News / Regional
Man-beating wives 'escape punishment'
27 Mar 2015 at 03:05hrs | Views
POLICE are biased against men who report cases of gender based violence (GBV) perpetrated against them by abusive wives, in a development that pushes some of them to suffer in silence.
Participants at a GBV coordinating meeting held yesterday in Gwanda that was organised by the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development urged the police to cooperate and treat cases reported by men in an impartial manner.
They said there is a risk that lack of assistance from the police would push some men to fight back, leading them to commit serious crimes such as murder.
A business community representative, Misheck Ndlovu said police actions discourage abused men from reporting the cases.
"Men who make reports of abuse by their wives are made fun of by some police officers. Such kind of treatment is so discouraging and police need to take such issues seriously," said Ndlovu.
Alaska Mafuka from the Legal Resources Foundation said their organisation had dealt with some matters involving men who were abused by their wives, but had failed to get assistance from police.
"There are men who are being battered by their wives at home and when they report their cases they claim they are not being taken seriously by police and perpetrators are not arrested. As a result, such men end up retaliating resulting in them being arrested," he said.
Another participant said it was not solely the duty of the police to protect male victims of domestic violence, but also the surrounding communities.
The meeting also heard that male involvement in domestic violence awareness campaigns was also low.
A police officer from the Victim Friendly Unit said they had not received any reports of ill treatment of men intending to report their cases by police officers.
He said police treat all cases equally making such allegations unbelievable, as there was no evidence.
The police officer said in January and February, Gwanda District recorded an increase in cases of domestic and sexual violence.
He said juveniles were mostly affected and neighbours and relatives were often the perpetrators.
"Gwanda district recorded an 80 percent increase in GBV cases in February as compared to January this year. This increase was because there were some cases that were not being reported but are coming up now," he said.
"Cases are being withdrawn before plea because perpetrators would have apologised to the survivors."
Participants at a GBV coordinating meeting held yesterday in Gwanda that was organised by the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development urged the police to cooperate and treat cases reported by men in an impartial manner.
They said there is a risk that lack of assistance from the police would push some men to fight back, leading them to commit serious crimes such as murder.
A business community representative, Misheck Ndlovu said police actions discourage abused men from reporting the cases.
"Men who make reports of abuse by their wives are made fun of by some police officers. Such kind of treatment is so discouraging and police need to take such issues seriously," said Ndlovu.
Alaska Mafuka from the Legal Resources Foundation said their organisation had dealt with some matters involving men who were abused by their wives, but had failed to get assistance from police.
"There are men who are being battered by their wives at home and when they report their cases they claim they are not being taken seriously by police and perpetrators are not arrested. As a result, such men end up retaliating resulting in them being arrested," he said.
Another participant said it was not solely the duty of the police to protect male victims of domestic violence, but also the surrounding communities.
The meeting also heard that male involvement in domestic violence awareness campaigns was also low.
A police officer from the Victim Friendly Unit said they had not received any reports of ill treatment of men intending to report their cases by police officers.
He said police treat all cases equally making such allegations unbelievable, as there was no evidence.
The police officer said in January and February, Gwanda District recorded an increase in cases of domestic and sexual violence.
He said juveniles were mostly affected and neighbours and relatives were often the perpetrators.
"Gwanda district recorded an 80 percent increase in GBV cases in February as compared to January this year. This increase was because there were some cases that were not being reported but are coming up now," he said.
"Cases are being withdrawn before plea because perpetrators would have apologised to the survivors."
Source - chronicle
