WUNRN
USA - To Stop Violence, Start at Home
By PAMELA SHIFMAN & SALAMISHAH TILLET - FEB. 3, 2015
Credit Keith Negley
Direct Link to Full 34-Page 2014 Study Report: GUNS &
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN – America’s Uniquely Lethal Domestic Violence Problem
http://everytown.org/documents/2014/10/guns-and-violence-against-women.pdf
It is long overdue that we stop talking about domestic violence (DV) as the
"Violence against women" problem. DV encompasses violence toward...
THE pattern is striking. Men who are eventually arrested for violent acts
often began with attacks against their girlfriends and wives. In many cases,
the charges of domestic violence were not taken seriously or were dismissed.
Before Tamerlan Tsarnaev was suspected of carrying out the bombing of the
Boston Marathon, he was arrested for beating his girlfriend. When Man Haron
Monis held 17 people hostage at a Lindt Chocolate cafe in Sydney, he had
already been charged as an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. Before
George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin to death in Florida, his ex-girlfriend
accused him of physically assaulting her. He faced no charges, but has been
arrested twice for alleged domestic violence since 2013.
A recent study found that more than half of the
110 mass shootings in the United States between January 2009 and July 2014
included the murder of a current or former spouse, an intimate partner or a
family member. Everytown
for Gun Safety, the group that released the study, found a
“noteworthy connection between mass-shooting incidents and domestic or family
violence.”
This connection is not limited to mass shootings. An analysis of the criminal justice history of
hundreds of thousands of offenders in Washington State suggests that a felony
domestic violence conviction is the single greatest predictor of future violent
crime among men.
With so much at stake, responding to violence against women should be a top
priority for everyone. Research tells us that violence is a learned behavior.
Boys who grow up in homes with abuse and domestic violence are nearly four times more likely to perpetrate domestic
violence than those who grow up in homes without it. Because violence in the
home tends to be a child’s first experience of it and is often defended as
either inevitable or trivial, it becomes the root and justifier of all
violence.
Men who commit violence rehearse and perfect it against their families
first. Women and children are target practice, and the home is the training
ground for these men’s later actions.
By intervening early and stopping violence in the home, we ensure the
safety of the women and children who are the first victims. We can also take
steps to make it harder for perpetrators to go on to commit additional crimes,
whether inside or outside the home. We could, for instance, decide that anyone
who committed domestic violence could not buy or own a gun. Yet in 35 states, those convicted of misdemeanor
domestic violence crimes and those subject to restraining orders can buy and
carry guns. Closing these and other gaps in federal and state laws on domestic
violence will save women’s lives, and by extension, many more.
And yet keeping guns out of the hands of domestic violence perpetrators is
only a small part of the solution. Preventing assaults at home from happening
in the first place is the key to ensuring the safety of our communities and the
security of our nation.
And while some consider that problem simply too big to tackle, the truth is
that we know where to look for solutions. In their landmark study published in the American
Political Science Review in 2012, Mala Htun and S. Laurel Weldon looked at 70
countries over four decades to examine the most effective way to reduce
violence against women. They found that the mobilization of strong, independent
feminist movements was a more important force in reducing violence against
women than the economic wealth of a nation, the representation of women in
government or the presence of progressive political parties. Strong and
thriving feminist movements help to shape public and government agendas and
create the political will to address violence against women.
As activists, we see this every day. The hundreds of feminist organizations
that work on this issue around this country are the best chance we have of
ending the epidemic of private violence, and therefore the epidemic of public
violence.
There are many small grass-roots groups that go after private and public
violence at their common root. Among them are A Long Walk Home
(founded by one of us), which uses art to empower young people to end violence
against girls and women; A Call to Men, which mobilizes men to stand up to
violence by other boys and men; and Tewa
Women United, which unites indigenous women to heal and transform
their communities.
Safe and democratic families are the key to ensuring safe and democratic
communities. Until women are safe in the home, none of us will be safe outside
the home.