National and regional crime figures released today (1 April 2010) by police reinforce the fact that as a society we have still not come to terms with the scale of the domestic violence problem in our communities.
Latest police statistics show that reported domestic violence is up over 18% nationally and 14 percent in Canterbury. They note that the surge in reported domestic violence is the main contributor to an overall increased violent crime rate of 6% in Canterbury. This increase is ...
The alcohol laws in this country are currently up for debate, not for the first time. The Law Commission's began its liquor law review last year, and is due to present its report to the government next month. Almost 3000 submissions have been made, and a look at them shows that a great many are from social service agencies which pick up the pieces, directly or indirectly.
In New Zealand we have a very protective attitude towards our right to drink where and when we choose; it is almost par...
The lead-up to Christmas can be stressful – presents to buy, money to spend, holidays to arrange, events to attend. Yet despite waking up to Christmas Day a little frazzled, most of us look forward to the sun, BBQ, holidays and the opportunity to spend time with friends and family.
But for people living wiht domestic violence - or hte threat of it - what should be one of the happiest times of the year is one of the worst. The pressures that accompany our biggest holiday period erupt in in...
The trial of Clayton Weatherston whose sentencing took place today (18 years non-parole; read the Christchurch Women’s Refuge Media Release) and the details of the crime he committed certainly caught our attention. Not only in Dunedin, where it occurred, or Christchurch, where the case was heard, but throughout the country.
Gaining the media and the public’s attention when it comes to domestic abuse and its horrendous realities is often hard work, but in his case people were listen...
If I could have one wish it would be that all the emotional and physical effort that has been expended on the ‘anti-smacking’ law – which for the ‘no’ voters is more about parental rights than concern for child welfare – could in some way be channelled towards our children’s care and protection. New Zealand’s statistics are atrocious regarding child abuse. Why are we making so much noise about a law that has not criminalised good parents, instead o...
Cotton On retail clothing chain is marketing sexualised t-shirts for children in a bid for sales. This marketing ploy is a tongue-in-cheek, adult snigger at such incongruous images as a little boy wearing a t-shirt that says “I like big boobs and I cannot lie”. Cotton On is putting sexualised words into baby’s mouths, masquerading as humour, for the purposes of profit.
And if it was simply bad taste and nothing more, then we could excuse them with a shrug and call Cotton On&rs...
It seems very likely that New Zealand will lose its defence of partial provocation. Many of us, having watched in dismay bordering on revulsion as Weatherston took the stand, will heave a sigh of moral relief. But, as with all legal wrangling, the case is not as straight forward as it seems. Questions remain that New Zealand’s legal fraternity have yet to adequately answer.
The provocation defence certainly appears to “wrongly enable defendants to besmirch the character of victims a...
And just like the Claytons drink, there’s more froth than substance to Clayton Weatherston’s defence. Weatherston is using a “partial defence of provocation” we are told. That a man can premeditatively take a knife around to a women’s home, systematically stab that person 216 times; use the knife to mark and maim her eyes, her throat, her nose, a breast, her genital area, and other parts of her body and argue he did it because provoked and it was therefo...
It certainly is a poser isn’t it? How on earth did New Zealander’s end up in the position of answering such a convoluted question as: “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?” The wording of this ballot has been arduously spurned by many an esteemed person, our Prime Minister himself notwithstanding.
Although Goff and Key have argued that the question is ambiguous I would argue that in many ways it isn’t. The i...
The effects of family violence are insidious and far-reaching. In the Christchurch Press on May 5th an article headed Rapists Faced Abuse, asserted that New Zealand’s prisons are full of people abused as children. Citing as one example Joseph Thompson, New Zealand’s worst serial rapist, criminologist Dr Greg Newbold said that Thompson “had endured a childhood of sexual abuse”. Now, I realise I could be opening a can of worms here. Many people feel that this argument is a ...
The oft touted ‘anti-smacking’ law has always seemed to me to be a misnomer, and a crafty one at that. It’s so easy to get up in arms about parents rights to discipline their children and use the age old argument that smacking does not necessarily equate to violence. To smack your child is not to punch, clout or strike your child is it? However, when the “ear-flicking” but in reality “face-punching” father Jimmy Mason was finally found guilty of assaulti...
We have been inundated of late by media attention concerning Tony Veitch and the much publicised abuse of his previous partner Kristin Dunne-Powell. This "architect of his own misfortune" to quote Judge Doogue, was initially going to "vigorously defend the assault charges" but ended up capitulating a slight degree when, although pleading guilty to kicking her in the back, he changed his story to "If I reacted differently, if I had been allowed to wal...
The face of Family Violence in New Zealand is changing. No longer considered something that only happens in other families and other neighbourhoods, family violence, it seems, has gone mainstream.
We are talking about it in our homes, workplaces and institutions. We see our favourite fictional television characters in both victim and perpetrator roles. Talkback is full of opinions on family violence and the celebrities involved. Daily we see and hear messages that 'Its Not OK' on ...
