Abstract

Article

The recent tragic and beastial murder of a woman and three children by their husband/father emphasises the need to work harder to find a solutionto domestic violence.  That is the onlly positive point emerging from this horrendous crime.

What has made it so notorious also has a down side over and above the dreadful hurt that was done to this lady and her innocent children.  That is, that it is such a horrifying thought that it produces a highly charged emotional response which makes it difficult to engage in rational discussion of the subject.

It encourages those who have an excessively passionate view which distorts their reason, though it does not diminish the loudness of their voices.  It also provides fodder for the irresponsible media to sensationalise and generalise, at great length and gross distortion, which again makes suitablly srong resolution difficult to discuss.

Any reasonable introduction of balance, care and reason is in grave danger of hysterical derogation, and a practical and effctive resolution by calm, rational and purposeful discussion which might produc an acceptable solution is denounced in rabid emotive terms.

In the ranks of the irrational agitators, there is a tendency to blame the victim.  At the other extreme there are those who speak as if the victim were always without fault.  The victim is never to blame for the  excessive harm that is done, but it would be naive to say that the victim's conduct was never blameworthy or contributed to the worsening situation which finally drivves the other, totally unjustifiably, to a loss of control which leads to violent conduct.  That is not to say that the victim's contribution too is not moved by the stresses of the situation and an inability to cope or show proper restraint.

Those who are physically violent are mostly men, to an overwhelming proportion, but it must also be remembered that sometimes women are the perpetrators, and their victims may include their innocent children.  This too is tragic and horrifying, but there is often a tendency fo those of extreme views to justify the perpetrator by reference to a broken state of mind and a feeling that there was no other course.  That may be true in many cases, but reason would dictate that the same approach should be taken if the perpetrator were a man.

Cases of alcohol or drug fuelled misconduct are very important and widespread and are in a different class, but the only answer to that lies in prevention of the cause. In those cases, the abusers have no reasonable excuse when the consequences of their addiction become patent.

The inter-personal problem is complex and difficult.In many cases, it involves human nature when great stress is put upon people who cannot cope with it because they do not have the capaciity, socially or emotionally, to cope with it, and they turn to the only weapon they have - physical violence.  THIS IS NOT TO CONDONE WHAT THEY DO: IT IS ONLY TO RECOGNISE THE MACHINERY.  if physical violence is not available to them because it would not be effective, they  turn to other means, such as psychological violence in their relationship with the other partner and through the children.  Again, this is often the product of stress with which they are unable to cope.

Once the situation becomes very bad, the person's loss of control may lead to shocking consequences, and the problem is that then no amount of abhorrence of the acts which are committed nor any threat of condign punishment is at all meaningful to the party thus involved.  No form of effective deterrence is possible.

The only effective solution would seem to be through strong powers to enforce consultation and direction by experts, including detention ffor treatment of one or both parties, and evenhandedness on the part of the experts.  Even then, there will inevitably be cases which fail, with shocking results.

A measure of the want of reasonable discussion in the clamour of the extremeists and the media came about when a senior detective who was in charge of investigating the recent case said in effect that he would have to investigate the extent to which the victim may have contributed to the perpetrator's state of mind that caused him to lose control, as the results so clearly show.  For daring to suggest that he would have to investigate whether the victim was less than perfect (he did not suggest that she was), he was pilloried, and in a show of weakness the Police Commissioner found it easirer to say that he was wrong.  What sort of investigation fo a report to the Coroner would it have been if that issue were not investigated.  Of course, it would have suited the agitators.