Monday, Feb 27, 2017
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Slipping and sliding About 150 Mid Canterbury pippins, brownies, scouts, cubs, keas and girl guides took part in a fun day yesterday.
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Official domestic violence figures for Mid Canterbury show police prosecuted 49 cases to November last year, however Mid-South Island Women’s Refuge is dealing with that many victims in the district each month. The police figures, obtained under the Official Information Act, included a breakdown from reported acts of domestic violence from the Ashburton, Methven and Rakaia police stations, where the offender was a family member, former partner or boy/girlfriend of the victim. They did not include cases where no charges were laid as at 30 days after the assault was reported to police. Women’s Refuge senior administrator/ facilitator Janet Lorimer said only 20 per
cent of domestic violence victims reported the offending to police, however slightly more requested assistance from Women’s Refuge. “It (domestic violence) is still going on behind closed doors,” Lorimer said. “Some clients come through as the result of police reports but we get more who self-refer.” On average the service is dealing with about 25 Mid Canterbury women at any one time, and up to 50 a month. The official figures are often skewed because many domestic violence offences don’t make it to court. Victims hold back from reporting offending, or drop charges, for a number of reasons, Lorimer said. “They may think it could make the situation worse or choose to keep it quiet because of their social standing.”
In some cases the victim does not feel the abuse is serious enough to complain – especially in the case of psychological abuse. “If people can’t see the bruises it didn’t happen, but all incidents should be reported, either to us or the police,” Lorimer said. The Mid South Island Women’s Refuge service covers the area north as far as Rakaia and south to Palmerton, including Twizel, Oamaru and the Waitaki Valley townships. Lorimer said the focus had moved away from providing safe houses toward offering one-on-one support to victims. Ramped up accountability requirements meant counsellors were now spending about quarter of their time allocation attending to paperwork, which had also changed the landscape of the service.
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