Economic Abuse

Economic abuse

By SANDRINE RATTAN Tuesday, August 27 2013

Often, the term domestic violence evokes images of physical abuse. However, many women also experience an equally devastating situation - economic abuse. Economic abuse can include an abuser preventing victims from working and accessing bank accounts, credit cards, among other isolating tactics. Financial security is the number one predictor or whether or not a victim of domestic violence will become free so as to avoid abuse.

For many domestic violence victims, access to financial, housing, and other community resources can make the difference between long-term stability versus return to batterers or homelessness.

The lack of economic independence for many domestic violence survivors have created its own challenges. More challenging is the fact that, batterers may leave abuse victims saddled with debt, through unpaid rent and utility bills.

Compounding these challenges, the cycle of abuse often interferes with victims’ ability to obtain sustainable employment, even for those who have education and/or work experience. Batterers interfere with a victim’s ability to work in many ways.

Other severe types of economic abuse include the batterer forcing the victim(s) to turn over her pay cheques to him; purposely ruining the woman’s credit rating; incurring large debts without the victim’s knowledge, but for which she may be held responsible; taking her money; credit cards or other property without her knowledge. Despite the serious consequences of economic abuse for survivors, though, the general public may not be totally aware of the extent to which these situations occur and/or exist, and therefore, this column will continue to create a larger sense of awareness as it relates to the very negative impact of domestic violence on humankind.


SANDRINE RATTAN is a Communications Specialist who has also studied Psychology/Environmental Relationships and Sociology.

Source: http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,182810.html

Saved from Domestic Violence

Saved from domestic violence

By JULIEN NEAVES Thursday, August 15 2013

WHAT would you do to help save a victim of domestic violence?

This was likely a question on the minds of the attendees of the Police Service annual Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations, held yesterday at the Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain, as Police Service head of human resource, Veronica Simon, told of a family assisted by two Islamic women to get “out of a horrible domestic violence situation.”

She explained that the woman was a visiting student from one of the islands and got in a relationship with a young Trinidadian man “who began to whisper sweet nothings in her ears.” She forgot about her scholarship, went to live with him and had six children in six years.

“But the abuse began from the day the first child was born,” Simon recalled.

One night “in a reign of terror” he brandished a cutlass to cut off her head but she was rescued when her children jumped on top of her to save her. The police did not have a case against him and had to release him in 24 hours and a group of women were called in to assist, including two from the Islamic organisation Anjuman Sunnatul Jammat Association (ASJA).

The police got a home for her in South but then a taxi driver who was a friend of her common-law husband saw her and she had to be moved again. After that incident she decided to return to her island with her children because she feared for her life.

“And those children stayed for three months until we got them out of Trinidad. And we got them out at two o’clock in the morning and these two ladies were with me,” Simon said.

She noted that the assistance did not stop there and even after the family left the country the two women sent money for them to get settled back home. She reported yesterday that two of the six children are at university. Simon noted that the two women had “practised what they preached.”

“It was a way of life for them to give alms, to do good, to do things,” she said.

She asked rhetorically, “What do we do as a way of life, as a people? Do we do good, do we put ourselves out like these two ladies did?”

She noted Islam teaches that Allah loves those who perform good deeds and these women performed good deeds.

Source: http://www.newsday.co.tt/crime_and_court/0,182238.html

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‘The Long Term Effects of Domestic Violence’

‘The Long Term Effects of Domestic Violence’

By SANDRINE RATTAN Tuesday, August 13 2013

The long term effects of domestic violence have not begun to be fully documented by the many advocates against domestic violence, but what is known, is that victims of violence are psychologically damaged for a lifetime…changes occur in their thought processes; approach to life and attitude towards people in general.

In fact, the emotional and psychological abuse inflicted by batterers may be more costly to treat with in the short-term than physical injury.

There are various pieces of psychological research which show that many of the physical injuries sustained by women seem to cause medical challenges as women grow older. Arthritis, hypertension and heart disease have been identified by battered women as directly caused or aggravated by domestic violence.

Because of the severity of the effects of domestic violence, women need to pay more attention to the types of relationship in which they find themselves, as abusive relationships equate to DEATH??

Battered women lose their jobs because of absenteeism, which is usually due to illness as a result of violence.

Lengthy periods of absence from the job, occasioned by court appearances, also jeopardize and ruin women’s livelihood.

Victims also lose family and friends as a result of the violence….first, the batterer isolates the victims from their loved ones, and this in turn creates embarrassment for the victims and their (the victims) response is withdrawal from support persons.

There is yet another major challenge which victims are faced with – abandonment by their church, if they decide to separate from the abusers, since some r%eligious doctrines prohibit separation or divorce regardless of the severity of abuse.

Many battered women have had to forego financial security during divorce proceedings to avoid further abuse. As a result, they become impoverished as they grow older??

Domestic Violence is indeed a very bitter pill to swallow, and I do hope that through the publication of this column on a bi-weekly basis, women (whether or not they’re abused) become more enlightened and by extension, more empowered, to effectively address any domestic issue(s) which may be deemed to be violent.

Sandrine Rattan is a Communications Specialist who has also studied Psychology/Environmental Relationships and Sociology.

Source: http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,182160.html

Workshop Tackles Gender Violence

One in three women worldwide affected...

By Verdel Bishop

Story Created: Aug 6, 2013 at 9:12 PM ECT

Story Updated: Aug 7, 2013 at 12:15 PM ECT 

 

Globally, one in three women worldwide will experience gender-based violence in her lifetime, and in some countries, up to 70 per cent of the female population is affected. 

These statistics were yesterday revealed by Margaret Diop, US Embassy Charge d Affaires, who was at the time speaking at a Domestic and Gender-based Violence and Physical and Sexual Abuse workshop, which was organised by Caribbean American Domestic Violence Awareness (CADVA), at the US Embassy Conference Room, Briar Place, Sweet Briar Road in Port of Spain. 

“According to the United Nations, all Caribbean countries have higher than the global average for rape. These statistics make clear that addressing domestic violence is not just a moral imperative. It is an economic necessity.  In addition to the psychological and emotional tolls we pay, we also pay the medical bills and legal costs. We lose wages and productivity. Businesses lose employees. Families lose primary wage-earners. In short, we simply cannot afford to let gender-based violence continue,” Diop said. 

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination. It is defined as violence that is directed against a person on the basis of gender. Gender-based violence reflects and reinforces inequalities between men and women. Gender-based violence and violence against women are often used interchangeably as most gender-based violence is inflicted by men on women and girls.

Diop said the US recognises gender-based violence as both a human rights and public health policy concern.  “The US Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 to protect victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.  
  
“The Act provides US$1.6 billion for the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposes automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allows civil redress in cases prosecutors chose to leave unprosecuted. 

“One of the greatest successes of the Act is its emphasis on a coordinated community response to domestic violence and sexual assault. Courts, law enforcement, prosecutors, victim services, and the private bar currently work together in a coordinated effort to combat domestic violence,” Diop said.

Justice Joseph Tam said allegations of sexual abuse against children have increased. Lack of expert evidence, he said, continues to be an issue and noted that lack of expert evidence is an issue.    

“The family court deals with these cases as quickly as we can but the other courts are not suited to deal with these things because they are overwhelmed. Over the past few years I have noticed that allegations of sexual abuse against children have increased. 

“I am getting more of these cases and the difficulty is that as a magistrate you have to depend on the evidence before you and the quality of the evidence is the problem. We don’t have expert evidence in this area. We are not researched in these areas because very often physical evidence is non-existent, medical evidence is inconclusive and it breaks down to one party’s word against the other,” Tam said.

Diana Mahabir-Wyatt, chair of the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition Against Domestic Violence described the court system as combative. 

“Those in the legal system must be trained in how to talk to children. There are mothers who will not take their daughters to court and there are men who are the perpetrators who get away free all the time because neither the women nor their children who are victims want to have to face the court system,” Mahabir-Wyatt said. 

“There is a depression having to face the court; those in the legal systems need to be exposed to ongoing training,” she said.

Victim and Witness Support Unit manager, Margaret Sampson-Browne said often times emphasis is placed on protection of women and reminded workshop participants that the Domestic Violence Act is also for men. There are men who are of the opinion that the Domestic Violence Act is made by women for women but it’s not,” Sampson-Browne said. 

Dianne Madray from CADVA facilitated an interactive workshop in which various interest groups which attended included social workers, counsellors and members of the legal system. Madray focused on signs of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as it relates to domestic violence and the impact on the victim’s mental health and discussed the signs and symptoms of PTSD. 

Source: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Workshop-tackles--gender-violence-218610641.html

Woman Held After Man Stabbed to Death

Woman held after man stabbed to death

By CECILY ASSON Saturday, August 3 2013

SHOCKED: Marjorie Jagroop yesterday as she related how a female neighbour told her on Thursday night that she (the woman) had just stabbed a man to de...

A 50-YEAR-OLD woman has been arrested after she allegedly confessed to stabbing a man and killing him on Thursday night. Police said that Franklyn Gibson of Settlement 1, Ecclesville in Rio Claro was found dead with stab wounds to his neck and chest at the muddy entrance leading to his home.

Investigators said a woman was found weeping and sitting next to Gibson’s body when police arrived. She was taken into custody after allegedly telling police that she had stabbed Gibson. The woman, police said, appeared to be intoxicated and told officers that she and Gibson were in an altercation when she stabbed him.

According to a police report, at about 8.30 pm on Thursday, Sgt Doodhai, Cpl Dwarika and PC Flores of the Rio Claro Police Station went to Settlement 1, after receiving a report. The officers observed a woman weeping next to Gibson’s body.

Villagers told police that the couple earlier in the afternoon were seen liming at a bar where they joined other patrons for an Emancipation Day lime. The woman and Gibson left the bar and returned to their home.

The woman was later seen screaming and crying as she paced along a road near Gibson’s home.

She later told neighbour Marjorie Jagroop what had happened and asked Jagroop to contact the police.

Jagroop, 50, who only got to know Gibson and the woman when they moved into the area about four months ago told Newsday she was still in a state of shock over what happened. “They only moved here about four months ago and told me they were from La Romaine,” Jagroop said. “I hardly knew them but what I can say is that the man was a quiet, nice person. While you would hear her mouth you heard nothing from him,” Jagroop said

On Monday night, Jagroop said rain was falling when she heard someone crying outside. “I saw the woman dressed in a bra and pants with her phone in her hand. She was crying. I invited her to come out the rain because I thought she and the man had a quarrel and she was afraid to go back home. She said to me, ‘Marjorie call the police I just stabbed him in the neck’. She sounded real confused as she talked to me,” Jagroop said.

“After she talked to me she went and sat down by the man’s body until the police came and found her there waiting for them,” Jagroop said. Cpl Ramsahai is continuing investigations.

Source: http://www.newsday.co.tt/crime_and_court/0,181665.html