Men charged with domestic violence are using the recession to seek leniency in the justice system, say women's refuge workers.
But the workers whose job it is to help patch up the victims' lives have little truck with that excuse. Domestic violence has always been around and should be unacceptable, recession or not, Te Puna O Te Aroha Maori Women's Refuge and Tryphina House spokeswoman Stacey Pepene said.
"The recession is affecting families nationwide in many ways. Evidence suggests abusers are using the stress of the recession as a legitimate excuse for being violent in order to gain leniency," she said.
It was dangerous for people to presume the loss of a job or the inability to pay bills led to family violence or made it less serious, she said.
In line with national trends, both refuges were seeing an all-time high demand for their services - up 30 per cent on last year - but were reluctant to blame it all on the economic climate, Ms Pepene said.
"With regard to the recession, yes, anecdotal evidence suggests it is a contributing factor to increased stress levels for families. But it's not only because of the recession ... there's always a recession for a lot of these people."
Whangarei lawyer Roger Bowden agreed that more men in the dock on family violence charges cited financial stress.
"Yes, I am aware of it, but I'm not so sure it's an excuse as much as an explanation.
"I think it's fair to say that extra strain on the family unit sometimes inevitably leads to domestic discord."
Meanwhile, there was anecdotal evidence that historic family violence was being reported more as added stress came to bear on families, Ms Pepene said. That was partly because of high-profile promotions such as the It's Not Okay campaign, she said.
Increases in police reporting of domestic violence had also added pressure to workloads, as both Whangarei refuges provided service and support to police referrals.
Police Kaipara Whangarei Area family violence co-ordinator Karen Edwards said police statistics and workloads showed an increase in family violence reporting.
She said that was largely because of better community education and lowered tolerance, and the fact victims felt supported in coming forward.
Don't use slump as excuse to hit out
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