----- Original Message -----
From: Anne Harris
To: richard@crimeandsociety.org.uk
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 4:47 PM
Subject: Modern Urban Myths - Domestic Violence Some Questions Answered.

Hi Richard,

I received an e-mail from your foundation today requesting views on the five central points contained in the paper 'Is the criminal justice system - as the Prime Minister has argued - 'utterly useless for getting on top of 21st century crime'? This has prompted me to contact you.

I am a voluntary domestic violence help-line worker for a registered charity called SNAP based in St Neots, Cambridgeshire which was founded fifteen years ago because there were no professional / voluntary organisations available in the area to help those suffering from domestic abuse. Although this is a social issue, at the start of our project it was even very difficult for women to receive the necessary help because some local authorities believed there couldn’t possibly be any abuse victims in our area.

According to government research, domestic violence is costing the UK £23bn yearly nearly all of which is spent on women as they are shown as being the victims and men the perpetrators. This contradicts our helpline experiences and thirty years of international research and studies that indicate overwhelmingly women are as violent towards men as men are towards women who are five times more likely to report the violence. However, although there is now the opportunity to acknowledge that both men and women can be violent and both can ill-treat children the Government will not change their policies.

To stop the appalling crime of domestic violence we have to address this and, also the problem of unstable relationships that are fuelling it even more. The Home Office has previously acknowledged that marital breakdown presents a key risk factor in domestic violence. In fact, the biggest protection against domestic violence and child abuse is marriage – the very institution that government is busy destroying along with men’s rights. By encouraging fatherlessness, this government is putting children last.

Research shows the root cause of the huge rise in anti-social behaviour and juvenile crime lies in family breakdown. Through this we are creating future perpetrators of domestic abuse who will be far more violent. SNAP has joined groups throughout the country and we have formed the Coalition for Equal Parenting and are lobbying all political parties to try and reverse the family breakdown trend. We are founder members of the Huntingdonshire Domestic Violence Forum and attend the ‘Friend’s’ committee that help raise funds for the refuge for women and children that was built through SNAP’s nine-year campaign. We liaise with drug/alcohol groups, and network with other local organisations - we deal with racial, religious and sexual hate crime discrimination through the Open Out Project. We have mentored young offenders and have a very good working relationship with local colleges’ community education tutors and youth workers. People, university students and professional organisations throughout the UK are contacting us for advice. Our helpline is open 12 hours daily each week.

Most members of society find abuse unacceptable and all have probably made contributions towards women’s safety. I would like to think that most people would not like anyone to suffer abuse. However, as I have already stated, domestic violence is a social problem made up of men, women and children victims and unless we look at it in a balanced way, we are never going to break the cycle of abuse.

Below is the link to our booklet that we've just had printed. This has been based on data gathered from the BCS, the ONS and Home Office statistics and research papers. In that regard it is unique in published information about domestic violence. I thought you may find it of interest:

Modern Urban Myths - Domestic Violence Some Questions Answered.pdf

http://www.mensaid.com/modern_urban_myths.htm

Vera Baird MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Dept of Constitutional Affairs (and a lawyer), has been minded to describe the booklet as "a masterpiece of self-serving inaccuracy".

Why, you must ask?

Particularly when her boss the Minister of State, Rt Hon Harriet Harman QC MP, has described the same booklet as " very impressive and wants you [St Neots] to keep up the good work".

Could it be that the booklet demolishes much of what Vera Baird has been advocating in the House and casts doubt on what is left standing ?

Yours cordially,
Anne Harris,
Voluntary Help-line Worker/Project Coordinator. Member Men's Aid

St. Neots Abuse Project(SNAP).

www.snapdomesticviolence.org.uk

If it’s broke, don’t fix it

By Richard Garside, Acting Director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London and is Chair of the Crime and Society Foundation. April 2006

The American political scientist Barrington Moore once warned against 'the tendency to accept uncritically the notion that the present generation has really settled certain questions more or less permanently'. In Moore's sights were those who considered that certain historical questions had been answered through historical enquiry; that further research was, in essence, little more than commentary.

To read more please visit http://www.crimeandsociety.org.uk/articles/ifbroke.html

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This article was published in 'Whitehall and Westminster World' (April 2006) and is an abbreviated version of a pamphlet that will be published by the Crime and Society Foundation in the early summer.