29 Jan Domestic Violence Rehabilitation Project (draft)
Introduction
Domestic abuse is a problem that is both widely known but poorly understood. According to Women’s Aid, one incident of domestic abuse is reported to police every single minute. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) states that when it comes to domestic homicides, more than three-quarters (77%) of women are killed by their partner or ex-partner. The stats also say that two women a week are killed because of domestic homicide. With such startling and depressing numbers all around, what can be done to change this? For many years now, the emphasis when it comes to perpetrators of these crimes has been to either ignore them when the circumstances are not deemed to be serious or prison. As of this week according to the Howard League for Penal Reform, the UK’s prisons are over capacity by 7,620 people. The vast amount of people in prison are not there for committing domestic violence, they are out on the streets, at home, possibly still with the women or man they are abusing.
These people can not all be locked up, nor should they be. So instead of attempting to punish them for their behaviour by locking them in an overcrowded cell for 23 hours a day where they will learn nothing and therefore nothing will change, new approaches to tackling the scourge of domestic abuse are being tried across the country. An approach that centres on the abusers, that tries to challenge their behaviour rather than ignoring it. Ever since the first internationally recognised women’s refuge was founded in 1971 by Erin Prizzey. Chiswick’s Women’s Aid, now known as Refuge, the UK’s largest domestic abuse organisation in the UK has like many others prioritised the protection of and working with victims of domestic abuse. Whilst this work is absolutely vital to the safety and protection of victims and children, this emphasis has meant that the (often) men who commit these acts are all but shut out of finding a solution.
The Splitz Support Service is according to their website, “an independent charity and leading provider of domestic abuse support services in southwest England.” Set up in 1989 and originally called the Single Parent Alone Support Service by Fran Lewis who today remains as the Executive Director. It was in 2005 that it was renamed the Splitz Support Service, the name change was a recognition that the service was supporting people with a much wider range of issues. It was also in 2005 that Splitz launched their first program that was dedicated to perpetrators of domestic abuse. Since then, they have referred over 1,000 people to perpetrator programs.
Briefing document
