As this is my first contribution to this virtual community, I should
introduce myself. My background is in work with men who have been convicted
of offences relating to the abuse of women partners. I was one of the
founders of the Edinburgh (Scotland) Domestic Violence Probation Project in
1990.
In common with many cities, Edinburgh formed a multi-agency strategy to
address domestic abuse. As a member of that forum I was struck by the
approach that other agencies had to abusing men. My co-worker Rory Macrae
and I had become comfortable working with abusing men and had assumed that
others working with abuse would be similar. We noted that practitioners
seemed to avoid contact with the abusing man preferring to focus on the
victim. In the absence of contact with the man, the responsibility for
ending the abuse sometimes felt to be left with the victim, with the only
solution appearing to be getting the woman to leave the home.
In 1998 at a Scottish conference on domestic abuse we presented -"Making
men Visible"- an approach that attempts to encourage agencies involved in
this field to bring the abusing man into the picture. This led to the
development of multi-disciplinary workshops to discuss the obstacles that
agencies and workers place in the way of tackling abuse by approaching the
abuser.
These workshops were fascinating. We tried to create a comfortable
atmosphere where participants could genuinely reflect on their practice.
The result was that they began talking about how they felt towards men who
use violence. Not surprisingly it revealed childhood memories for some
workers and for others the equally understandable feelings of physical fear
of having contact with the man. Many of the participants saw themselves in
roles of authority and their anxiety was that the male 'client' might pick
it up their fear and they might feel disempowered. They then explored how
they justified to themselves avoiding the abusing partner and instead
focussing on the woman.
a.. "He works late and I don't get paid overtime to see him"
b.. "He'd never respond to anything - these men don't change"
c.. "She's the one who needs the support - if I can raise her assertiveness
maybe she'll be able to get the courage to leave him".
Each discipline then discussed ways in which the 'invisibility' of abusing
men may have been institutionalised by their agency.
a.. Child protection conferences held with only the non-abusing parent
attending.
b.. Local/national advertising campaigns on domestic abuse with helpline
numbers for victims only.
c.. Local and national audits of domestic abuse that totally exclude the
costs of abusing men.
In the last year, having been funded by the European Commission Daphne
Initiative, I have been able to take this work further. "Working with
men-as part of a multi agency approach to tackling domestic abuse", we have
formed a partnership group of a variety of agencies to develop an
intervention service for men for us all to access.
Some of the agencies represented are:
Child protection Social workers
Scottish Christian women against abuse
Children's Court System
Women's refuge worker
Schools
Family doctors
Army welfare services
Alcohol services.
Our proposal is for a 2-year plan:
Year 1: Major training and awareness in work with men for all involved
agencies in the city of Edinburgh.
Year 2: Develop and run an intervention service for men who are not
Court-mandated to attend and who can be either self referred
or by an agency concerned with their abuse.
To conclude, I see this way of working with abusing men as an essential and
integral part of any city's approach to tackling men's violence against
women partners. We have a responsibility to not only the woman who is the
current victim but to his potential victims.
Happy New Year and Best Wishes from Edinburgh
Moira Andrew
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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