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THE GOVERNMENT’S €950,000 domestic violence campaign aimed at involving bystanders who witness abuse and getting them to act or offer support will begin this Friday.
The campaign is based on research which shows that although 70% of people think domestic abuse in Ireland is a common problem and wish to help, people were unsure of what to do in reaction to incidences of domestic violence.
Funding for the campaign is allocated for 2016 and 2017, and involves artwork from Oscar-winning director Ben Cleary and an award-winning photographer.
The campaign will be launched across outdoor, online, print, and television outlets, and depicts both men and women being assaulted through a half-open door.
The campaign was launched today by Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, who said that the campaign would aim to change behaviours and attitudes and to ensure men and women didn’t feel isolated.
Figures in the Attitudes to Domestic Abuse in Ireland survey show that 9% of people would help a friend, 65% would help a stranger and 38% would help a neighbour being subjected to domestic abuse.
This campaign calls on us as relatives, friends neighbours, bystanders and witnesses to collectively say that domestic violence is not right and it must stop.
Speaking on the additional funding, the Minister said that the upturn in the economy allowed funds to be freed up for the cause:
“I do think it is money well spent. This is a problem, and we need to interrupt it.”
She also said that this national ad campaign would be accompanied by local and grassroots projects, and that there needed to be greater supports around home ownership.
“Women who choose to stay in their family home need to be supported, and there will be those who have to leave. Perpetrators will also be brought to justice.”
Taking action
This is a point that Margaret Martin, director of Women’s Aid says is important – if you see an incidence of violence happen, that is a crime that needs to be reported, “just like a car crash would be”.
But if you’re unsure of what you saw, or if you happen to notice signs, such as regular bruises on someone, you should reach out to the person.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie at the launch, she said that it was important to tailor responses to the individual you’re concerned about, emphasising the Tánaiste’s point that there is no ‘one right way’ to respond to domestic violence.
“This campaign is about action, but your action could be as simple as saying to someone ‘I’m concerned about you’ and listening to them and what they have to say.”
Domestic violence in Ireland
It is estimated that around 300,000 people in Ireland have been severely abused by a partner at some point in their lives. This breaks down to 213,000 women and 88,000 men.
Although the campaign depicts both men and women who are at risk of domestic violence, the images of women will appear most frequently in the campaign, in proportion to figures which show they are more likely to be victims of violence, as well as more extreme cases.
The campaign will run for six years – with the first three years focusing on domestic violence, and the second three years dealing with cases of sexual violence (pending the necessary funding).
Funding of €200,000 has also been made available under the Dormant Accounts Fund to localise the campaign in 2016 and 2017.
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A million quid on a PR exercise?
Meanwhile children are dying for lack of proper medical treatment.
Gone beyond absurd at this point.
No mention of children in your report? They don’t matter ? I would have thought domestic violence would at least include children in a domestic setting
Yeah perhaps in the next one we can see a woman attacking her kids, children are more likely to be abused by their mother.
@Eva Carneiro: Is that not classified as child abuse? I know they’re both violence in a domestic setting but I think its only between partners its domestic violence
@Snow Problem: I hear you Snow.
On a related note, in Canada (and UK, I believe) there are new steps being made to take children from being classed as “witnesses” of domestic abuse to being classed as victims.
There are steps in the UK, with regard to divorce courts, where if a partner poisons a child’s attitude or love for the other parent, the partner that encourages a child to hate the other parent, can be charged with “child abuse” – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/relationships/fatherhood/11342027/We-must-stop-turning-children-against-divorced-fathers.html
Overall though, the picture is quite murky at present… with a lot of work to be done on leveling the ground around domestic violence perpetrators of either gender and ALL their victims, incl children.
Hi grainne – i suspect a typo in sixth paragraph…. Only 9% would help a friend in DV situation while 65% would help a stranger?
Another campaign highlighting domestic abuse as one which involves physical assault. It’s the emotional abuse that does the worst damage. A lot of people on the receiving end domestic abuse say if only they had hit me I would have woken up to it a bit sooner. They don’t even realise they are being abused or they think that because they haven’t got the physical bruises nobody will believe them.
Does emotional abuse include hen peck nagging? If we did an ad campaign to encourage people to step in when they saw that every woman in the country would have to be pulled aside.
Spot on, psychological torture is the weapon chosen by the more sinister abuser…
That’s complete nonsense, emotional abuse is not comparable to physically abuse in anyway.
Hopefully you won’t experience it in your lifetime as I’ve seen emotional abuse lead directly to self harming, serious break downs & even suicide – it’s just as impactful as the physical abuse
And very hard to convince others it’s going on. The abuser can be so controling, conniving and convincing.
You know what Eva, in many ways it is worse.
The campaign should strongly highlight the criminal offences that are usually committed by a perpetrator under the family law acts, the children’s acts and non fatal offences against the person acts. It should also provide information regarding the options and state assistance available to the victims of domestic violence. There should be acceptable short term refuge facilities available to victims but the priority should be leaving the victim in the home and removing the abuser. Any campaign should drive home a zero tolerance attitude by all with serious consequences to be faced by a would-be perpetrator, including being barred from the family home or imprisonment or both.
@tally ho:Provided the “abuser” is convicted in court of law. In this country you are Innocent untill proven guilty.
An abuser can’t be barred from the home or imprisoned without going through the court process.
Everything you just said exists and is done in abundance . The problem is convincing the victim to take the steps necessary for them.
The breakdown of 213k versus 88k is pure fiction, it’s far closer by almost every international study. Especially when you include children who are far more likely to be abused by their mothers. This will not doubt be another white wash and demonization of men(many of whom are victims) Domestic abuse is not a gender issue and Feminists organisation like women’s, NWCI and safe Ireland shouldn’t be any where near policy makers. Things are changing thankfully and people are recognising that this is not a gender issue albeit the feminists dominated media are lagging behind(probably tactically for more clicks though)
I am normally inclined to highlight the under representation of males as victims myself, but I gotta say, from what I have read in the article, both are going to be represented as victims here. I don’t mind that females will be more represented too much, just because for once it shows men as something other than solely perpetrator. Take the small win where you can. If there is anything I could find to criticise, it would be that they don’t seem to mention highlighting the disparity in victim services between genders. But I suppose it makes sense since the campaign is less about service provision and more about encouraging others to stand up.
As a young child witnessing domestic abuse first hand, what else could I do but take it as the norm? Sad to see things like that growing up all the more tragic to think that beating wives/mothers/kids was acceptable. Saw it at home in the evenings and on weekends, saw it at school during the week.. :-(
This campaign is aimed at bystanders and what they should do if they witness abuse .. not sure this is the way to spend all that money on .. they are not on the recieving end.
That headline sounds like you can get paid to beat the wife up
No mention of dogs, surely domestic violence against dogs goes unreported. Give them a voice.
@Jimmy Berg: that’s animal abuse a completely separate issue Jimbob ya mong
This is important. Too many of us think we should mind our own business. These victims need our help.
As a man who was on the receiving end of mental, emotional abuse for years, physically so in the last two, I believe an ad campaign, although not aimed at the person experiencing the abuse, would still have helped me in some way… just by the fact of my own awareness that others may have become aware too, and thereby more approachable for possible help.
I’m in a better place now, waaaay better :)
I’d like to see an end to The Duluth Model of DV intervention as it is incapable of viewing women as perpetrators nor men as victims, as well as a number of other problems. But maintaining the model is from what I can see ideologically lead, and not scientifically and research lead. And trying to turn around ideological thinking en masse can take decades, as anyone who has ideological differences with the Catholic Church will know.
This campaign is a start, there is hope.
This is useless. In the first one, what is the sister supposed to do if after she tells her sister she’s worried and asks what’s happening the sister denies it or plays it down. And most of the time that’s exactly what she will do. And if she calls the guards then, her sister will be angry with her, it will enrage the abuser, and it will give him ammunition to cut off the victim from her sister because she’s ‘sticking her nose in’ etc.
In the second one, that’s just not how most men would behave in that scenario. What they actually do is try to hide it because they’re ashamed, especially in front of another man. And if that witness intervened, the victim, again, would deny it, claim it was all under control, minimize it etc. Most of the time that’s how it goes.
The victim often gets angry because they feel shame at being thought of as a victim in need of help or that the witness is implying that they can’t handle the situation themselves. So they can lash out and become more defensive and less likely to confide in future.
When people say they don’t know what to do when they witness domestic violence, that’s what they’re actually talking about. No one needs to be told that you can call the guards or ask the person how they are. It’s what happens after that that people could do with guidance for dealing with.
Can you name the womans groups who were not supportive of these adds? Heard it mentioned on radio today
Probably the usual disgusting feminist crowd. They are afraid they will lose funding if we all recognise that DV is not a gender issue
@Trevor Beacom:
Any of the groups that support The Duluth Model, and any of the groups that are feminist in their approach to domestic violence will not like this campaign.
That includes SAFE Ireland and Women’s Aid for sure as both show unwavering support for the Duluth Model of DV intervention, a model incapable of viewing women as perpetrators, nor men as victims.
Additionally, in last week’s SAFE Ireland Summit, one of the invited speakers (paid for with tax payer money and donations) is a UK anti-gender neutral approach to DV campaigner – Karen Ingala Smith. This feminist, and faux equality campaigner, is a denier of the statistics in male victims of domestic violence. Karen Ingala Smith doesn’t just outright dismiss these statistics, but even dismisses the experts when she is corrected, and goes
further to explain how she sees such statistics as “unhelpful at best, it is derailing and dangerous at worst.”
You can read up on this crud of a being, and her despicable approach to DV here – https://kareningalasmith.com/2013/04/29/this-thing-about-male-victims/
SAFE Ireland is for women only, the name is misleading. They do NOT campaign for justice male victims. That is fine, accept that they, and Women’s Aid, campaign to maintain a known to be broken model of DV intervention.
The Duluth Model is a “pro-feminist psychoeducational approach, [ known as the Duluth model ] (named after the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project in Duluth, Minnesota), is the most frequently used model (Feder & Wilson, 2005).
The Duluth model views domestic abuse as being rooted in patriarchal societal beliefs that portray men as having the right to exert power and control over women (Babcock, Green, & Robie, 2004).
Feminist principles are used to confront the men’s beliefs, assist them to recognize their wrongful actions, and replace them with more appropriate behaviours that appreciate woman as equal partners in the relationships (Pence & Paymar, as cited in Babcock et al., 2004, p. 1026). ” http://www.ucalgary.ca/resolve/files/resolve/paths-of-change-qualitative-research-.pdf
…basically, feminism has been in control of most of the information around DV since the 1960s; at a time when feminism ditched attacking Capitalism and switched their focus on attacking what they call the ‘patriarchy’. Feminists kicked out progressive domestic violence persons like Erin Pizzey (author of the first ever book on DV in the world; and founder of the first woman’s shelter in the world) as she wanted to take an overall look at the entire picture of DV – both male and female abusers; and male and female victims.
But, this approach jarred with feminist rhetoric and ideology which is incapable of seeing men as victims in DV situations, and upon taking over (compromising thew work) the work in DV that the brilliant Erin Pizzey was doing, they shut down all notions of being an all encompassing program, and instead turned domestic violence into a cash cow for the feminist movement. It’s really quite despicable what feminism is capable of in the treatment of male victims of DV.
Good news is, this is starting to change… it’ll be slow, but it is happening. A little late for me, I had between six and seven years of abuse to deal with, the last two years dealing with daily suicidal ideation and an escalation to physical violence by my partner.
Today, I am not a victim. I am a DV survivor.
Tell me what to do, then. I’ve seen someone step up to a physical abuse situation between partners, who instantly turned their abuse to the guy who stepped up
Most, if not all,abusers are cowards, who can be restrained by close monitoring, once abuse is reported.
The problem usually is exposing the abuse to enable monitoring, to enable & encourage reporting, so that focus comes to bear on the culprits.
Go on, tell me what to do? Ive seen someone step up and had physical abuse from both parties
have your say