"Living Doll': By Winston Churchill & the Straight Ones
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VICARAGE RAPE HORROR!
SCANDAL OF OUR ABUSED CHILDREN!
INCREASE IN VIOLENT CRIME!
GAY PLAGUE HITS EDINBURGH! readers' hearts and sensationalises bothering to educate about the real extent of the problem or in the shock horror, is salacious, sexist and hypocritical.
You turn the page and there's your friendly page three girl to brighten and reassure you that most of us are normal, heterosexual and cuddly (as Douglas Hogg said of page 3 nudes in Parliament recently).
But behind the lurid headlines are real problems, which originate in our society, however complex the pro cess is, and which do have something to do with the media. The major issue is in fact that of violence against women.
No one knows the true incidence of violent assaults. Victims often fear to tell anyone, let alone report to the police. Police fail to record many incidents that are reported and then fail to arrest. So it is not possible to claim, as many do, that there is a rising tide of violence.
It may be that as a result of the work of Rape Crisis centres, Women's Aid refuges and incest survivors groups we are making it possible for women and children to talk of their experiences and consider officially reporting them to the police. In terms of figures currently available, we know that wife assault is the second most common form of violent crime (25% of crimes noted by the police) after that of violence between men. Since many women never report domestic violence (and when they do are not taken seriously), it is in fact likely that male violence against women in their home is the most common violent crime. This type of abuse is also likely to persist rather than be a one-off attack, like an attack in the street. assaults as a whole, 75% are violent then look domestic
THE vultures of the "popular press" cast around for front page It all makes money for the proprietors, puts fear into problems without ways of preventing them. Because, of course, the interest is SUE ARNALL takes a critical look at the Clare Short proposals to outlaw Page 3 nudes, and the Winston Churchill Bill, and questions whether state censorship can curb violence against women. assaults by men against their female partner, with 10% being those of parent against child. Where sexual offences are con- cerned, offenders are overwhelming- male (99:1) and ly Victims over- whelmingly female (85:15). Sexual abuse often begins very early in a child's life and is almost always by a trusted male member of the family. Kinsey (1953) found that 25% of their sample of American women were sex- ually assaulted as children. In this country the figures for incest are not known but are likely to be about 6% and yet only a minute fraction of offenders are prosecuted. Recent NSPCC publicity has drawn attention to an which Rape issue Crisis workers were acutely aware of for many years, and may have open- ed up the issue for more help to be made available in schools so that children know they can admit the problem and assert their rights to control of their bodies. The issue which the popular press Ignores, however, is the serius and fact that persistent, overwhelming violence is male/female, and that the vast majority of victims are women. Rape cases receive more salacious Phe eltoblem ten there the size of problem is hidden. Recent Socialist Viewpoint No. 12 May 1986p25
ASK OF THE CONCY 50 WE SURE THI SHE LOCKE SUITE CEL NARY TO ME TEN HE A MARK* 4
research suggests that 75% of rape
victims do not go to the police (Lon-
don Rape Crisis Centre 1982) and
those who do experience interviews
and medical examinations which
serve to increase the trauma. Publici-
ty of such cases seems to pronounce a
guilty verdict on the victim rather
than the rapist, and the cumulative
effect on other women is to increase
our fear of being out at night and so
to further humiliate all women.
So this gets me to the current spate
of dramatic stories, to their
signiticance for us, and their use by
the politicians. Tebbit said this week
that freedom came through owner-
ship, security, established by law and
order and lamily stability.
city crisis is the "potsoned legacy of
the permissive society". - Legislation
on capital punishment, homosexuali-
divoroce... abortion and censorship and
"suggest there is no need
for restraint at all."
The Tory answer to violence
against women and children, then, is
to get back in your houses (where the
vast amount of abuse occurs) and
wait. We must uphold the traditional
roles of men and women, and the
power relationships that go with
them.
Women in the women's movement