Men Who Use Violence

The Sixth report from the Family Violence Death Review Committee has come out and it has an updated focus: the Committee sought to understand the life trajectory of the men involved in family violence deaths from their birth to the death event. There’s so much in this report that both validates the work we have been doing here in Nelson Tasman with our whānau approach and working with perpetrators and trauma. Yet, the report discusses how far we all are from our goal.

If you have about 10 minutes, the executive summary is three pages long and is worth the time. The Committee provides an overview of the lives of 97 men who used violence against their intimate partners between 2009 and 2017. They identified possible ways for agencies to support men’s healthy emotional development, address unresolved trauma and challenge men who use violence to take responsibility for their behaviour and live in a violence-free way.

However, the current system is lacking, no surprise there. The missed opportunities within our system to change the pattern of men’s development and the impact of these ineffective responses on their violent behaviour are plentiful. The report highlights these and proposes structural changes needed to prevent family violence. As we have been saying, the Committee notes, “The rates of family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand are unlikely to fall significantly without structural change.

As the only specialised family violence provider working with the whole whānau in the top of the South Island, we must pay attention to its recommendations.