Domestic Violence

[Midland Retty]

Often both the fire service and other fire safety professionals work alongside partnership agencies such as the police and other agencies to protect domestic violence victims.

Are any firenet members involved in this particular area of community safety, and if so would they be able to confirm if they have had a sharp increase in the number of domestic violence referrals or cases in their area within the past 6 to 12 months (ie prior to world cup)?

We certainly have on our patch, and I'm wondering if there are similar trends or patterns elsewhere in the country.

[Chris Houston]

I spent January to October 2009 working in a domestic and sexual violence clinic in Papua New Guinea.

Sorry, I assume the country you mean is England and I wasn't there during the world cup.  Rugby was more of an issue there with the Australian "State of Origin" matches resulting in increased levels of street violence, but this didn't alter the domestic violence statistics as far as I know.

But is this really "Community Fire Safety"?  Would you be agreeable to moving this to general interest?

[Midland Retty]

I did begin to type this in the "general interest" section, but thought you would move it to this forum, as it does pertain to community safety per se, and to a lesser extent community fire safety.

[Chris Houston]

Looking at the definitions, it seems to me that it ought to be in General Interest.  Hope you might get some more relevant replies than mine in there!   

[Midland Retty]

Cheers Chris 

[Cat]

Hiya,

I can't give actual figures for up here but I know incident wise, it felt like every other call was a Domestic Violence (DV) incident during the world cup especially when they lost.  I don't think there was much change beforehand.  When they were knocked out the DV call count felt like it went through the roof.

It has been know that DV incidents do seem to increase when football matches are on.  If the team lose, the supporters, generally male, will go home after a few drinks and take out their frustration at the team losing on their other half, continue drinking, get angry at their team losing, take their frustration out on their other half....................... and it goes round.  This is a known trend certainly up on the force I work for.  I for one am glad it was over when it was. 

Consequently if people have been drinking then fire safety would certainly become an issue if for example they leave food on a cooker and fall asleep.  Out of interest did the world cup affect the sorts of calls you were attending as a fire service?

[Midland Retty]

The fire safety issue is two fold. To explain:-

The Fire Service undertake visits to victim's homes along with the police. They carry out joint assessments on how the premises could be safer and more secure for the victim.

The fire service often fit things like anti arson letter box protectors where necessary, smoke detectors, and give general fire safety advice.

The police recommend and fit certain security measures such as sash jammers,"birmingham bars", view finders, mini security cameras and the like, to improve security.

Operational issues are also considered - ie fire action plans etc etc - how the fire service enter premises if high security measures are installed etc.

Sometimes panic / safe  rooms are installed with funding provided from various support groups etc.

Secondly as Cat points out when someone is enraged and / or drunk it follows that there is greater risk of an accident occurring or incidence of an agitated person doing something reckless or violent.

We have seen an upward trend of victims coming forward for help.  It is alarming to see how many we are getting through - almost one a day now.

The World Cup certainly has increased the instances of domestic violence, but even before the tournament began cases were increasing.


 

[Chris Houston]

Anti arson letter boxes, Birmingham bars, door spy hole viewers etc all protect from someone trying to break in.  If the perpetrator is outside the home, how is this domestic violence?  Domestic violence is surely violence from within the home?

[Cat]

The official definition of DV that they teach with the police is:

           "Any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (Psychological, physical,
           mental, sexual, financial or emotional) between two consenting adults who are or
           have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality"

Take the following case:
  A couple have split because of DV issues.  There was no official divorce or anything so technically they are still married but one half basically booted the other half out after years of abuse.  The other half had over a short period of time following being booted out continued to make contact with the other person and continued to threaten her through her letter box saying he was going to set the place on fire and kill her. 

They have been intimate partners, i.e married, threatening behaviour is occuring and so DV is present.  DV is quite commonly found in fact between partners who have been intimatly involved and have recently split and or where a female has become pregnant and is within I think the first 9 weeks.

If the people involved are not living in the same house then you would need to look at other factors such as will this person really set fire to the property? Is there a history that involves fire related incidents?  Are there other factors to consider such as alcohol, drugs, etc

[Midland Retty]

Obviously it starts within then home. Domestic violence is perhaps a misleading term but it refers to violence towards family members, not that it necessarily happens inside a house.

If an offender physically (or in some cases verbally) attacks their partner in the park, at the supermarket, down the pub, it all constiutes domestic violence.

In the cases we deal with often the perpetrator will be estranged from their partner for one reason or another - perhaps the offender have been sent to jail because of their violent behaviour, but has then made threats that upon release from prison they will injure or even kill their partners and or children. (Raul Mote did that)

In some cases the victim has fled the family home but their whereabouts have been found out by the enraged perpetrator.

Victims homes are generally an easy target - clearly that is where you can almost guarantee the victim will be at certain times during the day. Hence why target hardening and protection is implemented, so that if the ex partner does show up, the victim can be kept in relative safety, giving them time to call the police, and await till help arrives.

Some victims are advised to move out of the area, to a new undisclosed location, but its not always that easy to just up sticks and go elsewhere.

[Midland Retty]

whooops just noted Cat had replied just before me - you have hit the nail on the head Cat

[Cat]

Couldn't argue with anything you've said there Retty.  Kind of what I was trying to say but much more eloquently put

From a policing point of view the other problem we have is where one Officer is dealing with the case.  The person may have been moved to a "safe house", refuge or they have had to be moved maybe that night with no warning.  The paperwork wouldn't necessarily have gone through yet so not every Police Station will be aware of what has gone on.  Sometimes the perpertrator will then go to a different Police Station and try to find out where they are staying claiming to be another concerned relative (i.e not the perpertrator)  If people are not aware of the full situation then they could quite easily give out the address and the "safe address" gets targeted.  This has previously happened where someone ended up being killed due to addresses wrongly being given out.  I would imagine this would be less of an issue for the fire service but the fire safety issue would still be the concern.

P.S, I'll let you off for not noticing I'd already replied!