
February is 3 days old... Nick Kyrgios has just pleaded guilty to assaulting his ex-partner Chiara Passari. News articles claim that he pushed her over following an argument outside her Canberra apartment in 2o21.
Kyrgios' legal team initially tried to have the case dismissed citing mental health. Whilst we can write an entire chapter on this claim, I will not give him the time of day for it. Rather what has me hot and bothered about how this played out is the fact that a FEMALE magistrate, Beth Campbell decided to throw out the charge accepting it as "low-level" in terms of seriousness and indicating that Kyrgios was not a risk of reoffending!! In the capital of law and order nonetheless. I have news for Beth. NO assault is low-level assault, and NO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS LOW LEVEL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.... It looks to me as a domestic violence advocate and as someone who has spent lots of time not just in courts with victims but in also in behaviour change groups with men like Beth has just given Nick (and any of his misogynistic fans) a green card as far as coercive control and future dv reoffending is concerned. What's to stop him from telling a next partner "They (the system) did not believe the previouse B$&@ who tried to pull this stunt..what makes you think they will believe you??" Because this is exactly what is now being allowed to happen... What stops him from reoffending more seriously the next time? How far does he have to push it to up his "risk for re-offending" - Do we judge by his tantrums on the court? Or do we take the word of someone who decided a 'push' is not serious enough? Any victim past or future will forever be impacted by the outcome of this matter and Beth's risk assessment on the matter. I would really love to know where she did her risk assessment training, and how much of it she did. I would love to know how many victims of domestic violence she has spoken to, and whether she has even bothered to follow the news this year and whether she is aware of our femicide statistics, which are minuscule compared to other offending against women? I'm sure that all the victims who are not here to speak today would love the chance to disagree with her and that some even had perpetrators who were assessed as low risk.. and then put an end to their lives. Why does this today finding matter? It matters because it would have been a great place for the system and society to take a public stance in a high profile situation. To say - violence is not okay, not serious-it-can-kill-you violence and not "low level" violence. The system failed yet again.. and this is scary considering we are pushing for coercive control to be recognised. The ecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1977, 1979; Heise, 1998) proposes that experiencing interpersonal violence should be understood within four levels: individual factors or experiences, such as mental health, social knowledge and understanding; the microsystem or the immediate context in which the violence occurs, such as personal relationships; the exosystem or the community context, such as school and work; and the macrosystem or broader societal norms or attitudes. Stark (2005) echoes this... gender inequality and romanticising of 'bad boys', 'broken boys' and 'it will never get serious' has to be addressed before we can start making an indent. It is 2023..... yet here we are. Understanding today's outcome in the four levels: Microsystem - she spoke up... she was also shut up. Exosystem - This is a good place for Nick's sponsors to take a stance and say - "This is not the role-model we want for young boys". Nike, Beats and Tennis Australia has a part to play here. Macrosystem - Society needs to speak up and say - no more - regardless of what the court decided (which was clearly a failure to women by a woman), as a whole society needs to speak up against this. We are quick to cancel celebrities for all sorts of minority causes... when are we going to start doing it for domestic violence, the "low-level" and "high risk" incidents, coercive control and objectification of women?! It has to start somewhere.... where will we start and when?!
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