[Badgirlz-list] Study: half of young men find hitting or for…

>From FEMINISME@???




> "The study, based on focus group discussions and a
> survey of over 2,000
> young people aged 11 to 21 in Scotland and the north
> of England, found
> that half the young men questioned thought hitting a
> woman or forcing
> her to have sex was acceptable in some
> circumstances, such as when she
> had been "nagging" or "disrespectful".
>
> Asked whether they would agree that "women get hit
> if they have done
> something to make men angry", 76% of boys aged 11 to
> 12 agreed."
>
>
>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0,11812,1102446,00.html
> Lucy Ward reports on how domestic violence is being
> tackled in the
> classroom
>
> Tuesday December 9, 2003
> The Guardian
>
> In a classroom in Wilberforce primary school, Queens
> Park, north-west
> London, a diminutive boy in a blue sweatshirt is
> being a "big scary
> monster". As he holds up his hands like claws, his
> classmates mime
> expressions of fear, freezing on command.
>
> The Wilberforce pupils, drawn from one of the most
> deprived areas of the
> capital and the country, are pioneers in a new
> project to take the fight
> against domestic violence into the classroom.
> Motivated by the belief,
> endorsed by survivors of domestic abuse, that
> prevention and education
> must begin with children, the initiative - started
> in the London borough
> of Westminster but spreading countrywide - is,
> unusually, targeted at
> the youngest primary pupil to 21-year-olds who may
> already have entered
> abusive relationships.
>
> Activities for young children include exploring,
> through mime or circle
> time discussions, themes such as fairness, fear and
> friendship, while a
> video role-play of an abusive relationship is
> intended to prompt
> discussion with older teenagers.
>
> For some, the prospect of introducing such a complex
> and potentially
> disturbing subject even indirectly into young
> children's world prompts
> alarm. But Vicky Grosser, coordinator of the
> Westminster Domestic
> Violence Forum (WDVF), which produced the domestic
> violence prevention
> pack for schools, stresses the activities "are not
> introducing
> disturbing issues at all. What we are encouraging
> children to do is
> build relationships and friendships and create
> strong communities. We
> are not trying to terrify them."
>
> Common assumptions that only children and young
> people directly affected
> by domestic violence benefit from prevention work
> are false, she argues,
> since research shows abusers and survivors come from
> non-violent as well
> as violent backgrounds. That means schools, whose
> legal obligations
> include promoting pupils' "moral, spiritual and
> social development", are
> seen as an ideal forum for prevention work.
>
> Research conducted by Sheila Burton and Kenny
> Kitzinger for the Zero
> Tolerance charitable trust found widespread
> acceptance of forced sex and
> physical violence against women among children as
> young as 11.
>
> The study, based on focus group discussions and a
> survey of over 2,000
> young people aged 11 to 21 in Scotland and the north
> of England, found
> that half the young men questioned thought hitting a
> woman or forcing
> her to have sex was acceptable in some
> circumstances, such as when she
> had been "nagging" or "disrespectful".
>
> Asked whether they would agree that "women get hit
> if they have done
> something to make men angry", 76% of boys aged 11 to
> 12 agreed.
>
> The findings highlight the need to start addressing
> such issues early,
> Grosser concludes. "By the teenage years, ideas are
> much more set. There
> is an awful lot laid down in terms of roles and
> expectations of boys and
> girls in relationships that is not healthy."
>
> Confronted with such findings, the government has
> begun to bring the
> issue of domestic violence further up its agenda,
> including moves to
> raise awareness in schools. All secondary schools
> have been sent a video
> and teachers' pack titled "Watch over Me", produced
> by Milly's Fund, the
> charity established by the parents of the murdered
> schoolgirl Milly
> Dowler, which addresses a range of personal safety
> issues and includes a
> domestic violence scenario to prompt discussion.
>
> Personal, social and health education (PSHE) and the
> citizenship
> curriculum are areas key to raising awareness of
> domestic abuse,
> according to the Department for Education and
> Skills. Work is already
> under way in some secondary schools, though
> provision is patchy due to
> lack of funding. The NSPCC offers a counselling
> service covering
> domestic violence in some schools. Advance, an
> advocacy service for
> survivors of domestic violence in Hammersmith and
> Fulham, west London,
> and one of the projects funded by the Guardian's
> Christmas appeal, used
> media reports of abuse by high-profile figures such
> as footballer Paul
> Gascoigne to help stimulate discussion sessions with
> 15 and 16-year-olds
> at Fulham Cross school.
>
> "The kids were amazing," says Advance manager Bear
> Montique. "They had a
> strong moral sense of domestic abuse being wrong,
> but it came out that
> quite a few of them were being put under pressure,
> even if it was to buy
> their boyfriend credit for his phone.
>
> "It was really just trying to get them thinking
> about first
> relationships, because people get so excited in
> those situations that
> they will put up with a lot."
>
> The Westminster project provides teachers with
> material and training to
> tackle the issue of domestic violence in secondary
> schools and youth
> groups, but also involved primary schools from the
> start. Children from
> Wilberforce star in a video which forms part of a
> teachers' pack,
> showing activities such as handing a "talking teddy"
> round the circle to
> designate which pupil can talk about friendship
> while the rest listen.
>
> "This project is preventative - it's not about
> asking the children what
> happens at home," says Wilberforce's dynamic year 5
> teacher Maggie
> Brinklow, one of those involved in piloting the pack
> and now training to
> train other teachers to use the activities.
>
> "We are looking at what is acceptable and
> unacceptable. At some point,
> people experience abuse or violence, be it as victim
> or initiator. If at
> a very young age you can give children ways of
> dealing with it, and
> methods to say stop, that can mean a vast change for
> their future."
>
> Brinklow and Angela Piddock, head of Wilberforce,
> agree that the success
> of such schemes cannot be readily gauged, though
> both enthuse over
> improved playground behaviour and even the
> "transformation" of some
> youngsters previously struggling to control their
> temper.
>
> "It takes a long time for the effect of this sort of
> work to become
> apparent," says Piddock. "It might not be until 16
> or 17 that they might
> have hit somebody. But it is also giving out the
> message, which is
> really important, that violence is not on, even at a
> sub-conscious
> level."
>
>

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