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It's estimated that police receive a call from a victim of domestic violence every minute. Luckily specially trained officers are there to help. We met Graham Pearson, Domestic Violence Liaison Officer for East Herts and Broxbourne to find out about the role.

Domestic Violence is a crime. It can involve physical, emotional, sexual or financial abuse from a partner, ex-partner or other member of your household.

If you are a victim, you don't have to put up with it. There is help available.

Graham Pearson has been the Domestic Violence Liaison Officer for East Herts and Broxbourne for five years.

His main role is to oversee all the domestic incidents that occur within that district.

"At the moment we are looking at on average 1,800 incidents per year that I oversee," he explains.

"I look at each incident to see what issue is involved and what can be done long term to assist the victim of that incident."

Nearly 2,000 incidents sounds quite a lot for the area but as Graham points out, it may merely only be scratching the service.

"The national statistics talk about one in four relationships experiencing domestic violence" he explains. "If you take the population of East Herts and Broxbourne at about 1/4 million, then according to the statistics 60,000 families in the area are experiencing domestic violence every year but we're getting just 1,800 people coming forward."

Nevertheless, he does feel that progress is being made.

"When I first took on the role five years ago we were getting less than 200 reports a year so it shows that people are gaining confidence in reporting what's going on out there."

Reluctant
However, it is still the case that far more women come forward than men. At the moment about 85 per cent of Graham's work relates to women victims with only 15 per cent being male.

Because of the nature of the crime, it is difficult to say whether that is because that there is less violence against men or because they are more reluctant to come forward. Graham has an idea though.

"I would suggest that they are more reluctant to come forward," he says.

"There are a lot of awareness raising campaigns for women victims which encourage people to come forward but there are very few facilities and resources for male victims.

There are a lot of awareness raising campaigns for women victims which encourage people to come forward but there are very few facilities and resources for male victims.

Graham Pearson

"If we had more publicity and more resources available such as a male refuge, it would encourage more people to come forward. To my knowledge there's still not a refuge for men in this country.

"I think that the key to it is publicity - the more awareness that is out there, the more people, both men and women, will come forward for help."

But part of the reason that people aren't coming forward, and this is especially true in the case of men, is that they do not think that they are actually victims of domestic abuse. What some men may see as excessive nagging or part of a normal rocky relationship is actually domestic violence.

Bullying
You don't have to be hit or punched. Anything that involves one adult trying to gain power or control over the other counts.

This kind of bullying within a relationship can include continuous emotional blackmail, threats, throwing a partner out (or just the fear of it) destroying property or isolating the victim from their friends or their work.

It is all Domestic Violence and it is very wide ranging as Graham describes.

"Domestic Violence is any domestic incident that incorporates physical abuse such as assault, or emotional abuse such as shouting, swearing, and putting your partner down so they are living in fear of what might happen next.

"It also incorporates harassment, where an ex-partner may keep coming back to the household and causing problems, sexual abuse and also financial abuse where the offending partner may have control of all the funds so that the victim can't do anything because they have no access to money."

Suffering
With such a varied description it is easy to see where the one in four statistic comes from as many people may be suffering and not realising.

And, according to Graham, this is where campaigns like the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s Hitting ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ come into their own.

One of the benefits of any proactive campaign to raise awareness is that many victims don't actually realise that Domestic Violence is happening to them

Graham Pearson

"One of the benefits of any proactive campaign to raise awareness is that many victims don't actually realise that Domestic Violence is happening to them," he says.

"They may interpret it as physical abuse only, but you only have to look at the far ranging feature of control that's involved in the abuse for people to see that it covers a lot more. Once people understand that, they are more likely to come forward and seek help."

So what is the actual process for someone who feels that they are a victim and how does Graham get involved?

"The majority of cases that come through to me are either as a result of a direct call to the police seeking assistance, or a 999 call where officers will attend and deal with that incident and send me a report about what's happened," he explains.

"My role is then to have a look long term about how to prevent repeat victimisation," he adds. "And with permission from the victim I always, where possible liaise with other agencies to get help for them."

Control
But despite all the support that the police offer Graham says that in reality, the statistics are that a person will experience 35 incidents of Domestic Violence before they will contact police.

"We are very much seen as the last resort," he says and explains why.

"Once the police are contacted it is seen as the authorities being involved and people feel that they are beginning to lose control of the incidents in their own household.

We will make a positive stand against the offender to say that their behaviour is unacceptable.

Graham Pearson

"Hertfordshire Constabulary has a positive intervention policy so when an officer is called to an incident and a crime has been committed, then the police are duty bound to investigate it," he continues.

"So once a call has been made we will investigate and assist. It won't always result in a court case because we need to do what's best for the people involved but we will make a positive stand against the offender to say that their behaviour is unacceptable."

For the police, protecting the victim is the number one priority. Graham explains the steps that they take in order to achieve this.

1. At the scene
When the police attend an incident, immediate protection is provided by arresting the offender for any crimes of assault etc. They will then be taken into custody and so short term protection is available because the party is removed from the household.

2. Bail
If the party is then charged with a crime we can ask for the bail conditions imposed to be that they can't return to the household until the court case directs otherwise. This could be quite a while.

3. Occupation order
If there is not enough evidence to charge someone we'll encourage the victim to seek a court order which they can do by speaking to a solicitor and going to a County Court. They can get an Occupation Order which grants them access to the home and excludes the violent partner.

4. Other court orders
They can also get another order that prevents their partner form molesting, assaulting or interfering with them in any way.

Both of these orders may have the power of arrest attached and if those are breached police can be called.

If someone breaks a court order then it's up to a High Court judge to make a decision on what to do.

Do they work?
This all sounds very encouraging for the victim but do court orders actually work.

"Yes," says Graham emphatically, "they do work, but it does put pressure on the victim because they are the ones that must call us when the breach happens. Without that call there is little we can do because we don't know it's happening.

"It's difficult because the victim is already under a lot of pressure already and we need that additional cal,l" he says.

Refuge
If the victim has to leave the home then there are options such as Women's Aid or Refuge that can help to provide accommodation and the Domestic Violence Liaison Officer will also liaise with them on behalf of the victim.

Many people find it more frightening to go out and find what they can do to improve their situation than to actually stay in the abusive relationship which they know

Graham Pearson

"There's also a new scheme in this area called Stay Safe where Women's Aid send an outreach worker to see the person in the area that they live rather than them going into a refuge," he explains.

"We recognise that not everyone will want to go into a refuge so at least they are getting expertise from the refuge workers going out into the community. It's very effective already," he adds.

Confidence
But for all the court orders in the world, the victim needs to have the confidence to break the cycle of abuse and make that call. This can be the most difficult thing for them to achieve and with this in mind, Graham also directs people to special workshops to help their self-confidence.

"We currently have some confidence building workshops in the East Herts and Broxbourne area which is part of a larger scheme across the Eastern region," explains Graham.

"It's run by two counsellors who work on confidence building skills that give the party that extra bit of confidence to make that call to the police or perhaps go to another agency that can assist them. It can be a big step for people.

Graham explains that from the feedback that he has "many people find it more frightening to go out and find what they can do to improve their situation than to actually stay in the abusive relationship which they know".

"And it's not fair to them for them to keep having to go through that," he adds.

"A lot of it is controlled by finance because it's very frightening for someone to leave a household and go somewhere they initially have no access to funds.

"At home they may have a violent partner waving a cheque book saying 'come back and I'll look after you'. Effectively sometimes they're going back purely because they think that they haven't got any other choice.

"It's all about power and control. One of the roles here is to empower people, let them know what their rights are, what they can do and what's available. To a certain extent, the choice is then up to them how they deal with it."

Encouragement
But he has words of encouragement for anybody who may be worried about taking that step of contacting the police as to start with you do not have to say who you are, you can just find out where you stand.

Some people are frightened of bringing the police into their situation purely because they don't actually know what we can do

Graham Pearson

"As Domestic Violence Officers we will give advice. I will give advice many times during the day on the phone and I don't always know who I'm talking to because a lot of it is done through an anonymous caller seeking information.

"At that stage it is not seen as getting the authorities involved. But at least victims become aware of what their rights are and what people can do to help them in a situation, should they need to call for assistance in the future.

"Some people are frightened of bringing the police into their situation purely because they don't actually know what we can do," he continues.

"At least once they know the full details of what we can do it gives them more ability to take that next step should they want to."

For DVOs like Graham the most satisfying thing about the job is not just being able to get convictions fro violent partners.

"It's much more about seeing the life changing decisions that we help people to make, to improve their lives beyond measure," he says.

What next - advice from the Domestic Violence Liaison Officer >>

Lisa, United States	Tuesday 18 February, 2003
This story really caught my eye. I am from England I live in the states now. My sister about 8 years ago said she slipped on some ice she had broken her jaw. I did not believe her and spoke to a nurse in my factory about it so I confronted my sister she said I was not to tell anyone and I haven't her husband had busted her jaw that new years eve she was asked to press charges but never did. It is quite sad looking at life my father use to hit my brother and I am sure my mum put up with his wrath she divorced after 27 years. We went home this passed May and visited her and her family a glass of wine was accidentally spilt her son was so frantic quick before dad sees my husband quickly helped,but my sisters husband kept saying I think someone knocked my glass. The son seamed so scared. It stuck in my mind even when I came back, I confronted my sister with emails hey are you! alright I am not sure if I believe you are well and offered my friendship. Emails have seamed few since that day. I am sure it is hard for anyone but it is also hard for those reaching out and just praying and waiting maybe my sisters life is fine but I truly believe that without help violence does not get better. After saying all this I really admire that you are trying to offer help it is something people need. Perhaps more so the children they often feel they have done something wrong and that they are the reason and they feel like they have betrayed their parents if they say anything perhaps this is an area really that needs to be touched on that children can reach out confidentially without losing their parents but maybe that is not the case into todays world where often kids are put into worse homes. Once again I wish you the best sincerely Lisa