[MotherBear]

Christchurch family violence 'out of control'
17 March 2006
By JANINE BENNETTS

Domestic violence in Christchurch is "out of control", with police investigating more than 400 domestic callouts each month, the region's police chief says. Canterbury Police District Superintendent Sandra Manderson told the Christchurch City Council yesterday that family violence rates in the city were too high.

"Violence is occuring on the streets, but there is also much violence happening in the homes as well and that has an impact on the children," Manderson said. Violent crime, which includes domestic offences, cost Christchurch more than $11 million last year, police said.

Christchurch Women's Refuge manager Annette Gillespie said police and agencies dealt with more than 100 domestic violence reports a week, and that number was only 5 per cent to 10% of the real amount of family violence in Christchurch. "It's certainly a chronic problem in our city and chronic in that it's ongoing and we don't seem to be able to find an answer to it," Gillespie said. "Many, many families never come to the attention of the police and many family violence (incidents) don't get outside the family. Silence is the greatest friend of family violence. Silence supports the fear and the fear supports people not being able to get out and get help."

Gillespie said the incidence of family violence in Christchurch was increasing, but so was public awareness of the problem, and people were increasingly willing to come forward and report cases.

Inspector John Price, of the Christchurch police, said about 70% of homicides were domestic. "People seem to think violence is on the street but a large proportion of violent crimes occur in the home," Price said. A big concern was that children were often caught up in domestic disputes. "The majority of the time it's going to be involving adults in some kind of relationship. However, because quite often children are there, children are involved as well. That's where the cycle of domestic violence occurs."

Price said police had a zero tolerance approach to domestic violence and tried to make sure cases were dealt with in court. Domestic violence was a social issue that police could not deal with alone. "Police officers are police officers. We're there to enforce the legislation ... we're not quasi- teachers or quasi-social workers. That requires experts," Price said.

Gillespie said the whole community needed to work together to reduce family violence in Christchurch. "What we need to do as a community is acknowledge the extent of family violence in our community and then we need to take some responsibility as a community for it," she said.

Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore said councillors, police and agencies needed to work together. "Family violence is a hidden and insidious thing that people take in their hearts often and we don't hear about it," Moore said. "Our community strategies should be addressing that sort of issue."

At yesterday's council meeting police also presented some strategies for reducing crime in Christchurch. Violent crime, including domestic offences, makes up 11% of crime in the city. Price said crime in central Christchurch had dropped 5.4% in the year ending June 30 2005 from the previous year and Christchurch had the lowest violent crime rate of any district in the country at 84 violent crimes per 10,000 people.

Police identified three areas of major concern in the city on weekends ? Kivers Lane and the City Mall amphitheatre; the Bridge of Remembrance and The Strip, and Colombo Street and the City Mall. Price said police wanted the council to improve lighting or close off certain areas at night to improve the problem spots.

"These sort of things are social and very hard to fix," Price said. "You're never going to make the big inroads until you involve other agencies."