PeaceOverViolence
Established in 1971 by pioneering feminist activists, Peace Over Violence (formerly known as LACAAW) is a sexual and domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, and youth violence prevention center headquartered in Los Angeles.
Posts by PeaceOverViolence
Denim Day USA 2013 and the Need for NO MORE Excuses
Apr 25th
“I didn’t know it was a rape. I don’t know what rape looks like.”
This is the comment from a 16-year-old high school boy who witnessed the sexual assault of a female student in Steubenville, Ohio when asked why he didn’t do something to stop it. This comment has not left my mind. It’s very discouraging. After all the “progress” that has been made in working to change the social norms that support violence and the attitudes that allow rape and other sexual violence to persist, clearly we are not there yet! What is wrong with this picture that in a suburban high school in Ohio, not only was a young girl repeatedly raped and assaulted, then videotaped but many students participated and/or witnessed the assault, did nothing, laughed and sent the images virally around the world.
Boys being boys? Bystanders in denial? Witnesses caught like deer in the headlights? Unconscious accomplices? Immaturity combined with entitlement? Of course it reminds me of the Jerry Sandusky case at Penn State where the assistant coach saw “something” in the locker room between Sandusky and a youth and although disturbed by what he saw, he wasn’t sure and he didn’t know what to do and so did nothing to intervene.
So here we are in April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and also Child Abuse Prevention Month. Yesterday, Wednesday, April 24th was the 14th annual Denim Day USA, is a sexual violence prevention education campaign dedicated to supporting survivors of all ages, genders, races, ethnicities and nationalities, and preventing rape. Each year we promote wearing jeans with a purpose and invite youth to participate in educational opportunities to debunk the myths that continue to persist. Clearly, there is so much more education to do. We need more bystander education that aims to engage everyone to become aware and alert and to care about this issue for their own well-being and for the well-being of others. There is something to say for “doing the right thing” kind of education. Are there enough courses in schools teaching how important it is to do the right thing and if you are not sure — to find out?
Organizations like Peace Over Violence and 1in6 work on the issue of sexual abuse everyday, not just on Denim Day. Every month is sexual abuse awareness and prevention month for the network of an agencies that provides intervention services, prevention and policy toward the vision of a culture that doesn’t ignore, allow, excuse or condone sexual violence in any form.
Our efforts must persist but we also have to rethink, reframe and perhaps reinvent how we do what we do to have greater impact. We have to find more ways to engage individuals—especially young people, communities, families and all of our institutions in this effort. We have a long way to go. I personally refuse to give up or to abandon this vision. It’s time to organize and engage with one another so that our very culture says NO MORE to sexual violence, domestic abuse and child abuse.
I believe we can get there. Will you believe too?
- By Patti Giggans
Patti Giggans is the Executive Director of Peace Over Violence. Peace Over Violence is dedicated to building healthy relationships, families and communities free from sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence. She is also the Vice-President of the Board of Directors for 1in6.
The mission of 1in6 is to help men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives.
1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.
Joyful Heart and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative at men.joyfulheartfoundation.
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the Joyful Heart Foundation or 1in6.
1in6 Thursday: Restrictive Residency Rules and the Illusion of Public Safety
Mar 7th
Patti Giggans, Executive Director of Peace Over Violence, discusses the negative effects of increasing restrictive residency rules for sex offenders while reducing their access to resources, monitoring and increasing the risk of recidivism.
The latest strategy to restrict where convicted sex offenders live is to create parks where none exist to force registered sex offenders to move out of a neighborhood. The City of Los Angeles plans to build three pocket parks in the communities of Harbor Gateway and Wilmington. California state law prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a park, playground school or a daycare center. Some states restrict living within 1,000 feet or near certain bus stops. There are similar residence restrictive laws in every state along with sex offender databases and community notification of where offenders live, known as Megan’s Laws. The unintended result of super-restrictive sex offender zoning makes it impossible for sex offenders to find stable housing and forces them to cluster and crowd together in motels and apartment buildings, or sometimes under bridges creating homelessness, often away from family or other potentially positive supports. There is concern that these over-restrictive policies can backfire and actually increase recidivism.
Located in southern Los Angeles, Harbor Gateway, a community of about 40,000 people, has one of the city’s highest concentrations of registered sex offenders: 86 registered offenders live in a 13-block area. The park will be created in a space the equivalent of a backyard on a grassy corner large enough to fit a jungle gym and a couple of benches. The park is being explicitly created to restrict offenders from congregating in the area not necessarily to create green space for kids to play. No one can fault the community for its concern for safety especially of its children or blame its civic leadership for wanting to do something about it. Restrictive living and working rules keep multiplying with the goal of public safety. But do these living restrictions improve public safety or exacerbate the potential for re-offending? As there are fewer and fewer places for offenders to live and work they will continue to resort to clustering or worse: go underground. Creating housing instability can limit employment opportunities and access to social services and social support. Visibility, surveillance, accountability, treatment and support are some of the protective factors that can help an offender stay on the path of non-offending and reduce recidivism.
Convicted sex offenders and registrants are all painted with the same brush of pariah and monster, so it is very challenging for communities to think beyond the criminal justice lens to include public health approaches. But might we be risking being blinded by the illusion of safety when we don’t explore the complexity and the diversity of these offenders and call for research on what really works best. There is little room for political leadership to ask these important questions. Forcing offenders to go missing or go underground by promoting overly restrictive residence and employment restrictions may very well be one of those illusions of public safety that can backfire and create more risk and increase recidivism.
- By Patti Giggans
Patti Giggans is the Executive Director of Peace Over Violence. Peace Over Violence is dedicated to building healthy relationships, families and communities free from sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence. She is also the Vice-President of the Board of Directors for 1in6.
The mission of 1in6 is to help men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives.
1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.
Joyful Heart and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative at men.joyfulheartfoundation.
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the Joyful Heart Foundation or 1in6.
1in6 Thursday: Men Engaged – Standing Up By Lying Down
Jan 17th
The rape-murder of a 23 year-old physiotherapy student in India has captured the consciousness of the world. The image that keeps coming into my mind is the photo that has gone around the world of Indian men lying down in the streets of New Delhi in protest, anger and grief.
Perhaps for the first time, these men took a position in solidarity with their wives, mothers and daughters. What resonates for me is that these men were just the ordinary kind. Many had never taken such an action before, many probably harbor traditional views of women and girls and some have maybe at one time or another harassed a woman. But these ordinary, everyday men were moved by the atrocity of the rape and by the enormity of the misogyny to do something. For many, it probably was a visceral reaction and not a planned, well-thought out protest. They were not organizers, or “politically correct.” They were moved to act and they did so by just lying down and demanding action in a country that blames females for the sexual violence inflicted upon them and rarely prosecutes the abusers and often forces girls to marry the ones who raped them, a country where sexual trafficking of young boys and girls is off the charts.
Sexual violence, whether it happens to a female, male, adolescent or child of either gender still remains a secret hidden behind shame and stigma—not just in India and other countries around the world but within our own. Gloria Steinem said, “rape is about violence proving masculine superiority, playing out hostility to other men by invading the body of their female. . . raping men and boys to make them as inferior as females.” Sexual violence in all its forms thrives in rape culture where children and women are seen as objects, as less than and inferior—where societal institutions participate, support and propagate these views in both obvious and subtle ways.
What if concerned, ordinary men, stood up to these beliefs and systems? What if the image I can’t get out of my head of men standing up by lying down in the streets protesting rape, child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, was not a rare photo but a prime event that spread from community to community, from country to country? How much quicker would we get to safer and saner and healthier society: the opposite of the rape culture that we suffer with now? What gains would/could be made if men really engaged as allies and leaders in ending sexual violence? What if photos of men from anywhere standing up and “upstanding” appeared everywhere? I can dream, can’t I?
–By Patti Giggans
Patti Giggans is the Executive Director of Peace Over Violence. Peace Over Violence is dedicated to building healthy relationships, families and communities free from sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence. She is also the Vice-President of the Board of Directors for 1in6.
The mission of 1in6 is to help men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives.
1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.
Joyful Heart and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative at men.joyfulheartfoundation.org.
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the Joyful Heart Foundation or 1in6.
1in6 Thursday: Unveiling the Taboo: Days of Dialogue to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse
Nov 29th
Unveiling The Taboo, the title of four recent days of dialogue in Los Angeles, was designed to do just that—give people from the diverse communities of LA an opportunity to come together and discuss openly the issues surrounding the taboo topic of child sexual abuse with an eye of mobilizing the community toward prevention. These days of dialogue were spearheaded by 1in6, the Institute on Non-Violence in Los Angeles and Peace Over Violence, and produced in collaboration with 12 other community partners and with 22 Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Advisory Council Members. Each of these facilitated discussions, which brought 120 individuals from 4 different sites together for the first time, was opened up by a survivor of child sexual assault speaking from the heart of their own experience. We were intent on making sure that the voices of survivors were present: front and center to the discussion. Some common trends and recommendations surfaced in the groups.
One of the recurrent ideas was to encourage more “talking about it.” Many of the survivors, law enforcement officers and parents were grateful for a place to break out of the silence and discuss the subject openly and to connect with others who care about this issue. One participant stated, “if you don’t know how talk about it, you will never see it—even if it’s right in front of you.” Some people expressed not knowing the extent of sexual abuse of boys until the most recent information coming out post Penn State and the Sandusky trial and the scandal with the Boy Scouts.
The dialogues reinforced the need for multiple strategies to energize a movement to end child sexual abuse. Everyone agreed that the prevention of child sexual abuse is ultimately an adult responsibility but that education for children and adolescents as well as adults is essential. Creating better protocols for reporting and the systems response to reporting was also brought up as well as the need for institutional accountability. The discussions about re-evaluating the current strategies in dealing with perpetrators produced a lot of energy, questions and concerns as to the effectiveness of some of the practices such as lumping all offenders from flashers to serial rapists into the same category.
The complexity of the issue became more and more evident as the dialogues progressed. Many questions were raised and there were no answers. But perhaps that is the best beginning of all—to come from a place of questioning, of openness, of not knowing, yet willing to listen and exchange ideas and experiences from a place of respect. Sometimes we force the answers and wind up making things worse. That didn’t happen at these days of dialogues. People came together, mostly strangers and talked about a sensitive, sometimes personal and still taboo subject. Many of the participants stated that they want the dialogues to continue and engage more deeply within the communities. Several offered to bring the dialogues into their neighborhoods, places of worship, community centers and schools.
Perhaps this can be the beginning of a more engaged movement of communities coming together to question, discuss, share and learn together and eventually we will find better answers on how to protect children than we seem to have at our disposal now. One thing for sure that everyone agreed upon: the voices of all survivors, male, female and trans-gender need to be front and center!
–By Patti Giggans
Patti Giggans is the Executive Director of Peace Over Violence. Peace Over Violence is dedicated to building healthy relationships, families and communities free from sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence. She is also the Vice-President of the Board of Directors for 1in6.
The mission of 1in6 is to help men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives.
1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.
Joyful Heart and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative at men.joyfulheartfoundation.org.
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the Joyful Heart Foundation or 1in6.
1in6 Thursday: Upstander – Youth Lead the Way
Aug 9th
Peace Over Violence is in the midst of holding our third annual Summer Youth Leadership Institute on Violence Prevention. Twenty-five youth are participating in a month-long training learning about the dynamics of relationship and sexual violence and about healthy relationships. These youth are prioritizing violence prevention and learning skills and tools to take with them as they become leaders in their own lives and in their communities.
These middle and high school youth, male and female are devoting their summer free time to collaborating on learning about healthy relationships and violence prevention strategies and connecting the dots to social change and social justice.
A segment of the Youth Leadership Institute this year includes three internship tracks: creating a violence prevention application for smartphones; writing, performing and recording songs about healthy relationships; and developing community and online organizing campaigns focused around healthy relationships.
Last week, these engaged and engaging young people participated in the Start Strong Virtual Conference, a national initiative supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Blue Shield of California Foundation. Eleven Start Strong sites from around the country connected virtually around the theme of what it means to be an “upstander” as opposed to a “bystander.”
Upstander is the opposite of bystander. A bystander is someone that does not speak up or act when they witness acts of intolerance, disrespect, bullying or violence taking place. They just go about their business. The attitude is, “it’s none of my business.” An upstander is someone who takes action when faced with these acts. It’s not just about an individual standing up, it’s about institutions also. The Penn State child sexual abuse tragedy is an example of an institution led by people that stood by and did nothing to protect children. One of the young men in the youth institute said, “Everybody should learn about how harmful sexual and domestic violence can be.” Another young man talked about how he had heard the phrase “be the change” a few times and really didn’t understand it until he joined the Leadership Institute. This young football player now says “I really get it now and now I am the change. Change starts and continues with me.”
Unfortunately, we live in a world with way too many bystanders and not enough UPSTANDERS! But while observing these youth leaders in action here in Los Angeles and across the country, I have a strong and hopeful feeling that this is about to change and youth will be leading the way!
–By Patti Giggans
Patti Giggans is the Executive Director of Peace Over Violence. Peace Over Violence is dedicated to building healthy relationships, families and communities free from sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence. She is also the Vice-President of the Board of Directors for 1in6.
The mission of 1in6 is to help men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives.
1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.
Joyful Heart and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative at men.joyfulheartfoundation.org.
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the Joyful Heart Foundation or 1in6.
1in6 Thursday: Can Any Good Come from the Sandusky Sexual Abuse Trial?
Jun 7th
The Sandusky sexual abuse trial is about to begin and the saga will unfold on the Internet, mainstream news and in the tabloids. Many stories will be told, exposed and exploited even with the restrictions on photography, texting, video and more imposed by the court. The witnesses will be put to credibility and reliability tests, memories will be challenged and the accused will sit in the courtroom confronted by his victim/accusers.
We have been here before. The McMartin nursery school sexual abuse in Manhattan Beach, California in 1984 comes to mind. The McMartin case did not result in any convictions after seven years of investigations and trials, but a major positive outcome of that trial was the complete revamping of how child sexual abuse victims were interviewed.
What greater good can come from this trial and subsequent information and news cycles? Can there be positive impacts and outcomes that allow a wake up call to the challenges that the intervention and prevention of sexual abuse present?
In particular, I’m thinking about breaking down the barriers of institutional blindness. Many people allege that they were suspicious of abuse and indeed did report. The mother of Victim One reported her suspicions that her son was being sexually abused by Sandusky to her son’s high school principal. The principal in turn reported to child welfare services. The Penn State police investigated for 3 years and uncovered allegations that Sandusky molested nine other boys. No actions were taken during that entire period.
This trial will be as high profile as they come. After all, this is the world of college sports. Both prosecutors and the defense attorneys will use aggressive tactics and we can expect coverage akin to a champion sporting match. Beyond winners and losers in a court case, what good can we expect from this experience? Is there the possibility of some good outcomes and dare we raise our expectations?
Will the myopic and insular actions of university officials be exposed in such a way as to influence better policies, training and behaviors at institutions of higher learning? Will the victim/accusers/survivors feel any sense of justice after making their voices public? Will the public’s capacity for compassion be increased or eroded into another round of compassion fatigue? Will there be lessons learned and questions formulated for everyone about the challenges in preventing child sexual abuse? Will communities come together to tackle this issue so that child sexual abuse and all forms of sexual violence do not go underground again until the next shocking scandal or front-page exposé?
What good can come out of the Sandusky sexual abuse trial of 2012?
Let’s pay attention carefully and keep our expectations high.
–By Patti Giggans
Patti Giggans is the Executive Director of Peace Over Violence. Peace Over Violence is dedicated to building healthy relationships, families and communities free from sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence. She is also the Vice-President of the Board of Directors for 1in6.
The mission of 1in6 is to help men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives.
1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.
Joyful Heart and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative at men.joyfulheartfoundation.org.
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the Joyful Heart Foundation or 1in6.
1in6 Thursday: Men Leading By Example
Apr 19th
I had the privilege recently of attending the national summit of a new initiative lead by Esta Soler and her team at Futures Without Violence and the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention called The Y Factor: Men Leading By Example. The event saluted and encouraged activists and survivors who are committed to ending violence against women and children. We were treated to an assuredly rare event: a conversation between Willie Mays and Joe Torre, two great and generous men. Willie Mays, frail yet still quite charismatic, recounted how as a player and a coach, he mentored the young ball players coming up by guiding them with a clear yet gentle and non-judgmental hand. Joe Torre told his family story as a witness and victim to his police officer father’s abuse of his mother. He spoke honestly and candidly about how terrified he was of his father’s rage and how he would try not to go home to avoid it. He has made it his mission to speak out about the impact of family violence and with his wife Ali Torre has created The Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation, which creates safe rooms in schools for kids to seek safety and get help. The safe spaces are named Margaret’s Place, in honor of his mother.
The power of the Y Factor event was significant in that more than 50% of those present were men. While I was listening to several men speak out about their own childhood trauma and speak up for the traumatic experiences of others as children and as adults, I was struck by how important this is and how rare it still is to hear men speak about them. When men and boys are encouraged to come out from behind their masculinities and break through the silence, healing begins. That healing can be stopped or stunted if that intimate spoken truth is not received. Trauma needs acknowledgement and it needs to be attended to. Trauma will be acted out if it isn’t acted upon. This requires the teller to have someone to tell. We all have to find ways to create a culture that is receptive and safer for those who suffer from childhood sexual abuse, family violence, sexual violence and all kinds of violences to speak their truths. We have to work much harder to make it safer and even welcoming for men and boys to disclose, reach out, ask for help and be received.
If each and every one of us could commit to learning how provide that “Margaret’s Place,” therein lies a paradigm shift that would transform the world. We could create the possibility of living in a world where we all become “Enlightened Witnesses,” as Alice Miller, the childhood trauma researcher and author advised. We would go beyond being bystanders for each other and be witnesses for and to each other.
This month of April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month, with Denim Days happening all over the country on Wednesday, April 25th. (For more information on Denim Day, and to register to participate, visit www.denimdayusa.org.) Many people will speak out publicly—including electronically—for the first time or disclose to another person. We can practice our “enlightened witnessing” by really listening—not with our ears but with an open heart. When we have the opportunity to be this witness, we can acknowledge the person’s truth without judgment and with compassion by our full attention and by our presence. We can be the receiver of the story that the teller will have a told. We can be a “Margaret’s Place.” Thank you, Joe Torre, for being both a teller and a told.
–By Patti Giggans
Patti Giggans is the Executive Director of Peace Over Violence. Peace Over Violence is dedicated to building healthy relationships, families and communities free from sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence. She is also the Vice-President of the Board of Directors for 1in6.
The mission of 1in6 is to help men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives.
1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.
Joyful Heart and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative at men.joyfulheartfoundation.org.
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the Joyful Heart Foundation or 1in6.
1in6 Thursday: Peace Over Violence and 1in6: Prioritizing Child Abuse Prevention
Feb 23rd
Los Angeles is going through a crisis of confidence in the capacity of the Los Angeles Unified School District to protect children from sexual abuse by trusted adults: their teachers. In the span of a weeks time, 4 adult teachers were arrested for alleged sexual abuse of students and one entire school—Miramonte Elementary—was emptied of its entire faculty and administrative staff and replaced with a whole new team.
That’s how low the trust level had fallen.
My agency, Peace Over Violence, a Los Angeles–based 40-year-old sexual and domestic violence prevention center and 1in6, the organization for male survivors of childhood sexual abuse, are collaborating on a national child abuse prevention initiative project funded by the Ms. Foundation for Women. POV and 1in6 have been partners for a few years now and when the Ms. Foundation initiative opportunity came up, we jumped at the chance to work together. I am a member of the Board of Director’s of 1in6 and Steve LePore the founder of 1in6 is on POV’s National Advisory Board.
This initiative’s ultimate goal is to revitalize a child abuse movement—locally, within communities, but also nationally. There are 11 collaborations funded from across the country. There was a period in the 1980s when there was a very energized movement along with funding to focus on the prevention of child sexual abuse. Little by little, priorities and support for prevention went out the window. The focus once again resorted to dealing with the aftermath and arresting offenders. Often those offenders were the ones who represented the “stranger danger.” Preventing this category of offender from having easy access to children doesn’t address the fact that the majority of abuse of children that is committed by known persons, including family members, coaches, clergy, teachers and so forth.
At the moment, serious questions are being asked in our wider Los Angeles community and across the country about why these children whose numbers have grown to about 30—including boys and girls—were not protected and if warning signs were ignored by the people in charge. Parents are outraged and scared and some have withdrawn their children from school. I saw more than one media spot where parents were told to protect their children by making sure they “don’t talk to strangers!” This in the wake of a school-wide scandal whereby the perpetrators are teachers—known entities to the students!
This represents how off the mark we can be in addressing the issue of child sexual abuse prevention. It is, of course, a complex issue that can’t be reduced to simple rules of “do’s and don’ts.” I hope that the Ms. Foundation Child Sexual Abuse initiative has success in organizing a groundswell of communities really caring about this issue beyond the sound bite and occasional media blitz. We need creative and thoughtful thinking about prevention. After Penn State, dare we be hopeful that this issue that holds so much stigma for its survivors will be taken seriously by institutions? Is it possible that policies, protocols and trainings will be put in place in the educational systems so that boys and girls will be supported by their communities to seek help and not suffer in silence out of fear of being blamed for what happened to them?
Change won’t happen unless communities mobilize around this issue. In the meantime, I am glad that there is a network of services that can help survivors of childhood sexual violence heal. The RAINN hotline and the 1in6.org website are critical resources that tell survivors, both male and female, “You are not alone, we are here.”
Patti Giggans is the Executive Director of Peace Over Violence: www.peaceoverviolence.org.
The mission of 1in6 is to help men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives.
1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends, and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.
Joyful Heart and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative at men.joyfulheartfoundation.
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the Joyful Heart Foundation or 1in6.