An article from a newspaper in the UK is extolling the virtues of using GPS devices to protect women from their abusers, at the holiday season. It has been proven that the number of attacks increase around the holidays, so the police have devised this system to try and protect some of the known victims of repeated domestic violence.
Now this sounds all well and good, but I have some questions on the subject:
- Why are the abusers not in jail if they have abused their spouses repeatedly?
- How far away is the closest police car when the panic button is pushed?
- Who will protect the lady when the husband is released?
- And most of all, what happens after the holidays are over?
I am not saying it is not a good idea; at least they are making an attempt to stop the violence.It seems to be that it is always the victim that has to leave the home and go to a shelter, and start a whole new life, etc. etc. Many women are unable to press domestic violence charges through fear of their spouse, fear of their economic situation, fear for their children and fear and or reluctance to trust the authorities.
Some centers around the world are trying a new approach. They are working in conjunction with the police, social services and health care providers to try and identify people who are being abused. These are women who are afraid to speak up because of their fears. Their idea is to provide more than just temporary shelter for victims of abuse. The goal is to assign more workers to assist the victims of abuse to learn new skills, or to obtain a new job and to be provided with affordable housing.
Now some politicians will immediately start to talk about the cost of a comprehensive venture such as this but they are also the ones who say “we must do something about the problem” The answer to these people is to look at the high cost of domestic abuse, the effect it has on the children, and future generations, and the effect on the community.
Spousal abuse has to stop; domestic violence hurts all of us, but especially the children. We know that children of homes where there is domestic violence grow up with problems of their own, and many times the women’s shelters are seeing second and third generations of children coming through the doors. A young girl who sees her mother abused will very often end up as a victim of abuse herself. She will usually suffer from low self esteem.
A young man who watches his father beat his mother, grows up with a very bad attitude toward women. He often becomes a wife beater himself. If there is any kind of sexual abuse in the home directed toward the children, often the children grow up with some sexual deviancy at least or hatred towards the abuser and the partner of the abuser who did not stop the torture.
We must come up with a better plan and more awareness. Break the silence!
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