DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND CHILD ABUSE

The article below is one that I have written for a newspaper column and one that I think I need to put on my blog as the column is in a small local newspaper.

A week ago I would have written about scamming and New Zealanders failure and/or resistance to listening to advice on scamming. $448 million scammed per year. It’s hard to believe.

However, the non-accidental death of the six month old Serenity in Ngaruawahia, a small township just north of Hamilton, changed all that.

This article is aimed at highlighting the appalling statistics of domestic violence and child abuse in NZ. On a per capita basis we are at the worst end of the scale. Today I have read that there are 120,000 plus reports of domestic violence situations each year. This is up from 50,000 plus in 2005. Clearly some of this increase is from better reporting of domestic violence each year, which is great, but some is from increased violence in our communities.

There are also over 100,000 interventions by Government agencies in domestic violent situations each year. This is 300 per day. Even though many of these interventions concern the same family groupings it is still a disgraceful statistic in a civilised society. The Police deal with 5,000 to 6,000 child abuse situations each year, ranging from very young children like little Serenity, to teenage children. Recently I heard about a 15 year old belted by his father. The young lad thought he had deserved it because he had “pissed off” his father. He was assured by school staff that no parent had this right. The young lad’s reaction shows how this behaviour becomes inter-generational.

Crimestoppers provides a great vehicle to bring this domestic violence and child abuse to the surface. Family and neighbours know what is going on and need to take effective action. It is about looking after another human being. We feel compelled to do it as a nation by sending the military offshore to protect the vulnerable. If you know it is going on and do nothing and someone is killed you can’t say that it wasn’t your responsibility. Children look to adults for love and guidance and they trust adults, particularly family. What we see in these situations is that the child’s trust is totally misplaced as they are injured and sometimes killed by those who are meant to love and cherish them.

My plea to the community is to have absolutely nil tolerance to this behaviour. Do something about it when you know about it. You are not a “nark”. What a stupid, immature word. A moron painted this on the fence of someone trying to do something positive about Serenity’s death. I would suggest that some young victims would be still alive if someone had spoken up.

As a community let us do something about this abuse – ring the Police or if this is too difficult for whatever reason, then provide the information to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 and we will get the message to the Police. Don’t be intimidated by anyone. Do what is right.