Many of us recall the confusion
of early attempts to prevent, treat, resolve, and grow beyond the harm of sexual
violence. Early observations that there was “no cure” for sexual violence often
led to misunderstanding rather than deeper knowledge about assessing, treating,
and preventing it. Over time, many of us worked tirelessly to remind the world
that the act of sexual abuse is a behaviour that can be changed and not simply
an incurable disorder; at the individual level, our clients are human beings
who change over time and not simply immutable monsters. At street level, the
“no-cure language” has changed in statutes. However, the search for the
societal ills that result in violence continue – and yes, at that level of
abstraction, many believe there is a cure. Many organizations have championed
efforts at reducing sexual violence; this blog focuses on one that is seeking
to prevent all violence.
Recently, Kieran travelled to the
University of Illinois at Chicago and met with staff from the Cure
Violence program. The idea behind Cure Violence is that the world has been
looking at the idea of violence from a problematic perspective for many years,
and that we can prevent – and not just respond to – violence. The Cure Violence
program has operated for over fifteen years and across nine different
countries. Traditional responses to violence are rooted in notions of criminal
justice, with a punitive and reactive response; communities punish and
rehabilitate violent offenders after the fact. Therefore, you need to become a
perpetrator of violence, have a victim, and be involved with the criminal
justice system in some capacity before you can learn how to prevent future
violent acts. People who perpetrate sexual abuse commonly experience this,
despite the emergence of support groups and organizations whose mission is to
help those who are afraid that abuse may occur and are seeking help.
The Cure Violence program,
however, looks at violence from a more holistic perspective, stating that society
needs to view violence as a health issue and that we can use a public health
approach to respond to it. The core idea underlying the program is that
violence operates like an epidemic: it spreads across neighbours (through
social learning) infecting people socially, psychologically, and culturally,
resulting in more violence. Thus, violence inevitably begets more violence,
even though the risk factors and context in which they exist can change from
one person to the next. Although the program originally focused on intercity
gang violence, it can be used to discuss and think about various forms of violence,
including sexual violence. Through the work of staff in Cure Violence the cycle
and spread of violence can be interpreted and, therefore, stopped, by:
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Detecting and interrupting potentially violent
conflicts
The program
employs violence interrupters to work within vulnerable communities, to help
identify and provide early intervention to sources of violence. These
interrupters have to have credibility within the communities that they work in
and be seen as a legitimate resources by the at risk populations, because they
come from these communities and have histories of violence themselves as
perpetrators or victims. The interrupters work to defuse the situation and
refer the community members onto other organisations that can help support them
in a more bespoke and appropriate, way.
-
Identify and treat individuals at the highest
risk
Outreach workers
help support the vulnerable community by offering them ongoing and appropriate
support. The aim of this part of the program is to work with the people who are
at the highest risk of committing violence and offer then support in making
better long term life choices that do not involve violence.
-
Mobilise communities to change norms
The program works
with all levels of community members in the communities that it works within to
enable social change so that the community as a whole rejects violence;
suggesting that there are other means of conflict resolution and new, adaptive
ways of moving forward.
The Cure Violence program provides
insight into preventing sexual violence; it provides a model and way of
thinking/working in this arena. There are differences between sexual and other
forms of violence, but this program offers us adaptability rather than roadblocks.
Reflecting on the Cure Violence program and how it relates to sexual violence:
-
Victims of violence and victims of sexual
violence often suffer from similar psychology, emotional, social, health, economic
and life course challenges as a consequence;
-
Often times sexual violence is lumped together
in communities with high levels of social, political, and health
vulnerabilities (such as other forms of violence);
-
There is often a relationship between being a
victim of general violence and being a victim of sexual violence. This can
often be endemic in communities, families, peer groups and geographical areas;
-
Some perpetrators of sexual violence have been
victims of sexual violence themselves previously, as well as other forms of
violence and abuse;
-
There is a growing recognition that sexual
violence, like other forms of violence, occurs within community structures
(i.e., sports clubs, communities, gangs, networks, etc.). Therefore,
understanding how to respond to affected communities in an appropriate way becomes
all the more urgent;
-
Sexual abuse, like other types of violence, can
be prevented;
-
We need to understand and honour the voices of
both those who perpetrate and are victimised by sexual violence so that we can
develop better resources to stop sexual violence before it happens (we see this
in the prevention of sexual violence re-offending, but we need to move it
further out into society); affected communities can be leaders in this area.
-
We need better support and awareness for at-risk
communities so that sexual violence can be prevented;
-
We need to develop better resources, means and
mechanisms for engaging communities in changing social norms around=d sexual
violence. We have started to do this over the past 10 years but we need to get
better at it and learning from an equivalent program would enable us to do
that.
Cure Violence asks us to
reconceptualise the reality of violence, and therefore how we can best respond
to it. Some organizations are starting to do this with sexual violence, taking
a preventive, public health approach and it seems that the Cure Violence
program may help just on our path to achieving it.
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