Women and children forced to leave home when crime has been committed by men, says housing group, writes KITTY HOLLAND
A SEXIST, anti-woman attitude in the justice system and wider society was forcing women and children suffering domestic violence to leave their homes when it was the man who had committed a crime, the chief executive of the Sonas Housing Association said yesterday.
Sonas is a charity that provides housing and support to women and children affected by domestic violence. Sharon Cosgrove was speaking yesterday at the publication of the 2010 Sonas annual report.
It shows the number of women it supported increased by 163 per cent since 2009 – from 70 to 184 last year.
“We could only cater for 40 per cent of the actual demand, with a further 60 per cent or 249 women unable to be accommodated,” she said.
“This was due to lack of space with our existing services at maximum capacity.”
Ms Cosgrove said the surge in demand was down to a number of factors, including the opening of a new refuge in Dublin 15 and a new supported housing facility in Belmayne, Co Dublin, as well as the impact of financial stress on families.
“There was clearly a demand in the areas where we have opened that was not being met,” she said.
“The recession is having a number of effects, with people being at home more, money worries and, of course, the entrapment that women feel is escalated through the lack of crisis services and supports for them.”
She said there would be less pressure on services if there were stronger sanctions that could be used against perpetrators of violence in the home.
“We’d prefer to see faster responses from the court system in granting barring orders,” said Ms Cosgrove.
“Women can be waiting months, particularly outside Dublin.
“In some areas of the country, judges can be great or they can have very old-fashioned, ingrained ideas and are reluctant to grant barring orders,” Ms Cosgrove said.
She added that it should be the violent man who was compelled to leave the home while women and children should stay, and yet it was almost taken for granted that the women and children would leave. This was wrong, she said.
“It causes massive disruption for children, who miss their friends, their pets, their home.”
She believed sexism underpinned this situation.
“You hear people saying, ‘She must have provoked it’, or ‘She’s made her bed, she’ll have to lie in it’ or ‘He’s just under pressure and needs to cool down’.
“Women are judged if they stay and if they leave too.
“Domestic violence isn’t taken as seriously as an actual crime here.
“We need to see tougher, swifter sanctions against the perpetrators of domestic violence and more supports for the women and children affected by it.”