"That's because this hotline isn't for survivors of domestic violence - it's for their partners, who use violence in their relationships. When House of Ruth Maryland's Chief Operating Officer Lisa Nitsch proposed a different approach to domestic violence services, colleagues in the prevention field didn't hold back. "We were told in the beginning that we were hand-holding [abusers], and that people were going to die because of what we were doing," she said."
"For decades, the primary solution to intimate partner violence in the U.S. has been a criminal justice one. This places an impossible choice on victims' shoulders. If a victim decides to report the abuse and leave, they may lose everything they own or become homeless, as domestic violence shelters are often over-full and underfunded. Police reports may go nowhere, or they may result in extended legal harassment, the partner's incarceratio"
House of Ruth Maryland launched Gateway to Change, the United States' first 24/7 hotline for people who use partner violence, modeled on Massachusetts' A Call For Change. The hotline operates alongside a voluntary drop-in group for abusive partners and an existing court-mandated program. Staffers were initially skeptical and faced criticism from prevention colleagues who warned the approach could enable abusers. The initiative aims to provide an inexpensive, community-based alternative to criminal-justice-centered responses. Criminal-justice approaches can force victims into untenable choices, strain shelters, and produce ineffective or harmful legal outcomes.
Read at Truthout
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]