When Deb Farden studied the murder of women 10 years ago as part of her master’s thesis, one fact stuck out.
In nine out of 10 cases, she discovered, women were killed by their spouses rather than strangers. In other words, the deaths were preventable.
As a result, Farden set out to ensure fewer women are beaten or murdered by their partners.
With her Saskatoon based team of five researchers, who are both men and women, Farden is looking at whether interventions by friends, neighbours, family or authority figures in a community can stop the violence.
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The project has received almost $500,000 from the National Crime Prevention Centre, but the team needs help obtaining data from rural Saskatchewan.
The researchers have been able to interview only six men from rural areas who could talk about the violence they did to a partner, compared to 44 men from other parts of the province.
“We are having a heck of a time finding rural men who have used violence come talk to us,” Farden said.
The In Each Other’s Hands project is advertising its need for people to interview and offering honorariums to interview subjects.
Data collection must wrap up by mid-October.
The researchers want to interview not only men who batter but also friends, family and neighbours in rural Saskatchewan who have either tried to help someone who was being hurt or talked to someone who was harming their intimate partner.
When the experiences are compiled, the team hopes to offer suggestions for how to intervene safely to prevent intimate violence. The report is to be done by April 2008.
“We know it’s harvest time but there are rainy days,” said Farden about the need to contact rural people soon.
To participate, call 306-292-7930 or 800-667-5116, ask for extension 655-7924 and leave a name and number for a call back.
While Farden avoided talking about what she expects to find, she said the rural women victims of violence who they have interviewed said they are more isolated than urban women.
“Nobody hears or sees. The odds are the violence gets worse rurally because there are so few interventions.”
While intervening in an intimate violence situation can be risky to the third party, especially if the aggressor is drunk or enraged, Farden said “pretending you don’t see is giving tacit approval to the violence.”
