Police affairs: Hitting domestic abuse where it lives

A spate of horror stories about violent crimes committed by men against their wives and children has police insisting that the phenomenon is not actually growing.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Sentencedmarriage 298.88 (photo credit: )
Sentencedmarriage 298.88
(photo credit: )
The holiday of Succot had arrived, and, when their father was out praying at the synagogue, the children were growing hungry. One of them, a girl, took the initiative and prepared nine pizzas for herself and her siblings. As they sat down to eat, their father arrived home, and gazed with rage upon his daughter's efforts. "Eat every single one by yourself," he ordered his terrified daughter, forcing her to obey until she vomited. The father-of-11 - now 47 - admitted to carrying out the actions described above eight years ago. He also admitted to sexually abusing one of his daughters, and to routinely verbally and physically abusing all of them, using objects such as shoes and hangers to hit them. The man struck a plea bargain with the prosecution and was sentenced on Monday to seven-and-a-half years behind bars, receiving a reduced sentence because he had agreed to grant his wife a divorce. The sentence enraged children's rights activists. This is the latest sample of misery to emerge from the spate of family abuse stories that have been dominating the local news. Last month, it was the Rose Pizem case. The country listened in horror as details of the murder of the four-year-old at the hand of her grandfather, who stuffed her body into a suitcase and tossed it into the Yarkon river, emerged. Soon after that, three mothers murdered their young children in the space of a single week. And most recently, a successful police officer rising through the ranks is believed to have gunned down his policewoman wife, baby and toddler, before taking his own life. Police are clueless about the motive. Is this indicative of a new rise in extreme domestic violence here? According to police, the answer is no. "This has always been in the headlines. There is no increase," one source said. "Unfortunately, these incidents come in waves," he added, arguing that the quick succession of horror stories and intense media spotlight provide an exaggerated picture of the extent of family abuse. According to police figures, during 2007, the number of recorded violent incidents among couples decreased by nearly six percent. Of the 18,806 incidents recorded last year, 45% took the form of physical abuse, 22% were threats, 20% involved violating a legal injunction and 2% were characterized by sexual assaults. Overall violent offenses towards minors numbered 8,769 in 2007, with 29% of those taking place within the family. The figures represent a 2.8% drop from 2006. Figures for 2008 have not yet been released. After every incident of this nature is brought to light, the question inevitably arises: What can the police do to mitigate domestic abuse? THE ANSWER, police say, is that - working closely with social welfare services - they run specialized family abuse divisions in every district, made up of qualified officers. Speakers of Amharic, Arabic and Russian have been recruited into the divisions, enabling the force to work with ethnic communities in which domestic abuse might be overlooked, due to the language barrier. With 20% of violent offenders refusing to heed injunctions, such as restraining orders, abused women and children can easily find themselves in the situation of being confronted by the men whom the courts have ordered to stay away. In other cases, violent men could be released from custody for a variety of reasons, leaving their victims in a state of fear and contemplating the possibility of moving to a shelter. In a major effort to counter this, police say, they have launched a new computerized information system aimed at providing all victims of crimes, including the tens of thousands of victims of domestic abuse, real-time information about the status and location of their abusers. The system, which is linked in to every police department, the Prisons Service and the courts, sends out a text message to victims' cell phones, informing them that their suspect has been released from custody, or alternatively, sentenced to a prison term. In other instances, victims will be notified of court dates, or be told where to access indictment sheets. The system, named MENA (an acronym for the Hebrew words for Crime Victims Department), has now been integrated in such a way that a police officer registering a complaint can't proceed without ensuring that MENA has been notified of all the details. "MENA is a result of legislation aimed at protecting victims of crimes. It was passed in 2001 and came into effect in 2005," said Supt. Ilanit Kleiman, head of the police's Crime Victims Department. "As soon as a complaint is submitted at a police station, the system receives the date, and the crime victim receives a codename and a password. From then on, the person will receive text messages on his or her cell phone with information on the case, and they can access the police Web site, or speak to an operator to receive updates." Since its launch three years ago, MENA has developed rapidly, Kleiman said, adding that uniting the various computer systems of law enforcement agencies to create MENA was in and of itself a "technological breakthrough." The police monitor calls to MENA operators and visits to the Web site, to ensure the system is being properly used. Kleiman said its advantages can be plainly seen. "The rationale behind this system is to give victims the sense that someone is staying in touch with them. It allows abused women to defend themselves, rather than having to move to a shelter out of fear," she said. She added that "MENA exists because of a recognition that victims of crime must know if their suspects have been released under certain conditions, and if so, what those conditions are." "Victims of abuse will receive a text message asking them to contact the police when the information is sensitive, because if a woman has filed a complaint against her husband, who knows who is reading her text messages?" Other changes to ease the pain of abuse victims has been the new police policy of sparing them the ordeal of a court appearance, by delivering their statements for them. BUT WHAT becomes of the perpetrators? In one small hostel in Hod Hasharon, an innovative approach has been employed for the past decade, whose goal is to rehabilitate abusive men. So far, its results seem encouraging. The Beit Noam hostel can house 13 men who have opted (pending a judge's approval) to spend four months at the center, rather than serve time in prison. "Beit Noam is the only place in Israel, perhaps in the world, in which violent men live in boarding-school conditions, rather than receive treatment in groups or communities," the center's president, Ahuva Talmon, said. Founded by social workers, with the cooperation of the government and charity funds, Beit Noam came into existence in 1997, and has given men with abusive tendencies a new outlook on life. "Many have genuinely changed. Some even stay on after their initial four months, out of their own free will, even paying to do so," Talmon said. During the first part of the day, the men are tasked with essential chores, such as cooking, cleaning and doing the laundry - chores usually done by the mens' abused spouses. "If the toast was a little burnt at home, one of these man might have flown into a rage and slapped his wife a few times. Here, the food was cooked by his friend. He must work through the issues," said Talmon. Later in the day, the men receive both group and individual therapy, in which they are made to be aware of and confront their violent personalities. "The aim is to cause the men to admit to their violence," Talmon said. "When they first come, they are in total denial about it. After conceding to being violent, they are shown how to take control of violent urges and to calm themselves. After four months, the physical violence ends, and there is a heightened awareness of it." The men are shown the devastating effects their behavior has on their children, a fact of which they are usually unaware. "Their children are very important to them, and they are taught to take them into consideration," said Talmon. In some cases, the men successfully reunite with their wives, despite the initial and natural suspicion on the part of the women at the sudden change. This is why, Talmon explained, abused women should also be given therapy, so that they do not remain in the same damaged state following the abuse. Other times, the men divorce their wives. "We don't see a problem with that. Often, abusive men won't grant their wives divorces," she said. AFTER MORE than a decade of work in the field, Talmon said some indisputable facts about domestic abuse can noted. The most prominent observation is that "violence passes on from one generation to the next. Men who abuse were often abused as children." Beit Noam represents one attempt to break this chain. "We place great emphasis on this," said Talmon, "by having the children visit their fathers, and counseling the men on how to bond with their children."