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3.12 Deputy A.E. Jeune of the Minister for Home Affairs regarding domestic violence towards men in Jersey:
Can the Minister advise, please, what evidence there is of actual and perceived incidents of domestic violence towards men in Jersey and detail what percentage of the male population have reported such allegations to the States of Jersey Police in 2010? Thank you.
Senator B.I. Le Marquand (The Minister for Home Affairs):
This is an interesting question. In 2010, there were 94 reported incidents of domestic violence towards men in Jersey, involving 74 individual men. The States Statistics Unit estimates that the number of males aged 18 and over in Jersey is 35,400 which would mean that the percentage was 0.21 per cent or, in layman's terms, about one in 500. These complaints relate to physical violence. There may have been other cases involving verbal or psychological abuse.
- Deputy A.E. Jeune :
I thank the Minister for his reply, but as far as he is aware, including psychological and verbal abuse, does he believe that this rate would increase to one in 6 men within the Island? Thank you.
Senator B.I. Le Marquand:
Well, not one in 6 in a single year, but if the question is whether one in 6 men would experience physical violence and verbal or psychological abuse, I think that probably depends what one means by verbal or psychological abuse, but I think I could say that it is most unlikely from these figures that one in 6 men would experience physical violence.
- Deputy T.M. Pitman:
Does the Minister agree that information, certainly from my own past, indicates that many men will not ... [Laughter] I should rephrase that. [Laughter] Yes, my wife sometimes will not give me the dinner I want, but there we go. [Laughter] Does the Minister agree that these figures were lower than the reality because many men would not come forward and report this? Research does prove that. I am not sure if the proposer knows that.
Senator B.I. Le Marquand:
Yes, I would agree with that. That is a problem that exists not just in relation to men at reporting abuse but also ladies as well, and that is one of the difficulties that we always have in seeking to combat this problem: the relatively low incidence of reported matters.
- Deputy J.M. Maçon of St. Saviour :
I was going to raise that point, but going on from that, given then that the Minister of the department does not know the incidence of these types of offence, how does the department develop appropriate strategies to assist with these?
Senator B.I. Le Marquand:
There has been a substantial increase in numbers of staff employed in recent years in the Public Protection Unit, whose work is best known in relation to children and vulnerable adults but which also operates in this particular area. Obviously we do have campaigns from time to time to try to encourage people to come forward and to report incidents and so on. When I was working as a magistrate, there was an excellent course being set up by the Probation Department, whose name I cannot remember. I think it was called the Change Course, possibly, designed specifically for trying to re-educate or retrain - or whatever the right word is - people who were involved with this kind of thing. The difficulty they had was that there were not sufficient people coming through the course and certainly the Magistrates Court in the period when I was there - and I assume they are still doing the same - had a policy when dealing with such cases of routinely seeking to get a background report in order to see whether people were appropriate for this kind of input.
- Deputy D.J. De Sousa:
I wonder if the Minister would not agree that it is a very serious matter that is being talked about here and that whether it be one case or 2 cases, any abuse of any kind to man, woman or child is absolutely not acceptable in a society and that the Women's Refuge and now the new Men's Refuge do a sterling job and that the Men's Refuge is not just for men who have been abused; it is for men that are down on their luck and helping them to get back on their feet and take part in society?
Senator B.I. Le Marquand:
There were about 5 questions there. Firstly, I have always taken a serious view of domestic violence in whatever format it comes. There was a historical period when perhaps one could say that the authorities did not treat such matters sufficiently seriously, but certainly the view of the courts over the last 10 or 15 years at least has been to treat such matters on equal seriousness with other types of violence so that there was this differentiation. The role played by shelters, the Women's Refuge, is important, but I do not want to be drawn into any debate in relation to the merits or demerits of a particular refuge which may underlie the questions. Nevertheless, there is a need for such premises.
The Deputy of St. Martin :
Deputy Maçon asked the question I was going to ask, thank you, Sir.
Deputy A.E. Jeune :
The Minister has answered what I had as a final, thank you.