Swedish Journalists Focus on Violence Against County Women

Team looks at how different countries tackle topic during world tour

May 11, 2011
By Jeremy Arias

More women between the ages of 15 and 44 are injured or killed each year from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, car accidents, war or malaria combined, according to estimates by experts at the World Bank.

For Swedish photojournalist Linda Forsell and her two colleagues, Karin Alfredsson and Kerstin Weigl, this statistic is simply unacceptable.

Securing a grant from the Swedish International Development Agency, the women embarked on a worldwide tour last August to explore violence against women in all its forms across 10 different countries. So far, the group has documented female genital mutilation in Egypt, femicide in Mexico and so-called "honor killings" in Pakistan, where women are killed by family members in a bid to restore the family's honor from a perceived impropriety or disgrace committed by the woman.

And the latest stop on the group's international trek for justice was Montgomery County.

"There is no one country in the world that can't be doing something better [about violence against women], even the United States," Forsell said, explaining that, even in the Western nations, violence against women is often ignored as a taboo subject.

"Domestic violence in many countries and cultures is seen as something that happens between members of a family, between four walls," she said. "In the United States, prevention is the biggest issue; trying to change perceptions of the problem before it occurs."

The group came to Montgomery County specifically to see how well local police and public safety officials are handling domestic and other incidents of violence against women, Forsell said. The county's Family Justice Center has provided help and counseling to more than 1,900 victims since opening its doors in April 2009, according to the county Domestic Violence Coordinating Council's 2010 annual report. On average, county police respond to roughly 1,000 domestic violence calls in the county every six months, according to Family Justice Center statistics for 2009 and the first six months of 2010.

The journalists spent two nights riding along with county police officers in Silver Spring last week and took tours of resource centers for county crime victims with officers from the Montgomery County Police Department's Family Crimes Division, she said.

"[Police] are taking the issue very seriously here, they're trying to deal with domestic violence, and from what we understand, they work very outspokenly in trying to change the way it is seen," Forsell said.

In particular, the group was impressed with the Family Justice Center, a relatively new facility based in Rockville that serves as a one-stop shop for victims of family violence or strife, said Capt. Kathi Rhodes, commander of the police' Family Crimes Division.

Victims walk into the center and immediately receive a counseling session and an evaluation of how much risk they are in before they are assigned space at a shelter or a hotel, while officials at the center set up court dates for protective orders or other legal remedies, Rhodes said.

In addition to learning more about the Family Justice Center, which Forsell said was part of a trend of one-stop service system she and her colleagues have seen crop up in police agencies worldwide, the journalists also were able to witness how officers connect directly with domestic violence victims firsthand during their ride along.

"On one of those ride alongs, they had a domestic abuse call where the woman had to be taken to the hospital due to the extent of her injuries," Rhodes said. "This particular woman was not only willing to speak with them but also to take photos of her injuries."

The women will present their study, titled "Cause of Death: Woman" at the second World Conference of Women's Shelters from Feb. 27 through March 1 in Washington, D.C., Forsell said. A total of 10 different stories of violence against women from 10 different countries around the world will be highlighted in the presentation, which also will be posted to a website in several different languages.

In the meantime, Rhodes pledged to continue working with victims to reach a brighter future. Officers from Rhodes' division meet weekly with Family Justice Center staff, including county sheriff's deputies, department of corrections officials and nonprofit victims rights groups to assess victims and make sure they are safe.

"Our program is pretty progressive compared to a lot of departments," she said. "We all sit at the table together to approach these cases."