Police and Domestic Violence - Queens speech

...

Foreword by
Cherie Booth QC:

"Increasingly, statistics demonstrate just how widespread that problem is. We now know that one woman in four will be abused by her partner at some point in her life and that domestic violence represents 25 per cent of all recorded violent crime in Britain.[Note 1]"

PREVENTING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TO WOMEN

REBECCA MORLEY AND AUDREY MULLENDER

POLICE RESEARCH GROUP CRIME PREVENTION UNIT SERIES:
PAPER NO.48

LONDON: HOME OFFICE POLICE DEPARTMENT

Editor: Gloria Laycock

Home Office Police Research Group
50 Queen Anne's Gate London SW1H 9AT

1994

The Crime of Domestic Violence to Women

Definition

Domestic violence to women is commonly referred to simply as 'domestic violence',
and the term is used throughout this report as shorthand.However, the crimes

addressed do not include all domestic crimes, nor do they invariably occur within the

domestic setting. Rather, they concern men's violence to their women partners or ex-partners. Although these crimes involve physical violence, the physical is usually

but one aspect of a now well documented pattern of abuse which includes verbal threats, intimidation, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, physical and
social isolation,

economic deprivation, and the like (eg. Dobash and Dobash 1980)."

POLICE RESEARCH GROUP CRIME PREVENTION UNIT SERIES:
PAPER NO.48

Nowhere is safe once trust disappears (3)
Subject: Police Officers and Domestic Violence

What are the unintended consequences of plans announced in the Queens Speech that lead to suspending police officers accused of domestic violence in Family Courts?
How will Government react to the loss of at least one quarter of male officers?

The myths of domestic violence

Home Office Research Study 191:
Home Office Research Study 191 on domestic violence, published in January this year, was based on self-reporting interviews with about 10,000 men and women as part of the 1996 British Crime Survey of England and Wales.

It is thus by far the most comprehensive and reliable study of domestic violence carried out in this country, and as such should be viewed as having authority. [Compare with the 200 people in Hackney interviewed by Stanko leading to her report stating 25% of women being subjected to violence, headlined in the Express and elsewhere].

The Home Office study 191 found an almost equal and numerically very small culpability of 4% in couple relationships. In a 12-month period 4% of men and 4% of women reported being assaulted by their partner, although more women reported injury (in a ratio of two to one), and more women were chronic victims (in a ratio of three to one).

reprinted from http://www.ivorcatt.com/2206.htm

Prof. Stanko replied by email;

" I will forward you a copy of the report 'counting the costs'…. As for the figures used by the Cabinet Office [in "Press Release" above], there is no citation for that figure in the report. I suggest you contact the Women's Unit directly as I only received my copy of the document this week. I did not write it".

But Counting the Costs is written by Prof. Stanko together with 3 other female authors, and it does cite the "1 in 4" totem. It is published by Crime Concern and funded by the Children Society and Hackney Safer Cities.

The so-called "survey", of only 107 postal respondees to agencies and 129 women in GP's surgeries, is loose, lightweight and limited, but still manages to stretch to 70 pages.
By the time the reader gets to page 9 it is blatantly apparent that this is a document based on speculation, estimates and assumptions. ….

From:   john_humphries [mailto:john_humphries@blueyonder.co.uk]
Sent:   05 December 2003 18:13
To:      Info@acpo.co.uk; mailmaster@west-midlands.police.uk
Cc:      dianne.johson@homeoffice;            rich.sturgen@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Dear Sir,

I notice today's announcement concerning plans to suspend police officers accused of domestic violence.

Given that most domestic violence units in forces throughout the country quote a figure of one in four women being subject to domestic violence and today's reports indicating that it may occur more frequently in relationships involving police officers, can you please explain how the loss of at least one quarter of male officers will effect operational efficiency.

Yours

John Humphries

....Archive Material

1 of 2
Date: 30th October 2001

Dear Mr. Whiston

Re: Domestic Violence

Thank you for your recent visit to discuss matters surrounding domestic violence.

I accept that domestic violence is perpetrated by women as well as men, and that this needs to be recognised by the formulators of public policy. The research and evidence you have amassed clearly supports this and it dispels the outdated myth that men are the sole perpetrators and women are the sole victims. I will keep this in mind in any discussions I have in the realm of policing domestic violence. In the end however, regardless of the any debate or dispute about the proportions of male and female victims, any victim needs to know that there is support available. Your role in victim support is commendable.

Although the circumstances you have described surrounding the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Domestic Violence Forum are unfortunate as are outmoded feminist-led views about domestic violence, I am not aware that the MPS has in fact adopted a policy which is discriminatory against men, either in terms of the investigation of reported domestic violence incidents or in terms of barriers to the career-advancement of male police officers.

Like any other criminal offence, policemen convicted of a domestic violence offence will face disciplinary action; that is proper.

However, allegations of domestic violence dealt with in a Family Court where proof does not have to be beyond reasonable doubt for decisions to be taken, are kept quite separate from and do not impinge upon a police officer's career.

Only a very small proportion of police officers have to undergo a vetting process to be posted on the most sensitive units, like Special Branch or the Anti-Terrorist Unit, which will naturally take into account (non-criminal) aspects of personal reputation and conduct, including personal finances.

Because of the very special nature of these jobs, this 'intrusion' is
considered acceptable, and I would certainly not wish to challenge it.

I have asked one of my GLA and MPA colleagues, Jennette Arnold (Labour), who was on the Mayor's Advisory Group which came up with the Mayor's report, 'Addressing the crime of domestic violence: Developing a strategy for London' to comment on your report `From Hero to Zero' to comment. I have asked her what has been taken on board or amended as a result of your input.

The GLA plans to launch its domestic violence strategy on 22"d November.

Yours sincerely

Richard Barnes, GLA

2 of 2

Tel 0208-399-2224 & 07768-382658
Mr. Robert Elder
Police Federation
15-17 Langley Road
Surbiton Friday, 30 March 2001
KT6.6LP

Dear Mr. Elder,

Following our phone conversations of last week and the previous week please find attached the relevant paperwork. For ManKind this is a matter of men's civil rights and for your organisation the moves afoot within the Met may prejudice your members and your role to defend member's interests. Any information you feel able to pass on to us about Betsy Stanko's activities in Boston prior to her arrival in the UK would be appreciated.

[ and in another letter to him i wrote ] "..... I realises you are perhaps presently distracted by your association's conference but I urge you to look 2 or 3 years ahead to what may await your members in the Met and then other police forces."

Comment by Fathercare.org :-

Blaming only one gender for domestic violence polarizes men and women:-

California State Long Beach University professor Martin Fiebert has compiled an on-line bibliography which examines 130 scholarly investigations (104 empirical studies and 26 reviews and/or analyses) which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 77,000.(www.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/assault.htm)