Domestic Violence Scars DNA: more evidence of the far reaching devastation DV can have upon Children who witness it

Scientists have discovered yet another far-reaching consequence can witnessing domestic violence can have upon children and yet another reason to keep fighting to stamp out domestic violence: A study has found that it can actually change and "scar" DNA 

"Telomeres are the caps at the end of chromosomes that keep them from shrinking when cells replicate and Shorter telomeres are linked to higher risks for heart disease, obesity, cognitive decline, diabetes and mental illness."

"Young people in homes affected by domestic violence or suicide have significantly shorter telomeres - or 'caps' on their genes - than those in stable households. 

Such genetic damage could also increase the child’s risk of heart disease, obesity and other problems as they grow up".

Family-level stressors, such as witnessing a family member get hurt, created an environment that affected the DNA within the cells of the children,’ said lead author Dr Stacy Drury, director of the Behavioural and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Laboratory at the university.

               ‘"The greater the number of exposures these kids had in life, the shorter their telomeres were - and this was after controlling for many other factors, including socioeconomic status, maternal education, parental age and the child’s age."

The study, which is published in the journal Pediatrics, found that traumatic family events had a more damaging effect on young girls – who were more likely to have shortened telomeres – than boys.

The research suggests that intervening in a child’s poor home life is important in reducing the biological impacts of adversity.

Yet another hurdle that child witnesses of DV must contend with and  another reason to protect them at all costs

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2661422/Domestic-violence-scar-childs-DNA-Watching-family-members-hurt-linked-damage-chromosomes.html

"The man whose fingerprints are all over civil society" - Michael Norton talks Achievement and backs Best Foot Forward projects

Michael Norton, OBE, Honorary Director and Trustee of CIVA has been selected by The Charity Awards judges to receive the Oustanding Achievement Award 2014 for his exemplary services to the Voluntary sector. Congratulations to an honour well-deserved; Michael has been blazing a lasting trail for generations to follow:

"If you’ve spent any time at all in the voluntary sector over the last 40-odd years, chances are you’ve come across Michael Norton – or at least his work.  

Even those that don’t know Michael, or are not familiar with his name, are likely to have trodden a path that he has helped to carve.  

His fingerprints are everywhere; in fundraising training, in youth empowerment, in women’s rights, in social franchising, in crowdfunding, in social enterprise – the list goes on.  The deeper you delve into his expansive career, the more you realise just how ubiquitous and influential Norton has been."

Michael took the time to mention which projects he will be backing in the future with our very own Best Foot Foward (BFF) being mentioned along with backers such as the House of Commons and Goldman Sachs. 

"...And if by some freak chance you’ve not yet happened upon any of Michael Norton’s projects, there remains every chance that you will.  He’s presently working on a host of new ideas... Best Foot Forward is a training programme where unemployed people shine shoes to raise money for charity – the House of Common and Goldman Sachs are already on board to host shoe-shine days."

Read More here about Michael's remarkable story and The Ideas Merchant himself:

http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/finance/indepth/interviews/content/17649/michael_norton_the_ideas_merchant#.U6HkE8lwbqC

For more about Best Foot Forward:

http://bestfootforwardenterprise.blogspot.co.uk/

Resilience in the Criminal Justice System

to Book tickets 

What is it?

Resilience is the ability to withstand or recover from difficult situations. It's our inherent bounce back ability. It includes our capacity to make the best of things, cope with stress and rise to the occasion. This one-day workshop offers a practical training in skills, strategies and insights that help our resilience grow. This intensive workshop is designed for all those who come into contact with the criminal justice system, as practitioners in probation services, solicitors, advocates or barristers or front line counsellors. In an ever shifting commissioning landscape, which offers little job security, and as austerity bites essential services, it is easy to absorb secondary trauma from a complicated and vulnerable client group and also from colleagues, being in the hostile litigation environment of a court and negotiating our own places of safety and serenity.

With the emphasis on outcomes such as employment, housing and an ever shrinking pool of resources, we need to work smart and think hard.

The training explores Transforming Rehabilitation, Chris Grayling’s  the new emphasis on pathways out of offending and how it affects those delivering services, judges, barristers and front line workers. Here, we explore opportunities for the client to be at  the heart of  interventions which     provide  training,  vocational qualifications and employment opportunities but additionally and uniquely provide  resilience training to address core issues of safety, personal responsibility, confidence and aspiration.

We explore issues such as protected characteristics, ethnicity, class and social standing, from a  gender sensitive, trauma informed approach.

We look at why women who commit crimes  are often the same women who have suffered extreme violence and been perpetrators and victims of appalling crimes. Ours is a relational approach. This engages all the professionals and services working with an individual to address the behavioural patterns of a client’s experiences with the examination of interpersonal relationships. By facilitating a safe and positive relationship in the security of the environment, the client is armed with a stronger sense of self and confidence. The primary goal of this technique is to empower the client with the skills necessary to recognize and create productive and healthy relationships. We strive to address any and all past and present relationship traumas or impressions that have served to create discord in the present life circumstances of the client. It is only be working from a community based approach, that our clients and community can build, together, a safer community.

 Drawing on the architecture of  adventure stories, we explore key skills that make us more resilient:

• visioning skills that strengthen our sense of purpose by helping us see, and then head for, the outcomes that attract us

• creative problem-solving skills that help us find a path through the obstacles in the way

• positive relationship skills that enhance our ability to find allies and draw in the support we need

• emotional intelligence skills that raise our capacity to work with our emotions, so that we can benefit from the guiding signals and energy they offer.

The day will involve a mix of  presentation, story telling, guided exercises and group discussion. The goal is to increase each participant’s ability to draw upon the resilience they need in their lives.

Our intensive workshops provide an opportunity to work with leading members of our community and leaders in their respective field over the course of a structured day session.

Who are we?

Annell Smith –  Criminal Justice Specialist

Innovative and visionary leader with justice sector expertise. Extensive experience encompasses public sector, central government, consultancy, inter-governmental organisations and academia. Competent post-graduate researcher, with exceptional verbal and written communication skills and experience in operational, project and change management.

• Led operational delivery and implementation of women’s strategy at London Probation Trust’s Women Centre.

• Operational implementation of the UK’s first Senior Attendance Centre for women offenders, in support of LPT’s demand management strategy and budget adjustments.

• Promoting women-centred delivery of interventions in line with the 2006 Gender Equality duty and Equality act 2010.

• Discharged performance management, resource management responsibilities and addressed capacity needs to deliver against monthly and annual performance targets

Flo Krause – Human Right Barrister

Firstly a legal aid solicitor in high street practices between 1992-1998, then a barrister, still legal aid, still passionate about social justice. Flo is a leading human rights barrister , unhindered by any prospect and she relishes a challenge. Her compassionate, common sense attitude and her service to her clients who are amongst society’s outcasts, make her a valued advocate and much admired opponent in the High Court, where most of her appeal and human rights challenges are heard. She’s the champion of the abandoned and distressed and has represented unpopular causes because, for her ,  the principle of justice is inviolable and its access applicable to all. Flo also delivers training seminars on advocacy and other legal topics as well as seminars on trauma and attachment in the criminal justice system. Flo has a BTEC in Trauma and Attachment and a lot of her work with her clients is based around this model.

Founder Kazuri Properties CiC

Former offender, now a campaigner for women’s rights and social justice will deliver the compassion and mindfulness section of the training. This is accredited by ASDAN.  Farah founded Kazuri Properties CiC after being released in 2007 and finding existing services didn’t have boxes that suited the shape of her tick. So she created her own. Since 2010 over 120 women have been safely housed and only 4 have been convicted of new offences which lead to a custodial sentence.  Farah is now working with private developers to unlock social conscience and capital into the housing of disenfranchised communities thus disrupting the market. These private / social partnerships have the potential to join up fragmented circles of ultra-high net worth individuals and those living in multiple exclusion which make London a capital city but one of extremes.

Lunch and refreshments are included. Please notify us if you have specific dietary requirements.

For more information please contact Claire : info@kazuri.org.uk

A call to arms, to comrades in justice

Some days I truly despair at the state of disrepair in our rapidly deteriorating criminal justice system. The grand old dowager aunt of establishments is falling into disrepute and ruin. It's going to take more than Carillion to get this house in order. Today I'm really depressed, 12 days to save probation services and the legal profession on a knife edge. It's like a bad Madonna song.

I write to appeal to probation trusts, barristers and solicitors on the front lines, to douse your heart in the elixir of compassion. This is a fight to extract justice from The Barber of Petty France, our Lord Chancellor whose casual relationship with  the values which uphold justice are as reliable as Katie Price's choice of lovers. It isn't a time for grandeloquent gestures or photo opps outside New Scotland Yard calling for investigation into Serco and G4S. Privatisation is upon us. Wake up and smell the freshly ground.

In March, at The Crown Court at Kingston a leading junior form one of the top defence sets in London had 3 cases, listed at the same time in front of different judges. Unless the CBA have taken shares in the cloning company that manufactured Dolly the Sheep, I would venture that this is impossible.
Militant policies such as the no returns commitment will indeed bring Crown Courts to a halt. Innocent defendants will be remanded or cop early guilty pleas and all measure of proportionality is flung out of the window. Is this the justice you signed up to deliver?

While Hatchet Grayling dismantles legal aid, applying for which is so gruesome and impossible, the process itself becomes an insurmountable obstacle, while he sneaks in increased fees for Judicial Revew applications and ends legal aid for prisoners,  while solicitors are pitted against barristers who were offered an impossible choice (think Matrix- the blue pill or the red pill) the people who need your services the most are left to wither on the poisoned vine of our criminal justice system. Lives are wasted. Who do we serve? The media or our clients?

That leading junior was despondent,  he had to apologise to three disgruntled Crown Court judges, a bail application was unsuccessful and two other defendants left unrepresented while he tried to uphold this dizzying, divisive policy through his loyalty to the CBA.

The criminal justice system should not be allowed to become a vehicle for profit from the lives of the most vulnerable.  But it isn't about money. Leading criminal barristers have offered alternative cost cutting solutions which will not take away its intrinsic value but which will allow the UK to retain its reputation for delivering a world class justice service and excellence. Push these alternatives on Grayling. Push harder.

In the property world he'd be an east end barrow boy, trying to offload a building he doesn't even own. He's a spiv in a cheap suit, a playground bully whose easy rhetoric belies pure  market  driven ideology. It's indefensible. Front it out. He just blinked. Operation Cotton marked legal history.

Someone asked if I would prefer Tesco barristers.  I wouldn't but the ugly divisiveness masterfully unleashed on the profession by Chief Spiv Chris Grayling is heartbreaking to watch from the sidelines and as a very interested party. What do Carillion and A4e know about rehabilitation and vulnerable people and why are they bidding to deliver probation services, privatised?

As someone with a criminal record (last conviction dating back to 2008),  I know first hand how important legal aid is. I was lucky enough to instruct Imran Khan and Tooks handled the brief in the Crown Court.  Now Tooks has been dismantled as a result of the withering cuts to the legal aid budget and I see Imran taking mostly very expensive private prosecutions as an advocate.

It's easy for the police to target me and the rest of the population with a criminal record - profile offences,  they call it. However I could sleep soundly knowing that if I needed it, I could rely on a decent solicitor to accompany me to the police station and poke a finger in plod's eye . I knew that the barrister who took the brief would fight my corner, not overwhelmed about how he'd pay his debts and sustain a career. I don't have that confidence anymore while the legal profession is in disarray and Grayling, Ceasar like, plays gladiator games with two branches of the profession.

Fight the good fight, do right, fear no one and storm the barracks of lies,  dissemination and misrepresentation of statistics emanating from the less than fragrant Ministry of Justice and its corrupt Voldemorte at large. But don't lose sight, while Lord Voldemorte himself distracts you to the death of the bar and the demise of solidarity on the legal profession. 

Above all don't lose sight of society's most vulnerable;  we've seen how corrupt at its heart the Metropolitan Police has become. Your client could be the next Sean Duggan suicided by police. A member of your chambers could be stitched up like an Oswald Boateng suit as was Andrew Mitchell. At what price no returns, strike action and militancy? Come together with probation officers, clerks, translators who are all feeling Grayling's pincers. I know we're all exhausted and worn out but there is strength in numbers.

Let the violets beneath your feet, even in the midst of this bloody battle bring clear thinking,  courage and fragrant outcomes. I don't understand enough about the divisions and the self interests of various groups but you ARE the criminal justice system. Think with your heart and act with your conscience in plain view of True Justice.
Let none of us in the rehabilitation or criminal justice sector forget who we serve. You make the world a better place,  everyday. Because of you, justice blooms.
Courage comrades.
........
the views expressed in this communication are those of Farah Damji and do not represent the views of any other entity or organisation.

Carnivorous capitalism and the cancer that eats us all

"The rich do not exist in a vacuum. They need a functioning society around them to sustain their position. Widely unequal societies do not function efficiently and their economies are neither stable nor sustainable. The evidence from history and from around the modern world is unequivocal: there comes a point when inequality spirals into economic dysfunction for the whole society, and when it does, even the rich pay a steep price."

JOSEPH STEIGLITZ

If she's amazing...

Women and War

Report looks at the specific impact that explosive weapons have on women.

Over the last few years, concern over the use of explosive weapons in populated areas has increased because of the severe harm caused to civilians and the wider community.

However, the debate has so far not sufficiently highlighted the specific impact that explosive weapons have on women.

A new report by Reaching Critical Will (RCW), ‘Women and Explosive Weapons’, aims to draw attention to some of the unique impacts on women that explosive weapons have when used in populated areas.

We are talking here about bombs, cluster munitions, grenades, improvised explosive devices (IED), mines, missiles, mortars, and rockets, which use explosive force to affect an area around the point of detonation, usually through the effects of blast and fragmentation.

And according to data gathered by NGOs, between 80 and 90 per cent of the people injured or killed in incidents where explosive weapons are used in populated areas are civilians.

The report is part of Reaching Critical Will’s attempt to highlight the impact of weapons on women and the importance of strengthening a gender perspective in disarmament and arms control in order to ensure inclusive security – and prevent human suffering.

How is gender relevant for disarmament and arms control?

Ideas about gender affect the way people and societies view weapons, war and militarism.

Considering gender can help in developing deeper understandings of “gun cultures,” armament policies, or obstacles to disarmament.

It can also help determine appropriate policy or budgetary responses to particular challenges.

For example, there is a strong correlation between carrying guns and notions of masculinity.

Inside and outside of armed conflict, so-called “gun culture” is overwhelmingly associated with cultural norms of masculinity, including men as protectors and as warriors.

Armed conflict tends to exacerbate views about what qualifies as masculine behaviour: group pressure usually amplifies men’s aggressiveness and inclination to treat women as inferior.

Armed men perpetrate sexual violence at gunpoint against women and girls with impunity, most famously in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but also in a number of countries that are not necessarily at conflict.

Nuclear weapons likewise afford a sense of masculine strength.

Possessing and brandishing an extraordinarily destructive capacity is a form of dominance associated with masculine warriors (nuclear weapons possessors are sometimes referred to as the “big boys”).

After India’s 1998 nuclear weapon tests, for example, a Hindu nationalist leader explained, “We had to prove that we are not eunuchs.”

When governments act as though their power and security can only be guaranteed by a nuclear arsenal, they create a context in which nuclear weapons become the ultimate necessity for, and symbol of, state security.

And when nuclear-armed states then work hard to ensure that other countries do not obtain nuclear weapons, they are perceived as subordinating and emasculating others.

Gender analysis can also help us understand how weapons are used – and against whom and why. This in turn can help inform policies and programmes that specifically address these challenges.

Irresponsible transfers of weaponry, munitions, armaments, and related equipment across borders have resulted in acts of gender-based violence (GBV) perpetrated by both state and non-state actors.

Thus in the recent negotiations of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), civil society organisations and like-minded governments worked together to ensure that the treaty included a legally-binding provision on preventing armed gender-based violence.

‘Women and Explosive Weapons’ also argues that it is important to ensure that women affected by the use of explosive weapons receive the same assistance and legal protection as men, and that they are seen as active agents of change rather than only as victims.

The report also briefly describes explosive weapons and the legal tools available to assess their use, focusing in particular on legal documents that support greater inclusion of gender analysis and women’s participation.

The second part gives an overview on how explosive weapons specifically affect women and why a gendered analysis of the impact of explosive weapons use in populated areas is needed.

The report calls on governments to recognise that the use of explosive weapons in populated areas causes severe humanitarian problems, requiring the development of stronger and more explicit international standards, restrictions, and prohibitions.

Reaching Critical Will is the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom’s disarmament programme.

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was founded in April 1915, in The Hague, Netherlands, by some 1300 women from Europe and North America.

Women from countries at war against each other and from neutral ones, who came together at a Congress of Women to protest the killing and destruction of the war raging in Europe at the time.

The widespread availability of weapons has been a main concern for WILPF since its founding.

WILPF has actively been working towards a strong international Arms Trade Treaty with an extra focus on prohibiting a weapons transfer when there is a risk of them being used  to conduct gender based violence since 2006.

On 2 April 2013 the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) which prohibits the sale of arms if there is a risk that the weapons could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.

The treaty was adopted with the yes-no-abstain vote 154-3-23.

It was the first treaty that recognised the link between gender-based violence and the international arms trade.

      first published in Women's Views on the News