planned to eliminate domestic and sexual violence. However there is an absence of a coherent national strategy to tackle domestic violence.

In the 1990s the harmful effects of witnessing domestic violence on children has increasingly been recognised and the links between child abuse and abuse of women documented ( see Mullender & Morley 1995, Anderson 1997, Hester & Pearson 1998). The setting up and expansion of ChildLine, a helpline which children can ring anonymously, has revealed the widespread incidence of such abuse. An analysis of calls made to ChildLine (Epstein & Keep 1995) indicated how children describe feeling responsible both for causing the violence and for preventing it and this in turn engenders an overwhelming sense of helplessness. Over a third of the sample had been physically abused themselves.

In the 1990s the harmful effects of witnessing domestic violence on children has increasingly been recognised and the links between child abuse and abuse of women documented ( see Mullender & Morley 1995, Anderson 1997, Hester & Pearson 1998). The setting up and expansion of ChildLine, a helpline which children can ring anonymously, has revealed the widespread incidence of such abuse. An analysis of calls made to ChildLine (Epstein & Keep 1995) indicated how children describe feeling responsible both for causing the violence and for preventing it and this in turn engenders an overwhelming sense of helplessness. Over a third of the sample had been physically abused themselves.

Domestic abuse in pregnancy is also gradually becoming more recognised. Relatively few women die during pregnancy or childbirth. At the Government's request the latest Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths which reports every three years looked at public health matters which endanger women's lives in pregnancy as well as the medical problems that arise. It found that six women in the past three years died as a result of domestic violence and thousands more were injured. Studies have shown that around a third of domestic violence starts in pregnancy perhaps because the man perceives the woman to be withdrawing from him or because her condition leads to arguments. The report noted the failures of some junior medical, obstretic or accident or emergency staff, GPs and midwives to diagnose dangerous conditions or refer the women to specialists who would spot them. ( Guardian November 24, 1998). The Royal College of Midwives produced guidelines to help midwives recognise and deal with it.

The failure of the courts to protect children both within abusive relationships and after divorce or separation has been documented (see Mullender & Morley 1993, Hester & Radford 1996, Radford et al 1997). In a study in Northern Ireland (Evason1982) 72 per cent of women interviewed felt that the domestic violence they had experienced had adversely affected their children. This included children suffering 'mentally', such as being nervous and having nightmares. In a survey by NCH Action for Children of 108 women who had experienced domestic violence ( who had 246 children between them) 91 per cent believed the violence had a detrimental impact of some sort on their children in the short term. 86 per cent of mothers considered that these effects had continued in the longer term when they were growing up into adolescence. In a study of refuge provision ( Hague et al 1996) 98 per cent of child refuge workers felt that children experienced problems and difficulties as a direct result of living with domestic violence.. All of the 100 women in Mama's (1996) study of black women experiencing domestic violence reported being aware that their partner's violence was having a negative effect on their children.

Child abuse has also become an issue of public concern and a key media issue (see Skidmore 1995) and it is now illegal for British subjects to have sexual relations with children under 16 when abroad. UNICEF calculates that trafficking in children is the third most lucrative illegal trade in the world, after drugs and weapons and is a multi-billion dollar business. It is estimated that 5,000 children work in the sex trade in Britain and are the victims of family abuse, career paedophiles, prostitution, sex tourism and pornography. It is also estimated that there are 30,000 paedophiles organised in groups throughout Europe linked through the Internet and on the mailing lists of pornographic magazines. Prostitution of young women under 16 is a question of growing concern ( see Kelly et al 1995, Barrett 1997, Barnardos 1998).

The Family Law Reform Act (1998) brought into force 'no fault' divorce and mediation arrangements. It has replaced all grounds for divorce with the sole one of 'irretrievable breakdown of marriage'. There is a compulsory waiting period of 12 months (18 months where there are children under 16 or when one party asks for more time). Instead of each party seeking independent legal advice and instructing a solicitor to act on their behalf, couples seeking divorce will be expected to reach an agreement, with the help of a mediator. Arrangements for children, property and finance are expected to be agreed in this period, before a decree nisi ( the first legal stage of divorce) will be granted. The new measures are aimed at making divorce less acrimonious, cutting legal costs and finding better arrangements for children. However, there is evidence that domestic violence and child abuse are being swept under the carpet and that the effect of replacing legal representation with mediation is placing women and children subjected to violence, even more at risk..

With two out of five marriages ending in divorce , England has the highest divorce rate in Europe. The divorce rate has risen sixfold since 1961. Two thirds of divorces are initiated by women. This has led to a dramatic increase in the numbers of single parents, predominantly of mothers. Research on the impact of divorce and separation on children has generated useful knowledge ( Rowntree Foundation Fact Sheet 1998). A comprehensive review of over 200 research reports finds that parental separation is most usefully viewed as part of a process beginning before divorce and continuing long after. Support may be needed and intervention required at any stage to reduce the detrimental effects on children, but the long term adverse effects apply only to a minority of children experiencing separation of their parents. The age of separation does not appear to be relevant an boys are not more adversely affected than girls.

However the increase in divorce in a society that has been dominated by small conjugal households has radical consequences. It is not just a question of the consequences of divorce alone but of divorce combined with the mother's custody of children. It creates small or solitary households and leaves poverty in its wake (Mitchell & Goody 1996). Children whose parents divorce are therefore twice as likely to be in poverty and poor housing , to have behavioural problems and to be twice as prone to drug use in adolescence..

Children

The development of legal policy on custody has not been based on competing rights as much as on the notion of the welfare of the child. Until the Legitimacy Act of 1991 mothers of illegitimate children had automatic rights of guardianship and the right to sole custody. This could be shared if the father applied to a court under the 1987 Guardianship Law Reform Act. The rights of the mother only were enshrined in Children Act 1975 although in practice mothers were given full responsibility over the illegitimate children from 1841. Rights not regarded as rewards but as duties.

A demand grew in the 1970s and 1980s for the rights of fathers. The fathers rights' movement ( Dads After Divorce, the UK Men's Movement, Families Need Fathers.) is an example of a counter rights claim which gained legitimacy by claiming to be aimed at protecting children's welfare. Although some fathers have the best intentions, some of the tactics used by this movement appeared to be more directed at harassing the men's partners rather than protecting the children's welfare. Studies of fatherhood in 1980's have not shown that men are taking a serious role in caring for children and some studies after divorce have argued that joint custody can damage children. One way out of the rights dispute is the adoption of primary care principle. This has the benefit of not excluding men, but also reflects the reality of child care as it is presently organised.

The Children Act 1989

The Children's Act 1989 abolished the notions of custody and access for children and replaced them with the concept of parental responsibility (see Radford et al 1997). On divorce there is no longer an automatic court hearing over visiting arrangements and where the child will live. Where it is necessary the parent can apply to the court for a Section 8 Children Act order to determine the arrangements. There is no requirement under the Children Act to consider the effects of the decisions on women escaping domestic violence. Instead there is an underlying emphasis in the Act that both parents will behave reasonably and should therefore both be involved with the child as much as is possible. It also carries the new principle of 'no order' which is in effect unofficial joint custody of children with no legal indication of who the child is supposed to be living with. The Children Act also allows parents with parental responsibility to act alone in meeting that responsibility as they see fit without consulting one another, if there is no court order in favour of the carer. Therefore, it is lawful for fathers who have been or are still married but have obtained parental responsibility (whether through the courts or by previous agreement with the mother), or other people with parental responsibility to abduct a child in the UK, unless there is a court order in favour of the mother or whoever is caring for the children. If there is an order in favour of the mother, other people with parental responsibility 'must not exercise that parental responsibility incompatibly with that order'.

A last minute amendment to the Family Law Act 1996 introduced a responsibility for mediators to screen for domestic violence so that safety and fairness in the process of mediation can be ensured. But no agreement was reached over about how such mediation should be done. Fewer women are able to gain help with costs of domestic violence injunctions and divorce. They may face legal fees of around a thousand pounds.

Research between 1992 - 95 of contact arrangements (made by 53 women recently separated from violent men and the work of 77 professionals and advisers involved with contact cases) found that screening for abuse was rarely done. Many states in the US, Canada, and Australia have ruled out mediation as an option where there has been domestic violence as the safety of women and children cannot be ensured.

The Children Act 1989 aimed to improve social service practice, increase partnership with parents and place greater emphasis on preventive work. The welfare of the child, parental responsibilities and reasonableness rather than rights and adversarial conflict were emphasised. However there was a failure to recognise that male violence is a primary reason for and often continues after relationship breakdown. Nor was it recognised that abusive men often abuse children too and even if this does not occur, witnessing violence is in itself damaging (Morley & Mullender 1994, Radford, L. et al 1997).

The Children Act 1989 should be amended to include a rebuttable presumption of a history of violence to either the child or the other parent. When considering what is in the child's best interests, the child's wishes and well-being should always be taken into consideration but safety should be the main consideration. Government guidance on good practice regarding domestic violence should also be drawn up to accompany the Children Act for use in all court proceedings under the Act. It will not always be known to the court that domestic violence is involved, and so any good practice guidelines should apply in all cases. This guidance should also highlight the need to support the parent who is willing to provide everyday care for the child and to ensure that court orders do not endanger the safety of that parent or set conditions which make it impossible for a parent to lead a normal life ( see Women's Aid Federations

It is clear that the criminal justice system is most at home in dealing with relations between strangers - where no other identities such as family roles can obstruct the process of criminalisation and the definition of the relationship between the parties as those of offender and victim. Where the relationship is between people who have some intimate relationship then the labelling of victim and offender becomes blurred and the notion of a private dispute - in which the 'victim' may be equally, if not indeed more, to blame than the 'offender', in which the victim, in rape or domestic violence 'brought it upon herself' - comes to predominate quite irrespective of what the criminal law and the rules of criminal procedure say.

The way the law treats murder by lovers of husbands (40 per cent of murders of women Home Office Statistics 1985-1993) which can be seen as the polar case of domestic violence, illustrates this. Around a hundred men kill their wives and partners every year compared to around 30 women killing husbands. The majority of these are found guilty not of murder( which carries a mandatory life sentence) but of manslaughter ( where the length of sentence is at the complete discretion of judges). The most common ground for commuting murder to manslaughter is diminished responsibility, for which, according to Section 2 of the Homicide Act (1957), the defendant must be shown to have suffered from an abnormality of mind arising from an injury, a sickness or a developmental problem which substantially impaired her or his responsibility at the time of the killing. Such a diagnosis must be supported by two psychiatrists. Even where there is a history of violence against the wife, sentences and many judges in their summing up show a sympathy with the men and a condoning of the violence - such offences are not regarded as a real crime rather a private matter that unfortunately 'went wrong' and in which a good deal of sympathy for the attacker is in order! Men who kill their wives are still sometimes not only given their freedom but are showered with sympathy by judges (see Radford, L.1993, Lees 1997b)....

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL CONTEXT

Domestic violence has been defined in various ways by different organisations. Women's Aid include the following range of behaviour in their definition of domestic violence:

• physical violence which can include slapping, burning, beating, kicking, biting, knife wounds - often leading to permanent injuries, and sometimes death

• sexual abuse, involving rape, forced sexual acts and sexual degradation

• emotional abuse, involving intimidation, bullying, constant criticism, saying she's worthless, fat or ugly, keeping her locked up, isolating her from friends and family; and threats, to harm her family, to take her children away, to kill her.

The Home Office in an inter-agency circular adopted the following definition as 'any form of physical, sexual or emotional abuse that takes place in the context of a close relationship'. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) policy statement observes that in most cases, the relationship will be between partners ( married, cohabiting or otherwise) or ex-partners. Another definition is provided by the British Crime Survey which focuses on violent incidents 'involving partners, ex-partners, household members and other relatives, irrespective of location'. However domestic violence has been shown statistically to be predominantly a phenomenon of woman abuse (Smith 1989).

A whole range of behaviours, not all inherently violent, are used by abusive men to control their 'women' within the family context. As well as physical violence, it can also include threats to maim or kill, sexual abuse and rape, destruction of property or pets, intimidation, manipulation, isolation, keeping women without money, being locked in, or locked out, being deprived of food, systematic criticism or belittling and using threats to harm children, or the removal of children, to frighten women and enforce compliance.

There appears to be deep ambivalence about recognising the prevalence of domestic violence, the extent of which is hard to calculate. As a Home Office study (Smith 1989) concluded 'by its intrinsic nature domestic violence is an elusive research topic: it takes place behind closed doors, is concealed from the public eye and is often unknown to anyone outside the immediate family'. We do know that it is very widespread. Analysis of the 1992 British Crime Survey suggests there are a minimum of half a million domestic violence incidents per year, 87 per cent of which are against women (Mirrlees-Black 1995). Nearly half the homicides in the UK are killed by a partner or ex partner. But official statistics reveal only the tip of the iceberg, partly because many women do not disclose or report violence through fear, shame, or self blame ( Women's Aid 1997).

There has been no national prevalence study in England, but a number of smaller scale studies suggest that domestic violence is widespread. A random sample survey of 571 women and 429 men in the London borough of Islington, London carried out by Mooney (1993) found that one in three women had been victims of violence over a lifetime and one in ten had reported an incident in the previous year. Dominy & Radford (1996) set up safety, health and information stands in indoor markers and shopping malls across Surrey, a predominantly rural area in the South of England in 1994 - 1995 and handed out self complete, anonymous questionnaires to women who passed by. Additionally 25 women who had experienced domestic violence were interviewed. A similar proportion to Mooney's survey, 30 per cent reported having experienced violence over their lifetime.

A major difficulty identified by Kelly (1988) is that many women do not recognise the violence but instead blame themselves. In her study of women subjected to violence (1988:139) Kelly found that of the 45 women who had been victims of rape, incest and domestic violence, 60 per cent 'did not define them as such at the time although half of those experiencing domestic violence did so as the abuse continued'. Naming involved 'making visible what was invisible, defining as unacceptable what was acceptable and insisting that what was naturalised is problematic'. When women did perceive male violence as a crime, they placed little reliance on the police to offer them effective protection. Similarly, in the Violence Against Women - Women Speak Out survey conducted in Wandsworth between September 1983 and August 1984, fewer than one quarter of the incidents of male violence experienced by the 314 women who participated were reported to the police. The reasons for not reporting given most often were that the women believed the police were not interested in 'routine' sexual and racial harassment and that they could not or would not take action; or they expected the police to be unpleasant or unsympathetic (Radford, J. 1987). The women in Kelly's survey had expressed very similar sentiments .

Hackney Safer Cities and the Children's Society commissioned a study to identify the prevalence and the costs to a local authority of responding to domestic violence (see Stanko et al 1997) .It was estimated that the prevalence of domestic violence to be one in nine women in Hackney in 1996. Examination of service provision ( social services, health and the police force) and an estimation of the prevalence of domestic violence. The overall cost to agencies in the borough was estimated as over £5 million in 1996. The cost to health services for injuries and psychological harm, excluding medication and hospitalisation, was £590,000 in Hackney and £189 million in Greater London. The costs for social services work was estimated at £2,360,000. The economic costs for individuals have never been calculated.

INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSES AND TRAINING NEEDS

Is domestic violence treated as a crime?

Over the past ten years, various home secretaries, the police, the CPS and the courts have all insisted that violent domestic assaults should be treated as seriously as crimes against strangers in the street. In practice, women subjected to violence are still given little protection and courts persist in treating offenders leniently. The myth that domestic assaults are not as serious as assaults by strangers is contested by the latest British Crime Survey (1996) which shows that on average domestic assaults have more serious consequences than non-domestic ones. 69 per cent of domestic assaults result in injuries compared with 41 per cent for assaults on strangers; 'trivial' domestic attacks are very rarely reported.

Research undertaken for the two-part television Dispatches Channel 4 documentary, Men Behaving Badly, shown in April 1998 investigated to what extent domestic violence is being treated as a crime. A detailed questionnaire which was distributed to police Domestic Violence Units, solicitors' offices, Women's Aid and other women's organisations and through personal contacts. 380 women participated in the survey: 100 of these were from women who had not reported the violence to the police, 100 from women who had reported the violence but not gone to court, and the remainder from women who had gone to court. About twenty of these, some of whom appeared on the documentary, were interviewed in depth about their experiences and the interviews were transcribed. Additionally a domestic violence unit (DVU) at a London police station analysed all cases that had gone to court between January and July 1997 to find out what action, if any, had been taken, by the police, the CPS and the courts.

In the DVU study of reported incidents of domestic assault at the London police station, out of 512 cases only I in 5 cases led to arrests. Yet two thirds of the women in our survey said that they wanted the police to arrest or remove the perpetrator. The police argue that there is often insufficient evidence to make an arrest. Women, on the other hand, reported that the police do not always understand the violence they are experiencing - they are often literally hostages in their own homes. Some injuries, such as strangulation marks on the neck, for example, may not appear to be serious and may take some time to become visible. the police appear not to take into account that strangulation is the most common method used by men to kill their wives of partners (Home Office Statistics Research Department). Of the 512 incidents reported a mere 19 (4 per cent) of the original cases reached court and, of these, only 13 resulted in a conviction, less than 3 per cent. In only two cases were the men sent to prison, one of whom was sentenced to three months although he had had thirteen previous court appearances for assault. Typical sentences were fines, community service orders and conditional discharges. Over half the women surveyed did not think the police took domestic violence seriously or seriously enough. 1 in 5 said they would not call the police again (Lees 1998 forthcoming).

Cretney and Davis (1997) found a similar situation where they followed up over 400 cases of domestic assault heard in magistrates and Crown Courts in Bristol and argued that the disinclination of many domestic violence victims to give evidence against their assailants may be understood not simply in terms of the relationship pressures which bear upon them, but as a reflection of courts' inadequate trivialising response to the harm suffered. In the cases followed up, only 10 per cent of women eventually appeared in court to give evidence. Complainants were very dissatisfied with the system. Charges were routinely reduced and complainants thought that the sentences were too low.

In their report of the pilot project Domestic Violence Matters: A Developmental Report Kelly et al (1998) point to the failure of the criminal justice system as a whole to prioritise the safety of victims, particularly by not using remand in custody or pursuing breaches of bail vigorously enough. They refer to the approach adopted by the CPS, which does nothing to enable or encourage victim witnesses; starting from the presumption that women will withdraw, prosecutors act in such a way that in many cases this becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. As an alternative approach, they points to the experience of other jurisdictions, which have seen the creation of trained prosecutors who specialise in domestic violence cases. They point out that in some jurisdictions this has been extended to the appointment of specialist magistrates and judges and the creation of domestic violence courts (Kelly et al 1998). They attribute the failure of the criminal justice system at least partly to the attitudinal barriers and routine trivialising of domestic violence, which the police surveys documented, which suffuses the police service, despite policy changes.

Policing Domestic Assault

There is a growing body of research on the issue of police responses to domestic violence and sexual assault (Edwards 1989, Bourlet 1990, Mullender 1996, Temkin 1997). It is clear that the police have a crucial role to play in any attempt to implement a strategy designed to close the gap between the official condemnation of male violence as enshrined in the law and the realities of male violence as condoned in practice. Yet at the same time the police reflect the status quo; predominantly white, male and conservative in outlook, they are themselves part of a macho culture which is profoundly anti-feminist. Any attempts to introduce radical changes in the way in which cases of male violence are handled by the police must therefore confront two major obstacles: the first is the 'enemy within', i.e. resistance from police culture; the second is the 'enemy without', which is the refusal of the other major players in the criminal justice system, from the Crown Prosecution Service to the Court of Appeal, to accept that a fundamentally new approach to the problem of male violence is needed.

The domestic violence literature generally has documented how domestic cases are treated as 'rubbish' work by the police, who avoid arresting assaultive partners (McConville et al 1991). In 1982, the Thames Valley police force was pleased to allow an interrogation to be shown on BBC television as part of a documentary series on police work, confident that their professionalism would be applauded. They were completely taken aback by the public outcry that followed, with the Guardian describing the interview as a display of 'unmitigated toughness' and 'low-key brutality' (quoted in Scott and Dickens 1989). This single incident provided the impetus to reform the procedures by which violence against women is policed, at a time of rapidly changing attitudes towards the treatment of women. The rediscovery of child sexual abuse in Cleveland and the subsequent furore resulted in a re-examination of children's experiences of the criminal justice system.

Susan Edwards (1989) in her study of domestic violence gave even greater cause for concern, as they indicated that violence occurring in the private sphere between members of the same family or household was treated even more casually. Her research, undertaken in two police stations within the Metropolitan police area (Hounslow and Holloway) and covering a six month period during 1984 to1985 found that the police tended to 'no crime' cases by diverting them away from criminalisation by avoiding making arrests, by referring parties to other agencies and by limiting their own involvement to stopping any violence actually in progress when they arrived.

Police policy initiatives on domestic violence have only been in place nationally since 1990 in the UK (see Cromack 1995: 88) despite the numerous studies drawing attention to the shortcomings. A major step forward was the Home Office Force Order, Circular 60/1990 which outlined national guidelines (circular 60/1990) recommending that all police officers should 'regard as their over-riding priority the protection of the victim and the apprehension of the offender'. The circular urged police forces to keep accurate records, enforce the criminal law, be informed about any previous history of violence and offer sympathetic treatment and support to victims.

There is conflicting evidence with regard to how much police recording keeping and general response to domestic violence has improved overall. Home Office research (Grace 1995) found that while nearly all police forces had formulated policies on domestic violence, emphasising the importance of arresting the perpetrator, women's experiences of uniformed police were very mixed and in practice assailants were rarely arrested; for example the arrest rates were 13 per cent in Manchester, 18 per cent in Northumbria and 24 per cent in West Yorkshire. In most areas by the late 1990s there is evidence of improvements in police practice, and Domestic Violence Units (DVUs) staffed by non uniformed police officers provide some essential support for victims, although overall police services vary from area to area.

Dominy & Radford (1996) quote a research study which identifies a number of factors as essential for an effective police response. Effective policing requires:

• Law enforcement and sympathetic support for victims

• Mandatory training for the police on the nature of domestic violence and on crisis intervention

• Clear practice guidelines which set out the importance of making an arrest

• An immediate 24 hour day inter-agency response. Next day referrals which require the victim to make the initial contact are less effective

• A consistent dual approach to domestic violence which recognises it as a crime needing legal action and as a family problem requiring other kinds of intervention.

• Support for the criminal justice system to adopt this approach

• A change in societal attitudes towards domestic violence

Training Needs of the Police

Police training in domestic violence varies from one area to another. Officers who work in domestic violence units usually undergo a week's training at Hendon Training College and in some areas Women's Aid runs day course for police officers.

Several important innovative projects have been set up involving the police both in training and in the development of new interventions. In 1988 the West Yorkshire police adopted a new approach to domestic violence which involved setting up eight domestic violence and child protection units, an independent database, new training modules for officers and involvement in domestic violence inter-agency fora. The Killingbeck division as it is called, aimed to combat the fact that in two thirds of domestic violent incidents no further action was taken and it was apparent that many women were subjected to repeated violent assaults. A three stage intervention model directed at both male perpetrators and female victims is being tested.

It is recognised that the first police attendance is likely to be an already repeated incident. Qualitative studies have established that numerous assaults of escalating violence are likely to have already taken place. In assessing the initial level of intervention the full police record of the man's domestic violence history is reviewed Allison with information from the woman on previous unreported assaults and entry at higher level may be required. After the first call a letter to every single man reminding him that domestic violence is a crime is sent out. The police also have a policy to arrest and prosecute wherever possible. If there is a second report of assault they commit resources. A police officer visits the woman to set up, with her consent, what is called a 'cocoon watch' and involves other people to help protect her. The aim is to encourage women to take the burden off their own shoulders and get other people involved. This is backed up by regular patrols to check the woman is all right. It is known that the single most important action a woman can take to protect herself is to tell someone else about the attacks on her. cocoon Watch is designed to facilitate this process by extending the network of people who are prepared to telephone the police, immediately and subsequently. Permission from the woman to approach neighbours and others is essential. To prepare for the project all officers wee offered training that aimed to increase their understanding of domestic violence and its potential consequences and to convey the project rationale, its interventions and their role within it. The project was devised to target police action while requiring minimal additional inputs by officers.

If domestic violence is to be treated seriously, then resources need to be made available to enable cases to be properly investigated and followed up, as is the case with other crimes. The Islington Domestic Violence Matters project, evaluated by Kelly et al (1998) is a landmark. The police have also been involved in various inter-agency projects across the country with varying degrees of success
Social Work Provision

Prospective clients usually had little knowledge about social agencies, and many have negative conceptions that lead to a reluctance to make or sustain contact. Research indicates that women who did make contact started with informal contacts and then increasingly. approached formal sources, especially doctors, social workers and police. Most women who sought assistance from statutory agencies, therefore, had already turned to friends and relatives first. Dobash et al (1985) carried out one of the first investigations, involving qualitative interviews with 109 abused women, into the nature of women's requests for help and the types of responses received from professionals. Women made at least four different types of requests for assistance including help to stop violence, medical or material support after an attack, accommodation or financial support, and involving others in assaults. Black women faced racism from agencies. The findings showed a general reluctance to make contact either with informal and formal sources such as doctors, social workers and the police. Less than 2 per cent of all violent assaults were reported to the police. The study found that most women did however make some form of contact on at least one occasion, and very few remained completely silent. Over ten years later the situation regarding service provision had not improved a great deal. In Scotland where this has been investigated more thoroughly than in England, Henderson's (1997) study commissioned by the Scottish Office Home Department in October 1996 used postal surveys and interviews to investigate both service providers and service users in Scotland. They found there was currently little co-ordination of strategic responses to domestic violence either at national or local level. Women still had difficulty in gaining physical access to services. The report concluded that there was a need found health, education and other voluntary organisations to improved their provision.

A study in Surrey, a county in the South East of England, conducted by Dominy and Radford (1996), investigated the response of social agencies to women suffering from domestic violence. Two thirds had never sought help. Reasons for this varied from feeling too ashamed or that they were to blame, considering it was a private matter and they were able to deal with it by themselves, or feeling it was not 'serious' enough for professionals to understand. The majority who sought help turned to family or friends but a large proportion found the responses unhelpful. 1 in 3 turned to the statutory social services. Nearly one third (31 per cent ) of women who sought help turned to their general practitioners. The primary health care response is therefore crucial if women are going to get the most effective help and referral to the appropriate services.

Service Provision and Ethnic Minorities

Research into the experience of black and ethnic minority women and the failure of services to provide for their needs has until recently been neglected. Amina Mama's study (1989) is an exception. She undertook a study of women who had experienced violence in the home and highlighted three major areas of concern. First, she drew attention to the reluctance of black women to call in the police, even when serious and even life-threatening crimes were being committed. She identified a reluctance on the part of the police to enforce the law when they were called in and found examples of the police adding insult to injury by themselves behaving in an abusive manner towards the women. Despite the extreme violence suffered by most of the women interviewed, only a few had called the police on their own account. She documented incidents where the collective pressure of an extended family decreased the likelihood of a woman leaving. She argued that the treatment of black women 'epitomises grudging reluctance and even refusal of British society to meet their basic needs'. Black women also face the danger of racism from within their own communities and the danger that reporting black men will contribute to stereotypes of black men being more prone to violence.

Bhatti- Sinclair Kish (1994) conducted a study of Asian women and violence from male partners and Swarup (1992) investigated the service needs of black communities. She conducted 20 interviews in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi with women all of whom had suffered abuse over 10-15 years. Few approached agencies for help in initial years although many had suffered severe abuse from the start of the marriage. Many lacked support systems available in their country of origin. The report is highly critical of lack of real provision for black people. Half had called the police at some time. Contact with the legal profession was particularly harmful as a public display of women's personal lives could lead to retribution from the community. Many suffered from depression and lack of self confidence. The 1989 Children Act and 1990 National Health Service & Community Care Act make specific mention of the importance of identifying the service needs of local black communities.

Various groups of women under-use refuge services - include African Caribbean women over 35, women affected by the One Year Rule and refugee women with tenuous immigration status. Many African Caribbean women relied on their own networks of support. The researchers pointed to the need for specialist services such a interpreting, and mediation with statutory bodies, and services to address the specific needs of children of mixed parentage. For some women safety posed acute risks because their families were continuing to stalk them. Intense isolation where a woman only went out as little as once a week. There was a need for more information about local events and services.

The 1990s have seen considerable public policy and professional concern about domestic violence as the consequences for mothers and children have gradually begun to be recognised. In 1998 the Department of Health commissioned the development of the Reader 'Making an Impact'and a Training Resource pack to increase awareness about the impact on children of domestic violence and to develop professional understanding of how best to offer help and support. The materials were devised by Barnardo's, the NSPCC, and the Domestic Violence Research Group of the University of Bristol with the assistance of a multi-disciplinary team. there is some evidence that social work responses still often adhere to pathologising or family systems models. The main reason is that women in violent relationships are seen as 'clients in need of therapy, rather than people in need of alternatives and choices' ( Dobash & Dobash 1992: 234).

An explorative study of council policy and practice and local support services in the area of domestic violence found that in social services in Hammersmith and Fulham much practical advice given to women was limited and the onus for change was often placed on the women themselves ( see McGibbon et al 1989). Some social workers felt it was appropriate to talk to the abusive men, but such involvement was most frequently discussed in terms of family therapy which they interpreted as working with the couple to reconstruct the relationship..

In the 1990s social services departments are beginning to take domestic violence more seriously and most training courses for social workers now include some sessions on domestic violence. Mullender & Morley's (1994) edited collection on Children Living with Domestic Violence: Putting Men's Abuse of Women on the Child Care Agenda and Mullender's (1996) Rethinking Domestic Violence: The Social Work and Probation Response, provide an invaluable textbooks for such courses. In the latter book Mullender explores social work and probation practice and policy making and outlines how many social service departments are now taking an active part in inter-agency forums and are introducing guidelines for social workers to adopt. In some areas of work such as child protection and groupwork with male perpetrators, domestic violence is already recognised as a major issue. Mullender recommends that this recognition needs to spread to all areas such as community care, mainstream probation practice, child care, hospital day care centres and family centres.

There is a great need for training and raised awareness of the needs of disabled women, many of whom have been rendered so by the violence they have faced from their partners ( See McCarthy 1997). The community care ethos is based on maintaining women in their own homes where women experiencing abuse are least safe. Disabled women's groups have recently emerged such as the British Council of Organisations of Disabled People Women's Group and the Greater London Association of Disabled People organised a conference around women's safety issues in 1995.

Health Services

Currently there is little co-ordination of strategic responses of health services to domestic violence either at national or local level. Women have difficulty in gaining physical access to services and there is a need to raise public awareness, a need for the monitoring of services. Recent studies ( see Henderson 1997, BMA 1998) found that health services were among the least likely of all services to disseminate any information on domestic violence. It is not only doctors, community health workers, and hospital accident and emergency services, but also staff from specialities as wide ranging as palliative and paediatrics, geriatric medicine and genito-urinary services that need training ( see Mullender 1996: 130).

Accident and Emergency departments available in most hospitals are open day and night and do not require appointments although waiting times may be lengthy. Domestic violence is frequently not audited or even recorded and staff are not generally trained to recognise or to respond effectively to it. By treating the injuries and ignoring the context in which the injuries occurred, health service professionals might well exacerbate the difficulties women faced. Confidentiality between doctor and patient is regarded as the prime concern and doctors have no legal responsibility to contact the police unless the patient agrees.

Some local authorities are trying to provide a more co-ordinated service and to provide training. For example the Accident and Emergency Department of Leeds General Infirmary is part of a co-ordinated community care planning and inter-agency work to meet the needs of women experiencing violence. Another project in Glasgow (1996) involved a full scale audit to ascertain the current proportions of abused women using services and what responses they received.

There is some evidence that doctors ( general practitioners or GPs) are considerably more helpful than other health workers but training for them is still lacking ( see BMA 1998 report). No formal studies have been undertaken nationally in the UK on the extent of education received by medical students and doctors at undergraduate or post-graduate level unlike in the US where it is well established. the journal of the American medical colleges, recently produced a 115 page supplement entirely devoted to the subject of educating the nation's doctors about family violence and abuse. this included the importance of acquiring knowledge and skills as well as developing new knowledge and learning to work in partnership with community groups.

A survey in 1986 of accredited USA and Canadian medical schools found that just under half of those who replied were providing some instruction on domestic violence although not in any depth. By 1994 87 per cent of US medical schools allocated some curricular time to adult domestic violence. According to the recent report Domestic Violence: A Health Care Issue ( British Medical Association 1998:41) a survey of 254 doctors in the Midlands found that a mere ten per cent had received some training either at undergraduate or post graduate level.

The British Medical Association (1998) report on Domestic Violence: A Health Care Issue is a comprehensive, but accessible discussion document to raise awareness of the nature and prevalence of domestic violence, and to discuss the role of health care workers in identifying the problems and devising strategies to help to manage and reduce the problem. The report argues that health professionals need to identify and acknowledge that domestic violence is occurring. Confidentiality must be discussed with patient, but doctor should underline secrecy cannot always be guaranteed. It points to the importance of recognising the symptoms of escalating domestic violence, especially those with possible homicidal outcomes.

The training for health professionals on domestic violence is better but little information is available on what exactly is covered. Training courses for nurses, midwives and health visitors in Britain all deal with gender issues and with violence in the family but there is great individual variation between courses and few concentrated on domestic violence (Pahl 1995). in greater Glasgow implementing a women's health policy included the production of an open learning pack by one of the local hospital accident and emergency departments in conjunction with implementing a protocol on domestic violence.

Guidelines

The following guidelines have been developed and would be useful for training purposes:

The first guidelines on domestic violence for health professionals were published in 1997 by the West London Health Promotion Agency. The pack also contains the first guidelines on domestic abuse in pregnancy by Royal College of Midwives (1997) since as we have seen, research has indicated that pregnancy may trigger or exacerbate male violence in home.

(A recent Confidential enquiry into Maternity Deaths which reports every three years looked at public health matters that endanger women's lives and found that six women in the past three years died as a result of domestic violence and thousands were injured. Studies showed that in about a third of cases the violence started in pregnancy, perhaps because the man perceives the woman to be withdrawing form him or because her condition leads to arguments. ( Guardian November 24 'Abuse risk Higher during pregnancy' Sarah Boseley)

Good Practice Guidelines on domestic violence were produced by the Leeds Inter-Agency Project ( Women and Violence) where a training pack for 'Training For Trainers' has also been developed. This is to support and enable participants to successfully offer the 'Violence against women by known men' training programme and should be used in conjunction with the pack. Each pack comprises material for a two day training programme. Trained trainers will undertake four days of training in total. The basis of this programme has been used extensively throughout the UK. Peer assessment and feedback is an essential aspect of the programme. Facilitators are advised to be aware of the potential for insensitive feedback and negativity from participants. The laying of ground rules clearly at the beginning is very important. ( The pack was written by Andrea Tara-Chand and is available from LIAP, CHEL, 26 Rounday Rd, Leeds LS7 IAB. It was funded by the Home Office Programme Development Unit).

Good practice guidelines have also been developed by some local authorities to develop work with ethnic minorities. Domestic violence response units have been set up in Haringey and Lambeth both in heart of black communities. UJIMA a black housing association set up the first refuge for black women in 1988. By 1997 about 40 of the 240 refuge services in England are specialist refuges. Rai & Thiara (1997) documented the living experiences of black women's use of refuge support services. They conducted a postal survey of all refuges in England in order to examine the nature of services available to black women, to compare patterns between black and white women in the take up of some services and to explore equal opportunity issues. They also interviewed 25 women in refuges. They found that there was a low level of awareness about the existence of refuge services among large numbers of black women which leads them to endure violence for longer periods. More black women self refer. They also documented differences within ethnic groups. For example, African and African-Caribbean women were less likely to be informed about specialist services compared with Asian women who were almost always well informed. Most women wanted to go to a refuge outside their locality for reasons of safety and to be located in areas of large populations of black communities to avoid racism in white areas and to be able to access their culturally specific facilities. Language was a key issue for Asian women - their sense of isolation lessened as they received language support from specialist refuges, and shared experiences with other women who spoke the same language. They recommend the development of further specific services taking account of ethnic minority women's needs and more ethnic minority staff, ethnic monitoring of users and centralised records and further training .

Sen's (1997) study of the needs of ethnic minorities undertaken for the Camden Equalities Unit highlights the frequent exclusion of ethnic minority women (in this case Bangladeshi, Chinese and Horn of Africa women) from discussions on domestic violence and stresses the need to provide appropriate services to women from these communities. She found that cultural constraints do not prevent women from minority groups from using the services and that where appropriate services are provided, women will use them. She recommends development of further specific services taking account of ethnic minority women's needs and more ethnic minority staff, ethnic monitoring of users and centralised records and further training on impact of domestic violence on children.

Finally Jackson (1996) documents how deeply racism is affecting the provision of support and care for the abused black child, the prevention of support and care for abused black children and the prevention of disclosure. She indicates how child abuse is taken less seriously if child from an ethnic minority and the lack of ethnic monitoring of children in care.

Bowstead et al (1995) describes how the Greenwich Asian Women's Project (Kranti) is the only service in South East London specifically for Asian women and children. The project has developed good practice guidelines for options and support and considers some specific cultural issues for Asian women. They discuss how assumptions and stereotypes of Asian culture can lead to unequal treatment for Asian women approaching external agencies and propose the use of interpreter for discussion of domestic violence, including guidelines for practice so that women's confidentiality and sense of security are not threatened.

Training of Judges

The idea of training of judges has met with great resistance from the judges. According to the Judicial Studies Board, judicial training is being revolutionised, but this reflects more the attitude to any training than to the particular form of training provided. In his autobiography, Sir Neville Faulks explained how when he was appointed to be a judge of the probate, divorce and admiralty division of the High Court in 1963, the only training he had was to spend his Christmas vacation reading very carefully 'the leading textbook on divorce law' (see Pannick 1992).

The Judicial Studies Board was established in 1979 to develop training but it is regarded 'with a degree of indifference verging on contempt' by some judges who argue that training would render judges more like assessors or expert witnesses than judges of fact and law (see Pannick 1992). However 'face' and 'law', are not impartial, objective and neutral bodies of knowledge and practice they are assumed to be ( see 1997a). In May 1990 a training programme to prepare judges for handling cases under the Children Act 1989 was introduced. The programme aimed to provide a specialist corps of children's judges. In July 1994, following a training programme in racial awareness, the board set up a working group under Mr Justice Potter, a high court judge, to see how such training might be broadened, in an attempt to stop the kind of comments made by judges in rape and other sexual offence cases which imply the woman was to blame or 'got what she deserved'. The idea was at first to tackle 'gender awareness' but was extended to all groups who are or perceive themselves to be disadvantaged.

A number of judges apparently did not consider they needed such training, but 'most accepted that it might help to eradicate the occasional but unacceptable blunder which can cause disproportionate but lasting damage to the image of the bench '. This is a far cry from erasing the double standards that permeate the rules of evidence and other measures. The training lasts half a day and includes a television interview with a vicar's daughter who was gang raped by strangers. Since only 8 per cent of convicted cases involve strangers this is hardly representative of rape cases going to trial, and could confirm rather than challenge judges' attitudes.

In 1998 the Judicial Studies Board had been concentrating on running a series on 2 day seminars on child abuse and about 300 judge, circuit judges and recorders have attended. Sessions were chaired by a judge with some outside speakers, mainly prestigious men! No training however has been carried out on rape during the past two years. A new cycle is planned on serious sexual offences under the director of Judge Pitchers and it is planned that all 370 Senior Recorders, circuit judges authorized to try rape and Senior judges will attend.

Domestic Violence and Inter-agency initiatives

Inter-agency work involved in 'bringing together all the agencies with an interest in domestic violence in a local area in order to exchange ideas, to co-ordinate services and to improve local practice and policy in a way that is both consistent and well-informed' has spread in the 1990s ( Hague et al 1995). In 1995 the Home Office issued an Inter-Agency Circular (Home Office 1995) to stimulate the development of co-ordinated inter-agency work at a local level. The circular lists a range of actions which assume the participation of a wide range of statutory and voluntary agencies in setting up domestic violence forums and would involve these agencies having the necessary sources and powers under the law to enforce them. This followed the Home Office (1994) report which outlined the aims of an inter-agency approach as follows:

• encouraging those who are experiencing domestic violence to come forward and address their situation through the help that is available,

• address the needs of children affected by domestic violence,

• provide safe accommodation and support services, both emergency and long term, for women and their children who feel compelled to leave the family home,

• ensure adequate legal protection under the criminal law,

• bring perpetrators to justice, assist perpetrators to understand and address the reasons for and consequences of their offending behaviour in order to stop the abuse,

• prevention through education and community initiatives including those that challenge beliefs that condone and reproduce violent behaviour in intimate relationships.

Projects vary in their focus. In some areas such as Leeds, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Nottingham, inter-agency domestic violence forums have been operating for some years. The Leeds Inter-agency project, for example, includes a range of initiatives concerning health and social services, education and re-education programmes all focused on 'violence from known men' (see Leeds Inter-Agency Project Reports 1996). The Nottingham project took a more community safety approach and mounted exhibitions and awareness campaigns against violence to women in general. In London, the Hammersmith & Fulham Domestic Violence Forum set up a range of services ( See Domestic Violence Services Directory 1997). Also the Greater London Domestic Violence Project (GLDVP), a new partnership initiative aimed at bring some much needed co-ordination across the 33 London Boroughs was launched in November 1997.

As Dominy and Radford (1996) point out, the majority of inter-agency projects endeavour to promote change within agencies. These involve the development of good practice guidelines, training and domestic violence policies. Some inter-agency projects are led by local authorities. They also develop information materials in the form of leaflets, handbooks and posters. The Hammersmith and Fulham local authority initiated a co-ordinated response to domestic violence that included training local authority members, producing information packs, good practice guidelines and publicity literature. They also helped to develop the Hammersmith Domestic Violence Intervention project, a perpetrator's re-education project.

The police have taken a leading role in setting up inter-agency projects with varying degrees of effectiveness. Such projects need a high level of support within agencies if new ways of working are to be developed. for example Kelly et al 1998 point out in relation to the innovative police project in Islington that increasing co-operation between the police and a team of skilled civilian crisis interveners was jeopardised by the 'macho' culture of police stations.

Hague et al (1996) evaluated inter-agency schemes in order to provide policy and practice guidelines and concluded that Domestic Violence Forums operated with greater and lesser effectiveness in different areas. They found that there was very patchy participation by some statutory agencies and no guidelines on how the inter-agency policies should function. They concluded that it was pointless to improve if the system being co-ordinated was inadequate or inappropriate and pointed out that such initiatives could merely act as a smokes-screen or as a talking shop which disguises inaction and poor services. They concluded that specific guidance is needed from government departments and services other than Home Office on the priority to be given by a full range of relevant agencies to interagency work on domestic violence in order to facilitate its development as a co-ordinated multi faceted local and national strategy. Adequate resourcing is crucial, both for inter-agency domestic violence work and for refuges and other direct services if the approach is to be successful.

Clear support from management is also essential as Liddle and Gelsthorpe (1994) emphasise. In evaluating the various inter-agency initiatives they found that the level of commitment across different police divisions has varied and could produce conflict. They argued that 'large agencies such as the police are usually characterised by internal divisions across departments, and by competition among these for status and resources; These factors may lead to an unevenness of commitment and ownership within each agency' (1994:27).

Work with Perpetrators

A second development is work with violent men undertaken either in the voluntary sector, or in partnership with the probation service or local domestic violence fora. These initiatives developed out of the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP) in Duluth, Minnesota which embodied a co-ordinated response which combined working for women's safety and working with men to take responsibility for their behaviour (see Pence & Paymar 1988). It involves a victim advocacy service to support, track, and monitor domestic violence incidents, to train agency workers and to evaluate outcomes. The overall aim of the Duluth model is to create intolerance of male violence an the project has produced a number of manuals and training programmes on inter-agency work and has given support to the development of many similar projects across the USA and several in England. The idea of challenging violence men to take responsibility for their violence was developed in a community project based in Boston called Emerge, and during the late 1980s, since which time over 200 projects had been set up ( Dobash & Dobash 1992). Ellen Pence, Coordinator of the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project, reports a success rate of 30 per cent for the perpetrators' scheme ( Morley 1993).

These initiatives raise the question of what is the best remedy for the perpetrators of domestic violence and rape. Adding to the overcrowded prison numbers where they are likely, while out of sight and mind, to rape again or be raped is no solution (There are no statistics in the UK for prison rape but in the US the Stop Prisoner Rape, a national non-profit making organisation dedicated to combating rape of prisoners and providing assistance, estimated that the number of rapes in US prisons is in excess of 60,000 taking place daily) or to participate in treatment programmes aimed at rehabilitation and reform. Since imprisonment fosters the forms of domination which include violence against women, there is a strong case for looking at community control rather than state control approaches.

The core question is whether such programmes work. Burton et al (1998) in their evaluation of such schemes question what success means: does it mean that men change and, if so, how and why do they change? Does the level and extent of the change justify the expenditure or does it mean that the men are diverted form other sanctions which the criminal justice system ought to be applying? If physical violence is the baseline, Edelson (1996) argues that some programmes do stop some men who complete the programmes from behaving physically violently at least in the short term.

A major problem is the high attrition rate - In their very thorough evaluation of such schemes, Burton et al (1998) analysed the records of 351 men who had been seen by the Violence Prevention Project over two years (of whom 174 took part in at least one element of the evaluation). They found that 57 per cent of men who were accepted onto the programme had failed to complete it - higher than the 50 per cent found in projects in the United States. Keeping men in programmes was connected to three linked factors: recognition of their responsibility for violence, motivation to change and sustainability. They concluded by arguing that the jury is still out as to whether such schemes are effective in the long term. They point out that why programmes are effective, and why some men change and others do not, remain matters of debate and continued scrutiny (1998:1X). They do not assess whether such programmes are more effective than prison sentences, but there is an argument that more humane interventions than prison are at least likely to be less damaging (see Box-Grainger (1986). However involvement with criminal justice may well be linked with greater effectiveness of the treatment programmes ( see Dobash & Dobash 1996), but only if as Burton et al (1998) emphasise ' a clear and consistent message is delivered that domestic violence is unacceptable, and that the courts expect change'( p 34).

A crucial precondition is that support services to ensure the safety of women should be effective if men are to attend such programmes as an alternative to custody. In 1997 one of the first of such pilot projects was set up in the London borough of Hammersmith. This two year Domestic Violence Pilot Project combines a Violence Prevention Project (VPP) working with men and a Women's Support Service (WSS) working with partners of men on VPP and women who self refer. The overall philosophy is to increase women's safety at the same time as reducing men's violence.

There is a great need for more training to be offered to social, education and health workers. In Scotland Women's Aid and the police were found to be the only organisations to undertake specific training with new staff attending basic induction training supplemented by attendance at relevant workshops and the provision of in house training ( Henderson 1997). The refuges have played a vital role in the training of key agencies, but this training is usually provided on an unpaid, goodwill an ad-hoc basis. All refuge workers have had training from WAFE for work with victims of domestic violence.

The National Association for the Development of Work with Sex Offenders (NOTA) set up in the 1980s co-ordinates many of these groups and there has been some controversy over the idea of mixing rapists and sex offenders in with on the re-education projects, although some probation services have been keen to do this.

ACTIVISM AND VOLUNTARY GROUPS

In this section a short description of the various voluntary or feminist organisations/ campaign groups involved with domestic violence will be outlined. These include Women's Aid, Southall Black Sisters, Rape Crisis, Victim Support ChildLine, Zero Tolerance, and various campaign groups such as Beyond the Best Interest of the Child, AMICA, ROW, Justice for Women, Women Against Rape and the Campaign to End Rape.

Women's Aid

Women's Aid is a national organisation which promotes the protection of women and children experiencing or who have experienced domestic violence. It is the co-ordinating body for refuges throughout England. The national work included running the Women's Aid National Helpline, co-ordinating and supporting the network of 250 local refuge groups throughout England. This included producing the only UK wide Directory of Refuge and Helpline Services, supporting the development of new refuges and other support services for women and children, providing advice and information on all aspects of refuge work, including management, children's work, housing, legal issues, publicity and fund-raising, providing refuges with training on all aspects of domestic violence and refuge work, and organising networking events and conferences for all refuge groups to enable them to meet, share good practice and develop their services. Women's Aid also lobbies for relevant policy and legislative changes to improve the safety of women and children, delivers training and consultancy to a wide range of professionals and practitioners, providing information and research about all aspect of domestic violence, public education and raising awareness of domestic violence among the public, policy makers, practitioners and the media. Local Women' Aid member groups and other refuge and support services provide a wide range of services including 24 hour access to safe refuge accommodation, outreach support to women who may not want or need refuge, specialist services for children, aftercare and follow up women and running a local Helpline service.

Refuges emphasise sisterhood, collectivism and self help. Recent years has seen a struggle between need for resources and funding which often conflicts with the important struggle for autonomy. This has caused state encroachment into refuge management. Even so the London Women's office of Women's Aid turns away half of the requests for help that they receive and are still very short of funds. In 1998 Women's Aid submitted proposals to the Government Interdepartmental Review on the long term funding of refuges. The 1998 Women's Aid report states that the current lack of cross government co-ordination of refuge provision, together with the existing piecemeal funding structure of refuges is totally unsatisfactory. Cultural constraints do not prevent women from minority groups from using services - where appropriate services are provided, women will use them. It recommends the development of further specific services taking account of ethnic minority women's needs and more ethnic minority staff and further training on the impact of DV on children.

Meanwhile the demand for refuge accommodation and refuge services continues to increase, as funding sources are squeezed and in some cases withdrawn completely, resulting in reduced services for women and children. Since local government re-organisation, Women's Aid groups have been on the receiving ends of cuts in grant funding. In addition, the network of 250 refuges throughout England has had to live with the aftermath of the judgement in July 1997 of the judicial review of housing benefit, in which housing benefit officers considered the provision of counselling and support ineligible for benefit.

In 1998/9 Women's Aid is to develop a Management Support Programme for refuge groups, working regionally with refuge groups to match training to local circumstances and needs, and working with black and disabled women, to ensure that particular needs are met by Women's Aid. During the past year the Women's Aid Website has been developed to provide a new resource to all those interested in the issue and offer women an alternative way to access services. Next year the first UK domestic violence Website will be completed and the first Public Directory of Helpline and refuge services developed.

Provision for Children

Harwin et al's (1998) report is based on research into current and recent provision for children in refuges in England. It identifies knowledge and understanding of work with children developed in Women's Aid services and looks at how children live with domestic violence; the connections with child abuse; the ways children deal with their experience and the various methods developed to help them. The vast majority of refuge groups now have specialised children's workers, who provide a whole range of services for children. This can include supporting through legal proceedings, arranging group play activities, one to one sessions, liaising with schools and other agencies, and organising outings and children's house meetings. Children frequently return to the refuge to take part in these activities, as many groups also provide after-care and outreach services. However, due to funding problems, some refuges still do not have children's workers or suitable facilities for children. Women's Aid hopes to address this problem by focusing on the issue of funding for refuge services and providing information and support for local groups. In April 1997 Women's Aid organised the 'Reaching Out' conference in Birmingham to explore the range of outreach work to women and children and how groups target need and deliver services locally. The agenda for developing outreach work has revolved around two main issues: Firstly to develop an Outreach Handbook to help groups to set up and run services and secondly, to explore in partnership with local groups, new and innovative ways of working with local groups to develop outreach work primarily focusing on the needs of women living in rural areas and that of ethnic minority women ( Taken from Women's Aid 1998 report).

A major problem for women and children fleeing from domestic violence is that abusive fathers can apply for contact orders under the Children Act 1989 and use court procedures to track down their victims. Hester & Radford (1996) review developments regarding contact between children and parents after separation and divorce. They outline the tactics used by men in custody cases such as using children as hostages to force women to return, manipulation of legal procedures relating to child care in attempt to involve courts and law to continue the harassment. They point out that the concept of 'parental responsibility' by which men are encouraged to have more contact with their children does not take into consideration the power differences between men and women and the harassment women and children suffer. Their research indicates that violence from men to female partners and the impact of such violence on any children is not being taken into account in judicial settlements of child contact post separation.

Radford et al (1997) outlines how the last minute amendment to the Family Law Act 1996 introduced a responsibility for mediators to screen for domestic violence so that safety and fairness in the process of mediation could be ensured. However they conclude that in practice there is little agreement about how such mediation should be carried out and screening for violence is rarely done. They also document how fewer women are able to gain help with costs of domestic violence injunctions and divorce and face fees that they can ill afford (as high as £1,000)

In 1997 Women's Aid carried out a survey of refuges to investigate the impact of child contact arrangements. 54 refuges took part, and 67 per cent reported that women had been abused when they were handing over for contact visits and 31 per cent reported that children had been physically or sexually abused during contact. 8 refuges stated that contact orders gave the address of the refuge, endangering the safety of all women and children staying there and 23 refuges stated that a child had been forced to reveal the address of the refuge during contact visits.

Southall Black Sisters (SBS)

SBS is an advice, campaigning and resource centre for Asian and Africa-Caribbean women. It was founded in 1979 when a small group of Asian and Afro-Caribbean women came together as part of a tradition of secular organising around a wide range of issues. In 1983 a Women's Centre was established funded by the Greater London Council, and permanent staff were appointed and Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims were all represented. SBS also set up the Brent Women's Refuge.

SBS has a history of community protest. In 1984 they took to the streets for the fist time to protest against the death of Krishna Sharma, a woman living in Southall, London, who committed suicide after being continually assaulted by her husband ( Asian women's suicide rate is three times the national average). This public action conflicted with the views of various black women's groups who did not agree that domestic violence should be publicly campaigned against. For Asian women to behave so autonomously was met with extreme hostility from the male religious leaders of the communities.

SBS also has a history of taking an independent line and not being tied down by any particular religious creed of political correctness. For example, they campaigned against separate Muslim schools for girls, acted as consultants for social services, involved in training on council estates, campaigned against immigration controls which allowed British men to bring in their spouses but did not allow British women the same rights. They developed support networks of women suffering DV and pointed out the conflict between equal opportunities for girls and multi-cultural ideals which took a non interventionist line. They challenged the rights of male leaders to speak for women. They came to prominence in the early 1990's with a campaign for the release of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing her violent husband although he had tried to break his wife's legs, hit her and threatened to burn her face with an iron on the night in question (see Radford 1993). Their campaign has led to greater recognition of the difficulty women face in leaving violent possessive husbands and partners and the need to recognise this in the homicide law.

The problems SBS face now relates to the co-opting of the debate about domestic violence and the appropriation of autonomous activity by the Council and other bodies. Community leaders attacked them for 'destroying the fabric of our culture' illustrating the conflict between feminist and some anti-racist struggles. Their development is also hampered by the growth of fundamentalism and increasingly religious identities are being treated as racial identities ( see Griffin 1995). Their annual report (1995-1996) reported that four workers dealt with approximately 600 cases, 850 enquiries and 300 emergencies, putting tremendous pressure on meagre resources. Housing, welfare rights and immigration issues featured high on the list of problems second only to matrimonial problems and domestic violence. They provide both crisis intervention and medium to long-term casework and have helped to develop the local authority's (Ealing) domestic violence policy. They produced pioneering research on the one year rule which forces women to stay in a violent marriage or face deportation. From January 1994 to July 1995, 755 black and migrant women were facing deportation because of marriage breakdown.

Rape Crisis

There are two main organisations that aim to provide some kind of counselling for the survivors of sexual assault. Rape crisis is predominantly a telephone help line set up by rape survivors and providing some counselling, mainly over the telephone. The roots of rape crisis work lie in the recognition that sexual violence is widely experienced by women and results from women's unequal position in society. Centres developed from the consciousness raising groups of the 1970s Women's Liberation Movement where validating women's experiences was seen as leading to direct action for social change. Speaking out was seen as a necessary first step to raising rape as a political issue, since women suffered in silence often blaming themselves. Central to the position of many of these groups was a political aim of transforming the relations between men and women and shifting the responsibility for violence from women onto men. In some centres all the volunteers had to have experienced sexual assault themselves.

Rape crisis work in Britain was faced with contradictions between the need for funding and the problems of collective leadership. In the early days there was resistance to any kind of bureaucratic hierarchical managerial organisation and all decisions were taken collectively. This along with a strong emphasis on confidentiality often conflicted with the requirements of funding authorities and was clearly an important factor behind the withdrawal of funds from some centres. By the mid 1990s there were about seventy centres in England and Wales, each working autonomously and many registered as charities. Some employed staff and others were funded by local authorities while others struggled on very minimal amounts. In order to counteract the isolation and underfunding of centres, in October 1996 a National Federation of Rape Crisis Centres was launched to provide central co-ordination and develop a more professional approach. It also aimed to provide a forum for debate within the movement, uniform training, and better monitoring standards of practice for services. Many of the centres have changed their name and taken on a more social services therapeutic approach. where the political aim of challenging male violence is no longer so prominent. Even so, funds are increasingly being channelled into victim support which means that rape crisis centres are providing only a skeletal service .

Victim Support

Victim Support is a nation-wide, More politically palatable ( i.e. non feminist) service partly funded by the Home Office which provides help to all victims of crime. In the 1980s it secured Home Office funding when government ideology and financial uncertainly were leading in other areas of public service to a curtailment of service delivery and a reduced level of state involvement. A national charity, it represented a voluntary response emphasising individuals helping other individuals from within their community. It avoided political involvement and successfully gained the support of the police and the Home Office. By 1990 there were over 300 victim support schemes in the country (Mawby & Walklate 1994) and this had risen to 378 by 1996 ( Victim Support 1996).

Unlike Rape Crisis, Victim Support does not specialise in sexual assault cases, and its effectiveness and expertise varies from area to area.. Following a working party report in 1985 on how the service should develop, the first national training programme for work with women who had suffered sexual violence was published (Victim Support 1987) and between 1991 and 1996, the number of women referred to the scheme following a rape or sexual assault doubled. In 1995 Victim Support schemes offered a service to over 15,400 victims of rape and other sexual offences (Victim Support 1996). Some women are put in touch with Victim Support by the police, but increasingly women get in contact themselves. In 1995 almost a third of the women offered help, some of whom had not reported the assault to the police, made direct contact with their local scheme.

In response to the falling conviction rate, in 1997 a Campaign to End Rape was launched bringing together organisations such as Justice for Women, the Rape Crisis Federation (Wales and England), Action Against Child Sexual Abuse and a number of individuals. The aims of the campaign were to increase the conviction rate, ensure better treatment and representation of victims in court and change the law on consent. The campaign starts from the belief that consent must be negotiated, never presumed and points to Australia where, in the state of Victoria, it is the man who carries the burden of proving consent and evidence relating to the woman's sexual history is also outlawed. Before this there was little campaigning around rape apart from by Women Against Rape (WAR), a small group part of the Wages for Housework network in London and the Zero Tolerance campaigns across the country which made rape a central theme in their public education materials (see Cook 1997).

ChildLine

ChildLine is a free 24 hour national telephone counselling service for children and young people in trouble, need or danger. It provides a confidential phone counselling service for any child with any problem. In was set up in1986, when the BBC ( British Broadcasting Company) consumer programme That's Life! presented by Esther Rantzen, appealed to viewers for their help in conducted a survey on child abuse. The BBC ran a helpline for 24 hours after the programme for adults and children who wished to call and lines were jammed with children who confided details of cruelty. Three thousand adults completed the BBC questionnaire and a special Childwatch team was set up to read them and make a programme on child abuse. The Childwatch team then met with child care professional from both the statutory and voluntary sectors - including the NSPCC, Kidscape, Great Ormond Street Hospital and social services departments - to discuss how to establish a permanent free telephone helpline, which would provide a way of advising those who could not otherwise be reached. In October 1986, a BBC special programme on child abuse launched ChildLine. British Telecom provided it with offices and with a simple memorable telephone number 0800 1111. The logo - a smiling telephone - was shown on the programme. (ChildLine Information Sheet 1)

By 1998, 650, 000 children had been counselled and there were 800 volunteer counsellors, who receive extensive training and are supported by a professional staff team. Counsellors only make referrals to other agencies if the child wishes. In 1996/1997, 840 children and young people were referred, mainly to the social services. Approximately 10,000 children attempt to call every day, only 3,300 of whom manage to get through. The base is situated in London, but offices are now open in Nottingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Swansea and other places. ChildLine also runs a special line for children of Britain's armed forces in Germany and Cyprus.

Other developments are also taking place. From March to October 1994 a special bullying line, answering more than 40,000 calls and counselling 3,500 children was run. After the publication of the successful report called Why Me? which proposed positive action against bullying, ChildLine produced leaflets on bullying for children and adults; and following evidence given to the Utting commission of inquiry into children in care, a permanent line for Children in Care was established. Time to listen was published in 1994 to let decision makers know what children were saying about their life in care. Children living away from home published in 1997 looked in detail at children's lives in foster homes, in children's home an in boarding schools.

Children call about all kinds of problems and concerns. Sexual and physical abuse accounted for approximately 27 per cent of calls (Epstein & Keep 1995). Other issues included family relationships, bullying, pregnancy, problems with friends or partners, worries about sex and running away. Between June 1993 and May 1994, ChildLine counsellors spoke to a total of 1,554 children about domestic violence - that is about 130 children a month. An analysis based on 126 callers who contacted ChildLine within a six month period found that in only three cases did children speak of their mothers hitting their partners. The overwhelming majority spoke of violence to their mother from her partner. The majority involved biological fathers but sixteen per cent were from step fathers or boy friends. For many the violence had been occurring for a long time - months or even years. .Witnessing domestic violence had a profound effect on children. The children who call describe painful emotional responses an physical and behavioural symptoms which have been shown to be connected to witnessing violence in the home. They describe feeling responsible both for causing the violence and for preventing it and this in turn engenders an overwhelming sense of helplessness. Thirty eight per cent (48) of the sample had been physically abused themselves.

Campaigns

In Britain feminist activism has included: Reclaim the Night marches, local and national demonstrations about domestic violence, rape and child sexual assault; action against sex shops and other anti-pornography protests, publicising the names and actions of particular abusers; using the media both press and television, lobbying politicians, graffiti and poster campaigns. Feminists have also challenged agency and institutional practices. A few of the campaigns associated with domestic violence will
be outlined.

Rights of Women (ROW)

ROW, a feminist legal project was set up in 1975. Their current leaflet states that it 'informs women of their rights and promotes the interests of women in relation to the law. Our recommendations have been presented to government, lawyers, other voluntary sector organisations, the media, and women's groups. We also provide free, sympathetic, quality legal advice on a range of issues including relationship breakdown, sexual and domestic violence and employment rights'. Rights of Women has been involved in several policy initiatives including, defending child benefits, rights of abortion, promoting the law on marital rape and promoting rape reform. ROW's membership largely comprises of feminist lawyers, a bi-annual conference is organised and the ROW Bulletin is published monthly. During the 1980s ROW has developed new structures of accountability and employs paid workers. A rota of volunteer legal advisers has been established to staff the evening advice line.
Campaign Against Domestic Violence (CADV)

Their current work includes supporting women who are in prison for killing violent partners through assisting legal appeals, sending letters of support, money and clothes, visiting and organising campaigns for their release. At the end of 1996, 600 people demonstrated outside eight women's prisons around the country, demanding a review of the cases of all the women in prison where domestic violence had been a factor, and a change in the law on provocation.

Justice for Women

Since the early 1970s Justice for Women has focused on individual campaigns supporting women accused of domestic /intimate homicide. Since a very successful campaign initiated by Southall Black Sisters to free Kiranjit Ahluwalia, and in early 1991, against the conviction of Sara Thornton, also convicted of murder, the number of requests for help from women in prison has risen. Justice for Women organises marches, meetings and campaigns around individual cases but with a wider agenda than each individual case. Once a woman has chosen to embark on a campaign she is fully involved, not merely consulted. In the mid 1990s a network has been set up with agreed aims and objectives. Justice for Women also works with lawyers and promotes law reform .

Best Interests Campaign (BIC)

The Best Interests campaign was set up in 1997 to campaign for the safety of children and mothers in relation to child contact following a number of murders of women and children forced to comply with court access orders. Currently family law legislation reinforces the abuse of children and women through the legal presumption that parents should in almost all cases have contact with their children on divorce and separation, even where violence and abuse has occurred. Mothers who refuse to comply with such contact orders to prevent the abuse of their children are being threatened with imprisonment by the courts. In July 1998 every MP (all 659) received a letter from the Best Interests campaign explaining the dangers when contact or residence orders are granted to abusive men. At present contact orders are awarded almost automatically even when the men are known to have been violent. This is happening because the Children Act does not take account of domestic violence and case law has established a presumption that it is in the best interests of the child to have contact with both parents. The letter urged MPs to show their support for the campaign by introducing adequate legal safeguards. Sixty-five MPs have already signed.

AMICA (Aid for Mothers Involved in Contact Cases)

This is an independent, unfunded network set up by women who had been imprisoned or threatened with imprisonment for 'obstructing' contact between violent men and their children. AMICA has now advised 400 women fearing imprisonment. Members include Dawn Austin who was sent to Holloway Prison in 1996. Most of the women in AMICA had extensive proof of violence in terms of injunction records, police records, doctor's reports etc. Dawn Austen who was sent to prison for not allowing her ex partner access had suffered terrible vioelnce. Her partner had served a prison sentence for breaking her jaw. He also had a history of serious violence which the court accepted when making the committal order to imprison her for contempt. (The details of the case are in A v N (1997) 1 FLR 533).

Zero Tolerance Campaigns

Zero Tolerance campaigns have been very successful at raising the issue of violence against women within the community. During 1992 and 1993 huge banners about male violence against women appeared in shopping centres, first in Edinburgh and then across Scotland and the North of England. Torchlit campaigns were held from Aberdeen to Manchester. The facts and figures were displayed in black and gold lettering, such as 85% of rapists are men known to their victim and almost 50% of women murdered are killed by a partner or ex partner. Other banners declared 'male abuse of power is a crime and demanded Zero Tolerance of male violence. In 1994 and 1995.Edinburgh Council launched the first major, government funded advertising campaign in Britain aiming to challenge social attitudes towards violence against women and girls ( see Kitzinger & Hunt 1994). Similar campaigns have been run in Leeds, Manchester and Aberdeen where in 1996 a torchlit march took place.

The Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust campaigns for the prevention of violence against women and children. It identifies the links between different forms of male violence including rape, child sexual abuse and domestic violence. Zero Tolerance uses leaflets, posters, billboards, bus and cinema advertising to challenge attitudes, general debate and dispel myths. The Trust's unique approach of using the mass media to challenge male violence has succeeded in raising public awareness and sending out a clear message that such behaviour should not be tolerated. The Trust works will statutory and voluntary organisations throughout Europe to influence policy and develop innovative working practices which tackle the root causes of violence. ZT Trading Limited produces the Zero Tolerance campaign material. The company specialises in cause-related advertising an marketing communications for the non-profit sector including:

• developing innovative campaign and publicity material
• event and project management
• media training and consultancy

ZT Trading Limited is wholly owned by the Trust and all profits from the company are channelled back into the Trust.
In this section a short description of the various voluntary or feminist organisations/ campaign groups involved with domestic violence will be outlined. These include Women's Aid, Southall Black Sisters, Rape Crisis, Victim Support ChildLine, Zero Tolerance, and various campaign groups such as Beyond the Best Interest of the Child, AMICA, ROW, Justice for Women, Women Against Rape and the Campaign to End Rape.

CONCLUSION

During the 1980s and 1990s there has been a sea change in the recognition of male violence against women and children in Britain. There has been a gradual acknowledgement and critique of a number of abuses which were invisible and even nameless a generation ago (Lacey 1998:101). This includes child abuse and child prostitution, marital rape, homosexual rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment. Despite the inadequacy of the law in these areas, it should not be forgotten that feminist critique has at the least challenged the acceptability of much coercive and violence behaviour which were taken for granted in previous generations.

Much still needs to be done but there is some cause for cautious optimism. The 1990s have witnessed an increasing concern about the scale and effects of domestic violence. Research has clearly demonstrated the links between child and woman abuse in the family, both physical and sexual, but the effects of children witnessing violence against women is only beginning to be understood.

The judicial system is in dire need of reform and until some mandatory training and monitoring is introduced, for judges and barristers, it is doubtful that progress will be made. The civil courts are failing to adequately punish men for breaking injunctions which makes a mockery of recent legislative reforms and domestic violence is not being taken seriously.

There is also increasing understanding of the inadequacy of the institutional responses to the problem. As we have seen, a number of improvements have occurred in the past decade at both national and local level. The police have been at the forefront of criticism and since 1990 have been directed by the Home Secretary to treat domestic violence as a crime . Domestic violence units have been set up in most police areas and the Domestic Violence Intervention Project (DVIP) is a landmark. The police are also taking an active part in multi-agency forums across the country. However overall police interventions are patchy and there is a great need for more resources to be allocated into domestic violence, for more arrests to be made and for all police to receive adequate training about domestic violence, its effects and how to deal with it.

Better training is also essential in other areas. Health workers in particular are often ill informed about domestic violence.. However, in the 1990s the health services are beginning to address the problem and to develop adequate monitoring procedures and guidelines for practice. The shortcomings in the responsiveness of the social services has also been documented and the failure to link the abuse of children with the abuse of women is an issue of widespread concern. All too often domestic violence is seen as a child protection issue rather than as involving the abuse of women which needs to be addressed. Additionally the particular service needs for different ethnic groups is gradually being recognised, but given the scale of the problem, far more resources need to be invested in this area.

At local level more than 200 multi-agency forums are struggling to produce guidelines to good practice and other means of improving service delivery. Co-ordination of services, however, is only possible when the services themselves are adequate, which is far from the case in many areas. Adequate resources are most needed for the provision of refuges, support services, both voluntary and statutory.

The most significant developments in England and Scotland have been developed by feminist groups such as Women's Aid and Zero Tolerance. Compared to many other countries the provision, however inadequate, of refuges is significant, but the problem of homelessness may be greater in England than in other countries where the family is more integrated. Progress has however been slow and, as Harwin (1997) documents, escaping from violence can be as hard as it was twenty years ago. Cuts in local authority spending are having a disastrous effect on services. Progress very much depends on the government addressing the problem of resources. In the long run investing in services for women and children suffering from domestic violence would be a cost saving measure as well as a human rights issue.

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