The Netherlands Government’s approach on tackling private violence
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: January 15, 2006
Domestic violence
August 2005
This fact sheet provides information on the Government’s approach
on tackling private violence.
Definition
Domestic violence is an act of
violence that is committed by a person from the victim’s family circle. It may
include physical and sexual violence as well as mental violence such as
threatening or stalking. Domestic violence may take the form of child abuse
including sexual child abuse, violence against partners and ex-partners in all
its conceivable forms, as well as abuse or neglect of the elderly.
Forms and extent
Violence in the private realm
is the most extensive form of violence in the Netherlands society. Domestic
violence takes place in all socio-economic classes and within all cultures.
Women and children are the most likely victims but men, parents and elderly
people also fall victim to this type of violence.
Research 1) indicates that more than
40% of the Netherlands population have experienced domestic violence at some
point in their lives. Ten per cent of this group experiences this form of
violence everyday or every week. Nearly one third of those who experience this
violence have seen their lives changed drastically as a result. This type of
violence is predominantly committed by men, constituting 80% of all cases.
The most recent police figures confirm
this 2). The police has set up a special registration
procedure for domestic violence and it has been calculated that over 56,000
domestic crime reports are entered into the police database each year. It is a
known fact that only 12% of all domestic violence cases are reported to the
police. This means that roughly 500,000 domestic violence incidents take place
each year. The study shows that in more than 36% of the reported incidents, this
has led to the victims lodging an official complaint with the police. In 58% of
the domestic violence incidents where victims have lodged an official complaint
with the police, the perpetrator was actually apprehended.
Research 3) has shown that domestic
violence also takes place on an alarming scale within ethnic minority groups yet
its precise extent is difficult to determine as there remains a taboo on
domestic violence with these groups finding it even more difficult than the
native Netherlands residents to talk about the issue. Moreover, certain ethnic
minority groups have their own specific customs of dealing with domestic
violence. Avenging the family honour is one such an example. It is estimated
that 100,000 children witness domestic violence each year. 40,000 of them are at
risk of being faced with psycho-social problems or behavioural problems. Young
victims of violence run a higher risk of becoming perpetrators or victims of
domestic violence when they are grown ups.
Context
In 2002, the Government presented the
policy document ‘Private Violence – Public Issue’. The policy document does
not only describe the nature and extent of domestic violence but also contains
more than fifty concrete measures to improve the existing approach for dealing
with this issue. The Government indicated in the Coalition Agreement of June
2003 that it wanted to pursue an effective policy against domestic violence. To
this end, an interdepartmental project was introduced, coordinated by the
Ministry of Justice for the period between 2002 and 2007. It aims at the
realisation and implementation of the measures and intentions mentioned in the
document in mutual consultation and at taking new initiatives together with the
‘field’ where necessary.
The approach on domestic violence is part of the Government’s
Public Safety Programme which aims to combat crime and nuisance that affect the
public directly. It also forms a part of the Government’s Major Cities Policy
(GSB) in which the central government and major municipalities have reached
agreement on activities and intended results for the period between 2005 up to
and including 2009.
Services
An effective approach on domestic
violence includes the use of a system of services that provides for timely
recognition, tighter risk assessment, swift and effective interventions,
assistance for victims and corrective help for perpetrators. The Government
intends to create an infrastructure with the following elements:
-
Local and regional working partnerships which form binding
agreements and develop an airtight approach.
No single authority
can combat domestic violence effectively on their own. The police, the Public
Prosecution Service, probation services, child protection and childcare
services, women’s shelters and other care organisations jointly form a chain
and they will need to come up with an airtight approach. In recent years,
dozens of municipalities and regions have formed working partnerships to
combat domestic violence. Many of the partnerships started out as projects
subsidised by the Ministry of Justice. Practically all the projects are
currently continuing with the financial support of municipalities. The
inventory concerning the approach towards domestic violence in
2003 4) shows that 32 of the 37 major
municipalities interviewed for the investigation have formed working
partnerships. The inventory will be repeated in 2005. -
Local advice and support centres
The State Secretary
for Health, Welfare and Sport has drawn up an incentive scheme for advice
support centres on domestic violence. The 35 centre municipalities for women’s
shelters may apply for a grant to set up or expand working regional advice or
support centres. In an advice and support centre, victims, perpetrators or
other people involved in domestic violence can receive advice or support on
the steps required to stop violence in private circles. These centres are
therefore a kind of front office for the local and/or regional authorities
that work together. They must be operational by 1 January 2006 at the
latest. -
A coordinating role for the municipal
authorities
The ‘Private Violence – Public
Issue’ memorandum places the coordinating role for tackling domestic
violence in the hands of the municipal authorities. Their task is to bring the
local working partnerships together, stimulate them to agree on mutually
binding and airtight agreements and ensure that they honour the agreements.
Municipal authorities can assume the managing role themselves or delegate it
to, for instance, the Municipal Health Service. Since 2003, the Netherlands
Association of Municipalities carries out an extensive programme, subsidised
by the Ministry of Justice, aimed at stimulating municipal authorities to
promote the tackling of the domestic violence issue and to provide them with
tools in order to carry out their coordinating role in this matter. The
programme runs until the end of 2006 and its object is to stimulate 250
municipalities into taking up their coordinator’s role. -
Women’s shelter
The women’s shelters increasingly
shelter women and children who have very serious and complex problems. The
Government has allocated extra money for expanding the capacity of women’s
shelters. The emphasis is on the nationally accessible shelter facilities for
women (and their children) who are in great danger, including victims of
honour-related violence and of women trafficking. Access to the women’s
shelters has been organised inefficiently 5). The sector
has developed a plan to improve accessibility with financial support from the
Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The Trimbos Institute launched a
large-scale investigation into the supply and demand for women’s shelters in
the autumn of 2004. The results of this investigation will be available in the
autumn of 2005 and measures will then be introduced to balance the welfare
service better with the need for help. -
Offender treatment programmes
An effective approach to
domestic violence requires not only providing shelter for the victims but also
treatment for the perpetrators. The term ‘corrective help’ is used in this
respect. Forensic psychiatry has been involved in developing methods for the
treatment of domestic violence perpetrators over the past few years. An
inventory has been made and will be disseminated concerning best practices and
effective lines of approach for voluntarily help to perpetrators; a basic
course on helping perpetrators will also be introduced in 2006. TransAct will
systematically promote the development and dissemination of useful
methods. -
National support programme
TransAct carries out a
national support programme for domestic violence that provides support to the
whole chain involved in tackling domestic violence. To this end, it has a
website (www.huiselijkgeweld.nl) which also contains a quarterly
magazine on this subject (‘Huiselijkgeweld.nl’). TransAct also organises the
national network meetings on domestic violence, sets up databases, gathers
examples of best model practices and makes these as widely known as possible.
TransAct also supplies material that can be used for information to the public
on the issue. TransAct will continue to perform these duties for three years,
starting from January 2005. An evaluation will be made after this
period.
Awareness, law and legislation
Government and
professional organisations must jointly express the message that domestic
violence is unacceptable and cannot be justified by any kind of excuse. The
message can be expressed in various ways.
-
Publicity campaigns
In 2004, the Ministry of Justice
and the Ministry of VWS assembled toolkits and distributed them among the
municipal authorities to encourage them to carry out local and/or regional
publicity campaigns. A toolkit is a package containing practical
information for setting up a publicity campaign on domestic
violence 6). In the autumn of 2003, provincial
authorities and major city regions introduced campaigns to promote the Advice
and Reporting Centres for Child Abuse. In 2006 a decision will be taken about
a national publicity campaign on domestic violence, which may be carried out
in 2007. -
Legislation: restraining orders from entering the house for
perpetrators of domestic violence
By introducing a separate law,
the Government intends to create ways of imposing temporary restraining orders
for perpetrators of domestic violence in situations where there is an acute
threat to victims and/or their children. The Government is working on a
ten-day restraining order which will be imposed by the police with the mayor’s
consent. The court will test the order within three days after its
commencement date. The court can then decide whether the order be cancelled or
reinforced . The refraining order from entering a house may also apply for
child abuse cases. The legislation process has started and the legislative
proposal will probably be submitted to the Lower House of Parliament in
2006. -
Official guideline by the Board of Procurators
General
In 2003, the Board of Procurators General issued an
Official Guideline for the Public Prosecution Service, the police and the
probation services in which it is clearly propagated that domestic violence is
unacceptable. The Guideline includes directives on apprehension, official
reports, interrogation of the suspect and pre-trial assistance by the
probation services. The Guideline will be evaluated in 2004/2005 and the
evaluation report will be published in 2005.
Specific projects
Various organisations and
professions are developing policies, specific training methods and specific
programmes which enable them to act effectively in cases of domestic violence
reports. One of these organisations is the police.
-
Police project
On 1 January 2003, a nation-wide
project on domestic violence, ‘Domestic violence and the police work’,
was launched and initiated by the Board of Police Commissioners. Its object
was to encourage all police regions to develop a policy on tackling domestic
violence, promote police expertise and enable the national registration of
domestic violence cases. Based on the registration developed by the police, an
investigation was conducted into the nature and backgrounds of domestic
violence in 2004. The study 7) supplied figures on the
reports of incidences and on the victims of domestic violence. 80% of the
victims are women, 18% men, 9.3% children below the age of 18 and 3.3% people
above 55.By now, all police regions have appointed regional portfolio
holders at the strategic level and regional coordinators for domestic violence
at the tactical level. Furthermore, police forces are training many police
officers so they become certified professionals who know how to deal with
victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. The police project includes a
national registration of domestic violence cases and this is now being applied
almost entirely throughout the Netherlands.
Footnotes
1) ‘Huiselijk geweld – aard, omvang en
hulpverlening’ (Domestic violence – nature, scope and support) Intomart,
1997
2) ‘Huiselijk geweld: de voordeur op een kier – omvang,
aard en achtergronden in 2004 op basis van landelijke politiecijfers’ H.B.
Ferwerda, November 2004’ (Domestic violence: leaving the front door open –
scope, nature and backgrounds in 2004 based on national police
figures)
3) ‘Huiselijk geweld onder Surinamers, Antillianen
en Arubanen, Marokkanen en Turken in Nederland – aard, omvang en hulpverlening
(Domestic violence among Surinamese, Antillians and Arubans, Moroccans and
Turkish people – nature, extent and welfare services’ Intromart,
2002.
4) “Inventarisatie stand van zaken aanpak huiselijk
geweld 2003” (Inventory of the State of Affairs concerning the approach on
domestic violence) L. van Lier , The Hague, December
2003.
5) ‘Aan de voordeur van de vrouwenopvang, een
onderzoek naar de instroom’ (At the front gate of women’s shelters, an
investigation into the influx), Trimbos Institute, 2003.
6)
The toolkits consist of CDs that make a reference to the website www.aanpakhuiselijkgeweld.nl set up by the VNG for the
domestic violence project
7) ‘Huiselijk geweld: de voordeur
op een kier – omvang, aard en achtergronden in 2004 op basis van landelijke
politiecijfers’ H.B. Ferwerda, November 2004’ (Domestic violence: leaving the
front door open – scope, nature and backgrounds in 2004 based on national police
figures).
More information
The website www.huiselijkgeweld.nl,
containing a quarterly magazine on domestic violence, ‘Huiselijkgeweld.nl’,
provides victims and organisations involved in tackling domestic violence with
concrete and up to date information. The website also has news articles and
recent publications. Information on the various organisations and projects in
the Netherlands concerned with combating domestic violence is also available.
The website provides links to the sites of the various organisations. Municipal
authorities can also obtain further information through the Netherlands
Association of Municipalities website: www.aanpakhuiselijkgeweld.nl.
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