New report published by probation service critical of Community Rehabilitation Companies

A report published today by HM Inspectorate of Probation is highly critical of the work that Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) carry out with domestic violence offenders. The role of CRCs is to supervise and provide structured programmes for low risk offenders in the community (including post-custody supervision). The report found that although there has been a 23 % increase in offences related to domestic abuse recorded by the police in the year to March 2018, (representing nearly 600,000 offences), a small proportion of these offenders are being offered perpetrator programmes, the number of perpetrator programme starts had decreased in the two previous years for which figures are available and an increasing proportion of offenders were failing to complete the programme

The inspectors found that there were too few referrals to the nationally accredited Building Better Relationships programme, and that a range of non-evidence based programmes were being delivered. Overall there was found to be a lack of  staff knowledge and confidence to properly manage domestic violence offenders or to deliver the requisite programmes. The report found that: ‘The lack of knowledge, skill and time dedicated to managing domestic abuse led to considerable shortfalls in the quality of case management’

You can download the report here.

You can see an article in the Guardian covering this topic here.

Coverage on ITV webpage here.

Italian women’s groups challenge parental alienation laws

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/19/italian-womens-groups-fear-law-change-will-hurt-domestic-violence-victims

 

Women’s groups in Italy fear that new parental alienation laws could have severe consequences for victims of domestic abuse. Lawyers from the far right League party  have called for “the serious phenomenon of parental alienation” to be criminalised, claiming the law is often used by men accused of violence against their partners to justify the refusal of the child to see them.

“They argue that the mother is guilty of alienating the child, when in reality the child is rejecting the abuse of the father,” said Girolamo Andrea Coffari, a lawyer and the president of Movimento per l’Infanzia (Children’s Movement).

Women’s groups are hugely concerned by the new law. “The laws are there but they are poorly implemented,” said Elena Biaggioni, a family lawyer. “For example, there is one that says violent men must be removed from the home, but it doesn’t work.”

Cultural attitudes pose another challenge: women who report violence struggle to be believed, either by police, their own families or the courts. Italy has the highest femicide rate in Europe and many fear that lingering macho attitudes not only lead men to regard women as their property but also permeate media reports of abuse.

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