OWEN GLENN

Dear Owen, View this page in Word OWEN GLENN.docx

It is heartening to see a fellow Kiwi realise the dire straits that our country has placed itself in over this issue.

I refer you to Professor Dutton's body of research in this area and ask you to consider its overreaching implications for this country.

DuttonandCorvo.pdf

CORVO-K.-DUTTON-D.G-CHEN-W.Y.-2008-TOWARDS-EVIDENCE-BASED-PRACTICE-WITH-DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE-PERPETRATORS.pdf

The commentaries in Social Comment namely Macalays New Zealand.docx and The Psychological Womb.docx have been written as a background to this situation.

Essentially we have made our issues WORSE OURSELVES by effectively POURING GASOLINE on the fire.
Rather than decreasing our statistics our failed policy is actually solely responsible for the disastrous explosion.
It is a sad story of Bureaucracy and Policy gone wrong, without the checks and balances of due process. ( no one voted for Duluth nor was it discussed it was just selected behind closed doors )
The Main culprit is "The DULUTH Model" and the willingness of society to accept the Maxim that Men are Violent and that we should Intervene ( read Bureaucratic Violence) rather than to assist and educate as Policy.

Many Women are Violent to the same extent as Men, the figures are roughly 49/51% and this is not something that anyone wants to talk about.
In a foolish show of Male Bravado we as a society seem to minimise this behaviour, as seen from a Male perspective, but fail to see its damage from a Childs perspective, as all adults appear just as powerful to a child.
WE ARE ONLY RESPONDING TO HALF OF THE PROBLEM AND LEAVING THIS HALF IN THE HANDS OF THE VIOLENT PERPETRATORS.
Joking about or minimising Female Violence rather than acknowledging its destructive effects is not allowing us as a society to progress the resolution of this issue.
SAME SEX Relationships have the same destructive characteristics as Heterosexual Relationships so the NOTION OF STEREOTYPICAL GENDER BEHAVIOUR can be demonstrated to be a fiction.
By assigning "blame" early in a formula style reaction we have destroyed by intervention, the chances for many family units to actually survive, and effectively encouraged reformed units that often present far greater risk to children.
OUR DEFINITION OF A FAMILY IS ALSO AT ISSUE.
The comments that its usually a close family member or similar is also very misleading.
Mostly the horrific cases are where a non related person has entered recently into the family circle.
POVERTY , DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE and UNEMPLOYMENT are also the most overlooked factors.
The immense Collateral damage to our society is also underestimated in your opinion that every 4 years Domestic Violence is the equivalent of a Christchurch Earthquake.
The collateral damage is the seen in the rise in Male Suicides, corresponding over time with the rollout of Duluth Programmes, and because of this failed Interventionalist policy two groups, young adolescent Males and Mid Life Male "targets" of the policy can be identified. For some reason our refusal as a Society to acknowledge and deal with this damage is deafening by its silence ... and the gag on suicide reporting we have self imposed.

suicideratesinnewzealand.doc

Which finds in its conclusions many factors including...

In an examination of time trends in suicidal behaviour for the European Union, Rutter and Smith concluded that explanations for the rapid increase in youth suicide might usefully be sought in the following areas:

‘increased rates of depression; the increase in the use of alcohol and psychoactive drugs; the possible role of antisocial behaviour; the influence of suicidal models, either within the family and intimate circle, or in the mass media; the possible increase in family conflict and decline in parental support associated with changes in family structures; the possible effect of an extended period of social dependency during adolescence; and the likely role of changing circumstances in society as a whole.’

It is a damned mess and without scrutinising the reasons that have driven us to this "brink" no amount of enquiry by the bureaucracy that has sadly and misguidedly implemented our "policy" will be able to self asses its failings.

The first step is to REMOVE DULUTH THINKING totally from our legal and support systems......

......its is a discredited and "Luddite" solution that is the Gasoline on the Fire.

Conventional Relationship Counselling is about allowing DIALOGUE and COMMUNICATION to diffuse tension and disagreement.

What drives people to behave like this ?

I doubt there is a single person in this country that has not experienced this sort of stress event during a break up or episode.

The peak here could be described as "jostling or emotive friction", but not violent as the two involved sort things out.

Often one partner "suffers" first , read "doesn't communicate" then breaks the news to the other who reacts, who now tries to communicate and fix things, but "too late" perhaps.

Characterising the initial suffering as a "Victim" is a thinking trap we have allowed ourselves to fall into.

The problem is a communications issue not a victimisation issue.

Quality counselling at this point is the most sensible assistance to ask for, not drop of the hat protection orders.

INTERVENTIONALIST POLICIES ONLY PROLONG AND AGGRAVATE THE SITUATION BY DELAYING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE AFFECTED PARTIES

The reason DULUTH is so flawed is that disregards convention and Intervenes, making dialogue impossible and inflaming the escalating tension in the relationship.

Dialogue, , Tension, Anger , Jostling, then Violence is the usual escalation of Communication.

By Intervening at the "Pre Violence" point ie Threats or Fearful accusations, Verbal Abuse, or accusations of Control etc etc or any of the so called Cycle of Abuses, or "Victimisations", inducing or intensifying its early onset actually, the DULUTH Programme is essentially just the Ambulance at the bottom of the Cliff , with its misguided Interventions actually PUSHNG PEOPLE OVER THE CLIFF in the first place.

The evidence is that DULUTH is a FAILED PARADIGM and we need to return to Scientific and proven methods.

The DULUTH Experiment, because that's what it is, in NZ should be over , the results are devastatingly abysmal, the System should be pronounced dead.

Why is understanding the problem so hard ? What has actually gone wrong ?

The way to answers are these, Ask yourself,
What is Domestic Violence ?
Is it Intimate partner Violence ? and overflows to affect the children ?
This definition is contentious from many perspectives,
Is it Arguing in front of children ?
Is it depriving children ?
Is it disciplining children ?
Is it abusing children, and then what constitutes abuse ?
Shouting, Hitting, How do we define this ?
Is it physical violence inadvertently applied in a scuffle between adults ?
Is it direct violence to children ?

Relationships intermittently go through times of stress and how the partners respond and interact during these times can be quite difficult to comprehend from an outsiders point of view.

Communication during stress can look very different to what we define as "communication".

From which perspective do we best view this issue in order to understand it ?
At the Violent end to Brand and Criminalise all involved, say its' all to hard, Intervene and break up what pitiful little pieces of hope are actually left for those involved
or
Do we understand it in context and how it escalates and manifests at a crescendo before dissipating ?
Where and when to we offer assistance ?
Early to diffuse the tensions and eliminate the crescendo
or
late at the crescendo and subsequently transfix our response only at this outcome , assuming all previous signals are going to end up here ?
Do we Gender characterise this behaviour train ?
Do we assume each instance is Victim and Oppressor and act this way by rote accordingly ?

Unfortunately DULUTH is the latter.

Even relying on an organisation like the NZ Police to give opinion, as they only deal with the crescendo end of the situation, is a very myopic and stigmatising and limited in perspective.
The NZ Police do a fantastic job but they lack the perspective to solve this crisis we find ourselves in.
Organisations like Women's refuge which offer an essential backstop service where the bureaucracy often falls short are also equally responsible of having a narrow view reapplied to the majority type thinking and its unfortunate that these people at the coal face of the 2% of our population, that has real issues, effectively drive policy initiatives and have disproportionate say in the media coverage of this topic.

Violence is actually a symptom of failed of Communication, it is used to close down an argument and exert dominance.

It is often met with equal resistance whether physically or emotionally or with any other means at the disposal of the responder.

This is not a desirable situation and the collateral damage is usually going to spill over to the children.

It is over driven and aggravated by Interventionalist Policy however.

Once we Intervene we then have to provide support facilities such as REFUGES, PROTECTION ORDERS, ANTI DV CAMPAIGNS, PUBLICITY, MEDICAL INVOLVEMENT, DATABASES and the like, ITS A GROWTH INDUSTRY BECAUSE OF THE INTERVENTIONS.

Communication Disagreement Tension Escalation Vocalisation Manipulation Physicality is the Violence Train....

Violence or jostling, can be, but doesn't have to be, the end product of a Relationship in its final stages.

As researched this "jostling" occurs in 98% of breakups to some degree...

BUT IT IS NOT AN INDICATOR OF RECIDIVIST BEHAVIOUR.

HANDLED PROPERLY IT DOES NOT ESCALATE TO VIOLENCE.

SAME SEX RELATIONSHIPS FOLLOW THE SAME PATTERN SO IT IS GENDER NEUTRAL AS WELL.

The DULUTH Interventional Programme ( DIAP ) was based on research of only 9 or so women in a recidivists support shelter, which also was a dependency facility, representing a sample of women from only about 2% of the populations behaviour.

It does not represent the 98 % of the normal population.

Duluth is actually the

Wrong solution for the

Wrong group of people at the

Wrong time.

How can state funded organisations really assist at such a personal level approach, rather than just apply a one size fits all cart blanch approach ?

OFFER EARLY QUALITY RELATIONSHIP COUNSELLING SERVCES.

ADDRESS POVERTY, DEPENDENCY AND POOR EDUCATION ISSUES.

· MANDATORY EARLY RELATIONSHIP COUNSELLING SERVICES

SOME SOBERING STASTISTICS FOR A PERSPECTIVE

AS A CROSS CHECK ON WHAT IS BEING SAID HERE

http://www.corrections.govt.nz/about-us/facts_and_statistics/prisons/ps-march-2012.html

Prison Population in NZ is 8696 people as of 31st March 2012

Our benchmark on the "behaviour of the overall population" so to speak.

Male 8187 Female 511 ie 16:1 ratio

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS VERY DIFFERENT

http://www.nzfvc.org.nz/sites/nzfvc.org.nz/files/factsheet-statistics-2009-1.pdf

26 Men murdered children and 15 women did the same.

That's a 2:1 ratio roughly and IS AN ABSOLUTE CONTRAST TO THE

16:1 ratio incaserated for all crime,

which also curiously enough applies to the inter partner murder rates.

This 2:1 ratio also seems to apply for the 56 Female adult deaths compared to the 26 Adult male deaths in DV situations.

Children Most at risk form Mothers

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10836439

Here is the NZ Police Report for 2004 - 2011.

http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/document/pdf/201239/family-violence-death-review-2004-2011.pdf

AMERICAN RESERCH

http://washingtondv.org/?page_id=2

Rodney Hide explains it in even more concise terms

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10849715

Think about this for a minute. 16:1 overall crime ratio, but violent behaviour in DV situations 2:1,

and that's arguably with gross under-reporting of Female Violence in this situation as suggested by

International research which suggests this figure is in reality 51/49% !!

2000 - 2004 39 children died,

about 10 per year,

which hasn't changed for many years 1980's, 1990's, 2000's etc

despite all the DV programmes and attempts to change this.....

However the increased suicide numbers in this time have been 120 per year above the numbers before the Duluth programme began

Intervening in Family affairs under the pretext for reducing violence and child deaths....This is some 12 times worse that the DV figures.

And worse, WE HAVE DONE IT TO OURSELVES.

http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/116-1175/460/

Domestic Violence IS NOT A GENDER ISSUE.

BLAMING MEN FOR THIS PROBLEM IS NOT WHERE THE ISSUE LAYS.

THE ISSUE IS KEEPING RELATIONSHIP FRICTION TO A MINIMUM SO IT DOESNT SPILL OVER TO THE CHILDREN.

We Need some VISION and LEADERSHIP applied to this issue.

The Minister has given up last year calling for a Green Paper on the issue.

The Bureaucracy's involved can only argue with each other about who should Monitor and Intervene and when and how and who keeps the statistics.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/7343929/Coroner-calls-for-compulsory-abuse-reporting

Some observers correctly note that the "Snitching" everyone is baying for at present will only drive real abuse underground.

We are looking at the Symptoms not the Cause.

Its time to drop our Symptomatic Interventionalist attitudes and start addressing the Causalities.

MANDATORY QUALITY RELATIONSHIP COUNCELLING - is a definite improvement instead of Duluth at the front line.

Other Information

I contribute occasionally to the Shared Parenting Council of Australia....

Because Australia runs a Mandatory Relationship Counselling Services FIRST, Before Interventions, like many other Jurisdictions such as California that also refuse to adopt Duluth, their statistics are far more palatable than in New Zealand , and it should be a comparative lesson to us.

Unfortunately Duluth overtures are continually mooted by its adherents and vigilance to defeat these incursions has become necessary.

http://www.familylawwebguide.com.au/forum/pg/topicview/misc/5449/index.php&start=0#post_32816

http://www.familylawwebguide.com.au/forum/pg/topicview/misc/7483/index.php&kfs138=0

New Zealand isn't the only target of Duluth marketing, this is a white paper prepared for an Australian Government Department in an attempt to overturn Mandatory Relationship counselling as a front line response.

Dimensions_Dynamics.pdf

Note the blase repetition of Duluth culture, no peer review and rote regurgitation of the Duluth marketing material.

The Conclusion section is completely opinion based and ignores and contradicts International research finding Men and Women equally as reactive under relationship stress.

It is a disgraceful and shameful document.

Attaching to the coat tails of a UN prerogative to assist Women's rights world wide is also a very dubious association, this is a punitive and Interventionist programme, not an advocacy and educational incentive.

This coat tails of the UN seems to be the International Strategy of the Duluth aficionados.

It is why UN review of statistics is oriented to criticise national DV reports and categorise them on a gender basis, again demonstrated to be faulty science.

Many jurisdictions in the US refuse to adopt it and rightly so, thus in an effort to justify itself it is looking for International acceptance.

Many countries and provinces such as British Columbia are effectively in the process of removing Duluth as the results have not stacked up and the "science" behind it is exposed as a fraud.

DULUTH IS A SLOW TRAIN WRECK OF VIOLENCE MEETING VIOLENCE

PLAYED OUT IN OUR FRONT PAGE SENSATIONALIST MEDIA

Which is worse ? Domestic Violence

Or Duluth Interventions to aggravate it

The Conventional response SHOULD BE FIRSTLY

Mandatory Quality Relationship Counselling

http://www.relationshipsaotearoa.org.nz/about_us/news/articletype/articleview/articleid/1070/family-court-review--our-submission

http://www.relationshipsaotearoa.org.nz/Portals/0/RSW_Docs/Relations%20Aotearoa%20Family%20Court%20Review%20submission%20Final.pdf

These services are seriously underfunded and under promoted.

We should be advocating Mandatory Relationship Counselling with

a guided resolution process that apportions child responsibility as 50% 50% in the first instance,

hopefully completely avoiding an adversarial conflict

rather than rush in with Duluth and assume we have a victim and an aggressor.

Domestic Violence only occurs when the 2 people in a relationship are at their wits end.

Intervening usually just inflames and prolongs this situation.

3rd August 2012 Update

PROGRESS ?

At least this is a very positive step to remove the adversarial nature of the family Court

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10824112

Better Reporting

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/112242/family-court-system-in-for-sweeping-changes

http://news.msn.co.nz/nationalnews/8509569/family-court-overhaul-announced

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7400894/Move-to-keep-lawyers-out-of-family-disputes

We still haven't removed the

DULUTH THINKING RE FIRST CONTACT,

but

hopefully its on its way....

UNFORTUNATELY NOT

Nov 2012

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/119670/judge-wants-domestic-violence-made-criminal-offence

It appears that the highest position in the land thinks we are equavalent to Tibal Groups In Vanuatu in our social organisation.

And he has probably never read Dr Dutton, Corvo and Chens' work in deference to our own "expertise".

We removed the Death Penalty in the 60's as part of an enlighted view to remove State Violence, this is just a return to the same Victorian thinking.

We are over monitored, over measured and statisticed to death on this issue, the real facts are just withheld for political reasons, thats all.

DV is at least a 50% Female issue. Feminists need to internalise and accept the cold hard truth.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10844453

Unfortunately our Leaders are blind to this fact.

Not Rodney Hide however.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10849715

but we got rid of him....

July 2013

Plumbers, Electricians and Hairdressers are now wanted to solve the problem !!! How much more of this PONZI scheme nonsense must we endure ?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10900933