The hypothesis
The organisations mentioned on this page were all set up to meet the genuine needs of women. Much of the work they currently do meets these same needs and is valuable.
However, this page explores the idea that the organisations, originally set up to help women suffering from domestic abuse, have:
- become a powerful, partially government-funded lobby group
- exaggerate the problem for women
- minimise or dismiss male victims
- lobby for extra funds based on distorted data
- damage male-female relationships by perpetuating negative images of men
- damage children by promoting fatherlessness, based on distorted or exaggerated data
Have they become a lobby group, more interested in their revenue stream and hence now more motivated by exaggerating the needs of women to gain financial support?
Components of the DA lobby
Domestic abuse charities
- Women’s Aid
- Refuge
- Respect
- SafeLives
- White Ribbon
- Fawcett Society
- Southall Black Sisters
Commissioners
These Commissioners (all female), who are named as acting for all victims, appear to take a similar line to the charities in focusing on female victims.
- Victims Commissioner
- Victims Commissioner London
- Domestic Abuse Commissioner
Funding
Sources of funding
The sources of funding are very diverse making total figures difficult to calculate.
- government grant
- charitable fundraising
- payment for services (eg Housing benefit)
Funding amounts
Here are some general figures which help indicate the size of the funding.
- Estimate by Women’s Aid of their funding needs (2019): £393 million.
- Legal Aid to DA ‘victims’: £140 million
- Court costs
Funding crisis
Domestic violence has been on the decline since 1995. (ONS data). The graph opposite shows the effect since 2001.
Why are we not all celebrating? Why is the DA Industry not shouting about their success?
Is this decline a threat to the DA Industry as it means less funding?
Is there the risk that they are widening the definition of DA so that the numbers appear high??
Lobbying methods
There appears to be a high level of coordination between the groups and individual MPs/Peers as they often reinforce one another. This gives an impression that there is a factual consensus.
Distortion and cherry-picking of facts
The lobby can only maintain its message – that more resources are needed for female victims, by distorting the data. Examples: