Men who use violence
This is the fourth article in a 7-part series about one of the most significant contributions to eliminating family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand in the last decade.
Too often when we talk about the work we do at RISE, it doesn’t always click that our primary focus is to help people stop using violence. In recent years, we have made a point to use gender inclusive language, like the phrase ‘people who use violence.’ But there’s no escaping the facts and the numbers: it is mostly men.
If you were going to read one of the reports from the Family Violence Death Review Committee (FVDRC) from the perspective of RISE’s work, the Sixth Report is it.
Published in April 2020, Men who use violence | Ngā tāne ka whakamahi i te whakarekereke looked at the lives of 97 men who used violence against their intimate partners between 2009 and 2017. They sought to understand the life trajectory of the men involved in family violence deaths from their birth to the death event.
The Committee took an ‘eyes wide open’ approach to explore the context in which a man will use violence against an intimate partner. In reviewing each death, they asked themselves, ‘How did this happen?’
It would take awhile to summarise the details here and you should read them for yourself, particularly if you care about this topic specifically as RISE does. The Committee’s overall findings are summed up nicely in the report’s introduction:
“The Committee draws attention to the historical and ongoing impact of colonisation, the corollary of privilege and the contribution of colonisation to individual and collective chronic and complex trauma. It recommends significant structural change from which services can identify effective strategies to address men’s use of violence.
“The men described in this report had actively sought support from a variety of services to address health and social issues that were evident in their trajectory towards using violence. However, help-seeking was often not met with an appropriate response. Trauma-and violence-informed service development addresses the barriers in accessing support, provides help in navigating support systems and creates emotionally and physically safe environments for staff as well as people engaging with services. The Committee highlights the characteristics of trauma- and violence-informed service design and how services developed in this manner may contribute to a reduction in men’s use of violence.
“Structural inequities are a feature of health, justice, mental health and addiction, and welfare services – all of which have a strong relationship with family violence.
We can see the beginnings of this work being addressed in Te Aorerekura, the National Strategy to Eliminate Family Violence and Sexual Violence, but there is farther yet to go.
Read the report
Follow this link to the full report, which we strongly recommend you read.
