Multi-Agency Approach to Domestic Violence: A Panacea or Obstacle to Women's Struggles for Freedom From Violence? (From The Multi-Agency Approach to Domestic Violence: New Opportunities, Old Challenges?, P 62-85, 1999, Nicola Harwin, Gill Hague, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-187541)

• NCJ Number: 187545
• Author(s): Pragna Patel
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 24 pages
• Sale Source: Whiting & Birch Ltd
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

Drawing largely from the experiences of England's Southall Black Sisters (SBS), this chapter shows that the multi-agency approach to responding to domestic violence has wider political and economic ramifications not only for women but for all sections of society.

Abstract

There is a growing consensus among feminists that multi-agency forums initiated by the local police or local authorities provide a necessary structure for addressing domestic violence. SBS has been troubled by the theory and practice of such forums from the very start of their promotion by the police and the Home Office, when they were forced to acknowledge their failure regarding the challenges posed by domestic violence, racial violence, and police/black relations. At the heart of SBS's concern about the multi-agency approach is that it is being promoted as a substitute for real accountability from the police and other key state agencies. The focus of this chapter is on the multi-agency approach within the policing of domestic violence, but many of the issues identified may also be relevant to multi-agency approaches adopted by local authorities and other bodies in other contexts. The SBS advises that the impact of multi-agency policing cannot be viewed simply in terms of one section of society. It must be considered for its ramifications for various classes and groups of people within and between minority and majority communities. Among the central questions that remain unanswered is whether multi-agency forums can help to achieve the transformation of women from "victims" to "citizens." Against the backdrop of creeping state centralization on the one hand and a view of society on the "right" and "left" that aims to reinforce the stability of the "family" and promote "individual responsibility," it is difficult to see how the multi-agency approach can challenge the trend toward less democracy. There is an increasing separation between the groups who have developed good relations with the police formally and informally and those who have not. There is an urgent need to debate and develop clear feminist perspectives on the multi-agency project, so there can be an inclusive feminism that integrates the insights from the black and civil rights movements. 21 notes and 21 references