Baselland launches pilot project against domestic violence specifically for women
Basler Zeitung; November 24, 2008, Michael Rockenbach
According to statistics, women are becoming more and more violent. Baselland is the first canton to respond to this trend with a new learning program against domestic violence.
He hits, she cries, suffers in silence or runs away. This is the classic distribution of roles in domestic violence. In the last few years, however, a new trend has emerged: women are also attacking more and more often. This is also evident in the Basel region. When there were reports of domestic violence, the police there noticed an increase in female suspects from 15 to 20 percent between 2005 and 2007. Criminal proceedings were ultimately opened against 35 A similar development can be seen in the other cantons: in 2007, 1,300 women were punished for assault in Switzerland - 122 percent more than five years earlier. Baselland is now the first canton to react to this trend: Since May, a learning program against domestic violence has been offered specifically for women in Liestal. The course currently has four participants, two come voluntarily, the other two were assigned by a governor's office and a guardianship authority. Over 21 course evenings, they deal with their aggression and the consequences for those around them. Bad for children. Children are an important topic. “Women's violence is often directed against them,” says Christine von Salis, co-head of the Baselbieter intervention center against domestic violence. The perpetrators are overwhelmed; from work in the household and, if necessary, outside, from the whining children and demanding young people. They feel left alone and at some point lash out at their children or their partner. And most people do it again and again. “This is particularly bad for children. They are traumatized and their entire mental development can be massively impaired,” says von Salis. The course is intended to prevent this. “This is only possible if the perpetrators reflect on their behavior,” says von Salis. How do I function? How can I prevent escalation in sensitive moments? The course participants deal with these questions. There are also simple solutions: leaving, for example, is much better than losing control of yourself. Hurtful words. a program similar to that for women for men - with success, as Christine von Salis says: “In the course of the course, most participants realize that they have to change their behavior and that the victim has suffered as a result .» As a rule, they no longer use physical violence. “According to the victims, the devaluation and disrespect unfortunately often continue,” says von Salis. This is one reason why couples break up even after a course. Von Salis can accept this: “It is more important to stop the violence than to save the relationship.” www.interventionsstelle.bl.ch “ Women are capable of anything”
New research. The woman as a perpetrator of violence, the man as a victim – this contradicts the classic role model. That's why violent women have long been a taboo topic, including in research. But now scientists are gradually becoming interested in the phenomenon. However, there are still no conclusive explanations about the increase in violence against women. “ Women are also capable of anything,” Franziska Lamott from Forensic Psychotherapy at the University of Ulm stated succinctly at a specialist conference in Wiesbaden, which the “NZZ am Sonntag” reported on. In Lamott's opinion, emancipation is not an explanation for increasing willingness to use violence: "Emancipation is more of a consequence than a cause: only if women are aggressive can they emancipate themselves." It is also controversial to what extent violence against women has actually increased. The researchers also attribute the increasing values to the fact that men are now more willing to come out as victims because domestic violence has become a general issue. What is certain, however, is that violence is often reciprocal: He hits her, she hits him. It is also known that the perpetrators often also suffer from mental illnesses such as delusions or depression. In many cases they had also experienced violence in their own parents' home. Researchers like Lamott are also convinced that women become violent for a different reason than men: they want to create distance, men want to demonstrate power and keep women from the threat of a separation. skirt