Sir, - I would like to take issue with several points made by John Waters on the issue of domestic violence. In claiming that all the evidence suggests that domestic violence is roughly a 50-50 phenomenon, he fails to acknowledge the conclusions of the British Home Office report "Government Policy Around Domestic Violence" (1998). This states: "The government recognises that women are more likely to experience domestic violence at some point in their lives, more likely to experience repeat victimisation, more likely to be injured and to seek help, more likely to experience frightening threats, and more likely to be frightened and upset."
While it is good that Mr Waters brings attention to the fact that men experience domestic violence, it is wrong to misrepresent the truth. He goes on to dismiss those working in what he callously terms "the domestic violence industry" by claiming that they promote the idea that only women suffer hurt and abuse and describes women who seek sanctuary in women's refuges as being motivated by a desire to "dispose of inconvenient men".
I would like to refer him to the 1996 British Crime Survey, which found that men's and women's experience of domestic violence differs both in intensity and prevalence. A pattern emerges: 45 per cent of female homicide victims are killed by current or former male partners; 8 per cent of male victims are killed by current or former female partners. This does indicate a very material difference along gender lines, but it is one which John Waters, in his angry outburst, appears committed to denying. In addition, in doing my own research, I found that during court proceedings for homicide where a woman had killed a man, it often transpired that the woman had been the victim of domestic violence.
In 1996, Lynda Spence and I documented the results of research into records of personal protection and exclusion orders in a book entitled Taking Domes- tic Violence Seriously: Issues for Civil and Criminal Justice. In a sample of 2,000 such orders, only two had been instigated by men experiencing domestic violence. Mr Waters makes the point that this could be because men are reluctant to come forward and report the abuse. My research showed that time and time again, the same is true for women. For both men and women, cases of domestic violence are under-reported. Moreover, in dismissing the evidence of John McGettrick (September 11th), whose case work as a solicitor pointed to a similar finding, it would appear that John Waters has made up his own mind irrespective of the findings from those of us who have been working in this field for over 20 years.
As I pointed out at the recent BMA/IMO All-Ireland Conference on September 22nd, it is disheartening to have come this far in raising the profile of domestic violence in the media to have the debate end up in an antagonistic division between those who work with abused women and men. This does not serve the aims of either group and distracts the focus of work from providing provision for all who have suffered over the years.
If Mr Waters continues with this line of aggressively dismissing the legitimate grievances of women, I feel that he will undermine what he seeks to support. I would ask him to stop using his column to add further division and let us get back to the hard work of putting much-needed resources into this area of work. - Yours, etc.,
Monica McWilliams MLA, Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, University Street, Belfast 7.