News of the discovery of a young woman abducted off the streets as an eleven year old by a stranger, repeatedly abused and kept prisoner for 18 years has made daily print and television news for the past fortnight. Yet another headline about violence closer to home has passed almost unnoticed. On 1^st September 2009 the Adelaide Advertiser displayed the headline ‘Mum Murder, Domestic Killings Hit Alarming Levels’. The paper reported on the violent deaths of eight South Australian mothers over the past eight months and the call for ‘an official state review into domestic violence related killings’. The Domestic Violence Crisis Service Executive Officer, Gilian Cordel is reported as saying that ‘I don’t think the general public realizes how many women are murdered by their partners’. The response to the article has been minimal producing two letter to the editor and minimal additional coverage. Meanwhile, every day we are regaled with further detail of the investigation of the abductor of Jaycee Dugard.
Why is this so and what does it mean for those of us whose daily work involve those subjected to and perpetrating violence? Perhaps the story of Jaycee is, given its horror, paradoxically ‘easier’. It speaks to every parents’ fear of the unknown madman who randomly selects a child who is then spirited away. The story reads like an episode from a television crime show which ends with the captor’s release. There is no excuse, there is a villain and an innocent victim and the villain will be tried and punished. It can never happen to people we know, people like ‘Us’.
The domestic violence headline is different. This speaks of the murder of women in our community, women who we see in the supermarket with a black eye, whose children play with our children and whose husbands come to dinner. The violence, if it is seen is explained away as a single, random episode or the fault of the recipient. If the woman speaks out to friends she will often experience a pulling away as others feel uncomfortable knowing the secret, are unable to relate to the abuser and would rather not know. More disturbingly the damage is being done by one who should be most able to be trusted who has promised to love and to cherish through sickness and health and who shares a bed. We look into their lives and in many respects they look just like ours. No wonder the article does not precipitate an out flowing of interest. It is received just as the problem is in real life. With silence.
 
Workshop presented by Malcolm Robinson  & Marten Johns
‘[1] Family Violence across the Lifespan: A Trans-generational Perspective’ (click to get more information and register)
 
For all other workshops and events go to [2] http://seminars.bowerplace.com.au