Maybe it is time to acknowledge that people have been dealing with domestic abuse wrong for the past 50 years.
By hiding resources which are intended to balance, to some degree, the power differential between prospective abusers and those who are abused, it is inadvertently conveyed to the abuser that he or she does, indeed, have powers that the rest of us don’t have. By doing so, we reinforce the fear the abused person legitimately has from living with the abuser.
If we were to advertise our domestic abuse resources and engage a doberman to sit under the front desk we might find abusers themselves seeking help, as one of the women interviewed in the Sun Journal report on Ms. Laudrinha Kubeloso’s memorial seemed to be saying (Sept. 26).
Who knows what would happen if preventive resources were more available to prospective abusers as well as to the abused?
What we do know is that all too often the outcome is the same. Maybe we should try something different.
Jim Tierney, Auburn
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