Parents and family members advocate for their children and play a leading role in the early enlightenment. They take part in community decision-making and policy-making. Then, organizing activities to improve the safety, health, development, and learning experience of children. Ultimately, parents and families may assume leadership and advocacy roles in the future school environment and the entire community.
Family Advocacy Program (FAP) is a unique program for parents who make powerful families for victim children. They are a method between parents and children that provides a safe space for families to explore the five protective factors. These factors help keep the family safe, balanced, and healthy.
These programs also help parents and family members have rich and healthy discussions. They provide parents with opportunities to develop friendships outside of school. Staff and parent leaders will choose various themes for the cafe.
Family participation activities take place on the site at least once a month. These activities are an excellent way for parents and family members to connect, learn, and take part in school activities. By helping these events from planning to execution to review, parents and families can build their leadership skills besides providing valuable resources to other families.
Table of Contents
What is Domestic Violence?
According to the WHO (World Health Organization), domestic violence is a widespread phenomenon that concerns all forms of psychological, physical, sexual abuse and the various forms of coercive behaviors exercised to control a person who is part of the family unit. It can have consequences in the psychic life of women, men, and children who suffer it.
From a physical point of view, domestic violence can cause permanent damage. It leads to sleep or breathing difficulties. The consequences of prolonged domestic violence also leave marks on the relational level because the victims who suffer it lose their jobs, homes, friends, and financial resources.
The phenomenon of domestic violence appears to be widespread in all countries and all social groups. The attackers belong to all classes and all economic strata, regardless of age, race, ethnicity. The victims are men, women, and children who rarely report the fact out of fear or shame.
Reflections on ISTAT Data
In an ISTAT survey (2006) conducted on a sample of 25,000 women, alarming data emerged. Over 6 million women aged 16 to 70 have experienced physical or sexual abuse in their lifetime. 2 million women have suffered domestic violence from their current partner or a former partner, while 5 million women have suffered violence outside the home. The perpetrators of the violence are unknown (15.3%) or superficially known people (6.3%). Sometimes, it is seemingly unsuspected as friends (3%), work colleagues (2.6%), relatives (2.1%), partner (7.2%), or former partner (17.4%).
In reality, it is not possible to know the exact number of women who have suffered these terrible experiences because these data relate only to the small number of women who reported the fact to the authorities. We estimate that over 90% of the victims cannot report the fact; precisely it has been estimated that 96% of women who have suffered violence from a non-partner without reporting the fact were, while 93% is the percentage of women who did not report the violence suffered by the partner.
A 2005 EURES-ANSA report revealed another consequence of domestic violence. We have discovered that one in 4 homicides in Italy takes place in the family. At home, 70% of the victims are women. And in 8 cases out of 10, the perpetrator is a man.
Learning To Recognize The Abuser
To defend from domestic abuse, it is first necessary to learn to recognize the typical behaviors of the abuser. We should know that the research conducted on the problem has shown that, contrary to common thought, domestic violence is not always linked to diseases or the chronic consumption of alcohol and drugs. The data confirm that among the cases investigated, only 10% of the abusers were affected by pathological disorders and normally abused toxic substances.
People who repeatedly commit violent acts at home usually have only one goal. He wishes to place his victim in a state of subjection because he wants to feel powerful. Exercising command-and-control actions on a family member makes him feel satisfied and confident. His behaviors always have the sole purpose of controlling the entire experience of the partner to strengthen his personal feeling of power.
To achieve this goal, he feels he must eliminate everything that could hinder the strengthening of this sense of security. Abusers are usually extremely insecure subjects in social life. They do not have great opportunities for release and fulfilling social relationships. They find it easier to hit family members, especially if family members need them for sustenance. To escape from responsibility for one’s actions, favor oblivion and secrecy because it wants to prevent reassuring social relationships from being created around the victim.
In the stories told by the victims of domestic violence, we learn that the victim over time learns to endure horrible events. Thus, they suffer from mental problems that lead to closure and a drastic reduction of his self-esteem to have an attitude overly critical of herself and constantly feeling dissatisfied with her qualities.
It is possible to get out of this problem. First, the victim must realize that what is happening at home is a crime. To reach this awareness, she must observe and analyze what is happening around her, learn to be aimed and judgmental towards the abuser.
Warning Signs
Analyzing the experiences through the stories of those who lived this drama, here are the warning signs
- Controls the victim’s movements, projects, and activities, generating social isolation. The victim thus distances himself from the world. It becomes more introverted and begins to no longer love contact with others;
- To generate fear often destroys things and objects to which the victim particularly cares. If there are animals in the house, he will also target them;
- In social situations, such as in public places or open spaces frequented by other people, the abuser tries in every way to humiliate the victim. One phrase that is easy to pronounce in these areas and that has often been reported by the victims is “You are a madman”. This expression, precisely because of the strength it contains, psychologically increases the victim’s perception of weakness and immediately places him in a condition of passivity;
- It often accompanies physical violence with verbal threats, words that have a strong derogatory meaning aimed at making the victim feel invisible and lead to a reduction in self-esteem. Typical phrases can be: “You are stupid”, or “You understand nothing”, “You are not intelligent” or “You do nothing right!”;
- Fears the autonomy of the victim. Faced with behaviors that manifest the partner’s desire for autonomy, he resorts to psychological stratagems aimed at nullifying his will. If the victim works and enjoys a certain autonomy, he tries in every way to hinder his serenity in working relationships. The victim can thus develop negative attitudes towards work colleagues, feel difficulty when faced with recent activities, and have problems concentrating. With the lack of family support, he works in constant tension and with a sense of oppression;
- Reinforces in the victim servile behavior by repeating to her he/she is the person who commands in the nucleus and that for this reason, we must always respect;
- The abuser uses his children to achieve his goals by threatening to take them away if the victim expresses the will to leave the home;
- If during a dispute, the victim is injured and tries to put the abuser in front of the evidence of the violence inflicted. He denies the facts of violence;
Faced with the victim’s attempts to want to talk to others about the facts that take place at home, the attacker tells her that he is exaggerating and minimizing what happened. He states that “it was just a trivial dispute” and that “such disputes are normal in every couple relationship.”
Why is it important to report Domestic Violence?
According to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) survey on violence against women, most women victims of violence do not report their experiences to the police or victim support organizations. Not only that, most of the women victims of violence do not come into contact with the justice system or with other services.
According to ISTAT, the reporting rates concern 12.2% of partner violence and 6% of non-partner violence. Reading these data, a question arises. Why don’t women report? The answer is incredibly complex. But above all, the question is wrong, especially when it is asked to the parties concerned. Let’s see why.
When we ask a victim for explanations about the violence suffered, instead of providing help, we are practicing victim-blaming. We are making the victim bear the responsibility, even if only partially, for the violence that this has suffered instead of looking at the real responsibility. It is a sensitive issue with sexual violence and domestic violence, where the many flaws in the legal system, but also the lack of awareness and empathy in context.
The victim after files a complaint, often leading to the phenomenon known as “secondary victimization”. The victim, perhaps when he finds the strength to report, is subjected to a series of questions. He requests explanations or superfluous details that often lead the person to relive the violence suffered. It is a process that is compared to new violence, leading precisely to this new victimization, called secondary.
It happens because we start, often even unconsciously, from the assumption of having to find some inconsistency in the narrative that leads the complaint to lose its foundation, thus undermining the victim’s credibility. It is vital not to underestimate the need for a legal investigation to clarify the case and the complaint.
The problem often lies in how these processes are structured and in the sexist prejudices of professionals who risk further torturing the victim. The sentences often include details or observations that have little to do with the case itself even when on the side of the victim they cast doubts on its credibility and divert attention from the problem of gender-based violence as a phenomenon.
Another crucial point is precisely the training of professionals who play any role in the path of exit from women’s violence from the police that often has the first contact with health professionals. We must train all parties involved on gender issues to provide maximum help, recognize the signs of violence and act even with the right words. To date, unfortunately, it is not the case.
For example, asking a woman who finds the strength to report violence after a long time why she did not do it before creates a dynamic of victim-blaming that shifts the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim. Many testimonies under the #The MeToo hashtag, for example, especially those concerning violence committed several years earlier, have been publicly debunked and criticized by those who commented on that.
Safety Planning
We can never rule dangerous attacks out in violent relationships. But there are a few things you can do yourself to increase safety for yourself and your children.
Not all suggestions for safety planning fit every situation in life. Play through situations in your imagination and find workable solutions for your specific situation. Think about what might be right for you. Always take your intuition and your first feelings seriously. If you feel fear in a situation, do not suppress it, but consider it a warning signal and increase your awareness.
It is better to call the police once too often than once too little. The police would rather find you healthy than mistreated and injured.
Depending on whether you decide to leave the perpetrator or continue to live with him, different security aspects can be important.
- As long as you still live with the abuser
- When you prepare to leave your partner
- After leaving a violent relationship
- If you live in a new apartment
- When you have enforced eviction and protection orders and you stay in your old apartment
If you live in a violent relationship, it makes sense to create a personal safety plan for yourself. It means that you are better prepared for future crises and have more security and more control over your situation. Trust your instincts. If you see a violent confrontation coming, try to use your security plan to escape the situation.
You determine which measures are important to you. We intend the points listed to serve as guidelines and suggestions. If you live with the abuser, you can do the following in an emergency. Then, escape with your children or get outside help.
Shelters
The women’s rights organization drew attention to the lack of women’s shelters in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. We need enough places of refuge and uniform and comprehensive funding for women’s shelters, emphasized Maja Wegener, Head of Terre Des Femmes.
November 25th has been recognized by the United Nations since 1999 as the International Day of Remembrance against violence against women. This year the motto of the day of action was “Open the door – shelters for all women affected by violence”.
According to Terre Des Femmes, domestic violence affects one in four women nationwide. Besides, 82 percent of victims of intimate partner violence are women. Domestic violence is the most common human rights violation in Germany.
If those affected wanted to flee to women’s shelters or refuges, they would often have to be turned away due to lack of space. Around 30,000 women and children find shelter in women’s shelters or refugees every year. There has recently been no refuge for at least 9,000 women per year.
According to the information, there are currently 6,800 places available in almost 400 women’s shelters and refuge apartments in Germany for women and their children affected by violence. The women’s rights organization spoke of an intolerable situation. Every woman seeking protection must find a place of refuge in Germany, regardless of age, origin, disability, psychological problems, income, residence status, or language skills, demanded Terre Des Femmes.
Protective Orders
By the time they call the police, women usually have had a long, excruciating path of suffering. By the time they finally get out of a violent relationship, as studies show, they have tried on average seven times to break up with their partner.
But getting expert help through a place in a women’s shelter is becoming more and more difficult. Women in need receive this information more and more frequently. Often a referral to other houses that are further away failing.
On some days, there is no free women’s shelter available for mothers with children, even across several federal states. Studies also show that they do not admit many women to shelters promptly because they have too few places and are under-funded.
About half of the rejected women who seek protection are in an acute and life-threatening situation, head of the research center Gender, Violence, Human Rights at the universities. She calls this failure to provide help. More and more women affected have to stay in the women’s refuge for a year or more, much longer than planned, because they cannot find affordable housing.
Court Accompaniment
In its report tabled today, the Committee of Experts on Support for Victims of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence makes 190 recommendations to improve the handling of complaints, including the creation of a specialized tribunal in this area. According to the authors of the report, it is a priority to improve the psychological and social support of victims and to review the way their complaints are received by the police and judicial authorities.
The aim is to better adapt the judicial and extrajudicial system to the treatment of complaints of sexual and domestic violence to restore the public’s confidence in its justice system. The 21 experts who contributed to the drafting of this report also support the initiative of the representatives of the four parties represented in the National Assembly. It proposed almost a year ago to create a tribunal specializing in the treatment of sexual crimes in Quebec.
This tribunal would have the particularity of being composed of members specially trained in matters of sexual and conjugal violence. The specialized court would also offer various accommodations to victims to help them testify and shorter processing times to facilitate their often difficult passage through the legal process.
Victim Rights
To better support the women and men who decide to go to the police station to denounce a sexual assault, the experts recommend that the victims be supported by various interveners, available at all times, not only during the denunciation of sexual aggression but also before and after.
Victims should also be entitled to these resources even if they ultimately choose not to file a complaint, argues the Committee.
Experts also recommend that people who wish to file a complaint should first have the right to a meeting with police officers and stakeholders responsible for explaining to them the next steps.
Then talk about how things will unfold if they decide to go from there. The report also calls for every victim who files a complaint to benefit from a free legal advice session and the services of a lawyer for the filing of evidence or access to specific cases.
If prevention has failed and the state has not been able to protect its citizens effectively against crime, it must be ensured that crime victims are effectively helped. Federal, state and a variety of victim services dedicated to this objective with great commitment .
The federal states provide general victim assistance within the framework of the federal organization. They are involved in numerous different measures to improve the situation of crime victims and to be able to offer them appropriate help. For example, we can implement through special training for police officers and the appointment of victim protection officers at the police stations, through the establishment of witness care centers, accommodation options for abused women and girls, the provision of information material for crime victims and financial support. Special state foundations and victim offices have been set up in several countries.
In addition, there are a large number of non-governmental victim support institutions that are professionally or voluntarily dedicated to looking after and advising people who have become victims of a crime. Taking the victims’ interests into account and ensuring that they have more rights was and is an important legal and political goal.
Numerous legislative projects in recent years have further improved the situation of victims and have resulted in victim protection becoming an integral part of the code of criminal procedure. Victims are no longer seen as evidence than they used to be. Victims are people who are often exposed to great emotional stress and who must be treated with a lot of empathy.
Victim Advocate Command Assignment Listing
Indeed, if the law places certain obligations on insurers. In particular, contact the victim to organize expertise and propose a provision, we must keep it in mind that the regulator inspector can never be the advisor of the victim at all stages.
The first role of the lawyer for victims of bodily injury is to explain to the victim all the stages of the procedure for repairing their bodily injury (compensation), with complete impartiality and independence. So, they will have a clear vision of the objectives to reach, and especially when to reach them, precipitation is not recommended.
The second role of the lawyer for victims of bodily injury is to support victims at all stages of the compensation procedure, and not only in the event of litigation or litigation. Indeed, contrary to popular belief, the lawyer for victims of bodily injury will intervene both in administrative and judicial matters, but above all, in an amicable or contentious phase, and this, from the start, sometimes even when the victim of the road is still to the hospital.
It is the lawyer who will classify a case, presenting the useful medical documents to the experts, accompanying the victim in medical expertise, negotiating each position of damage, financially assessing then the damages, and seize in the event of litigation or failure of negotiations, the judge or the court to make condemn the person in charge to the full compensation of each position of damage.
Precisely, we insist on this point because an insurance company will accept some concessions when there are several pressure points. It is an amicable pending negotiation with a risk of referral to a judge in the event of a discrepancy, a criminal hearing in progress. The postponement of the establishment of a medical expertise time to see if we reached an agreement in the civil. So yes indeed this will mobilize several lawyers but in no case unnecessarily, especially if the firm also practices road law.
Thus, throughout the amicable phase, the lawyer for victims of bodily injury will not fail to:
- request, classify, get all the documents necessary for the constitution of the file,
- permanently guide the victim of the accident or his family,
- follow the parallel criminal proceedings, attend the hearing and request the postponement of requests pending the outcome of amicable negotiations,
- appoint the office of the victim’s medical adviser who will assist the victim during the expert’s report amicable contradictory,
- prepare the amicable contradictory medical expertise with the victim (preparation guide),
- assess the damage items set in the medical expert report;
- negotiate damaged items with the insurance adjuster inspector;
- assist the victim in the signing of the transaction
Military and Community Resources
When a third party asks for compensation for his damage caused by the agent during performing the mission. When the applicant is the victim of a willful criminal offense, by his status as an agent of the State or that of his spouse, ascendant, or descendant;
NB. The victim of an accident cannot in principle claim the benefit of legal protection.
When the applicant is implicated in a criminal case if it relates to the offense committed to performing the service if the agent has committed no personal fault. Path of a request for legal protection. Each request must be written, dated, signed, and motivated by the person requesting the benefit of legal protection.
Hierarchical means to the local litigation service (SLC) on which the person concerned depends must transmit the request and the supporting documents. The SLC acknowledges receipt of the request. If from that date, no decision is notified within two months, this implies an implicit rejection decision.
The competent SLC checks the merits of the request. If an agreement is envisaged, if the SLC or the legal protection unit (CPJ) of the legal affairs department (DAJ) considers the request for legal protection justified, it may decide to grant it, which may take several forms:
- Direct compensation for the damage caused or suffered;
- The delivery of legal advice by the SLC or the CPJ (explanation given on the procedure to be followed, the assessment of the prejudice and damages to be requested during the hearing);
- Payment of legal fees and expenses. Once we have granted legal protection, the agent appoints the lawyer they have represented, and the SLC or CPJ then contacts them to establish a fee agreement.
- If we consider a refusal
When an SLC considers that a request must be rejected or has doubts about the merits of it, it transmits the file to the legal protection unit of the sub-directorate of litigation of the DAJ, which is the only competent to issue rejection decisions.
This in turn studies the appropriateness of the request and, after requesting an opinion from the authority on which the requesting agent depends (DGGN, EMAT, EMAA, EMM, DHRMD, etc.), it can take a rejection decision that must be signed by the Director of Legal Affairs or his deputy.
Once it has been signed, the CPJ sends the original of the decision to the person concerned by a registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt. The agent will have two months from the notification of the decision to appeal against it.