The Israel Police and the other authorized bodies are currently making changes to the procedures for dealing with domestic violence, which will be published in the coming weeks, according to the response of the police investigations division to a position paper issued by the organization "Choosing Family" on the subject.
From the police's reply, it appears that the new procedure lays out emphasis for the investigative system in relation to the sensitive treatment required for crimes involving domestic violence.
The police's answer comes, as mentioned, following a position paper that the "Choosing Family" movement submitted to the police a few months ago. As described in the position paper, in the existing procedure the basic premise is that between spouses the husband is always the aggressor and the wife is always the victim. Accordingly, the procedure is written in such a way that reference to the victim is always in the feminine. "This is a dangerous and offensive message whose results in the field are devastating. Experience shows that a man who has been victimized by a past has no chance of receiving adequate attention when he files a complaint."
In the police's reply, it is stated that all the actions taken against a complainant in a case of violence within the family are equally relevant even when the victim is a man. "Indeed, the reference is in the feminine, but there is a proviso in the procedure that the aforementioned refers to both genders," the police's answer reads.
In another letter sent by Michael Puah, chairman of Choosing Family, following the police's response, he writes that "when the victim is female and the assailant is male, there is a statement that cannot be avoided, and it certainly affects the way the incident is handled." According to him, the entire procedure does not refer to harm to children, which according to studies is mostly done by women.
A change that has been made in the police in recent years in this regard is the establishment of the family units, some of which have a new function of family advocates. The role of the advocate is to meet the victims and suspects who come to the police on the grounds of domestic violence in order to mediate an immediate treatment procedure for them in the community. The police's response shows that today there are 21 female attorneys working and they are a factor that softens the police treatment and puts an emphasis on a rehabilitation procedure. The organization welcomes this issue and hopes that it will indeed become a permanent procedure, out of fear that opening a criminal case could completely tear the family apart, while in many cases proper treatment can also bring a solution.
Another point that is not in the existing procedure - and it is evident from the police response that it is also on the way to change - deals with false complaints. According to the police, to the extent that the investigation material shows that this is a false claim, an investigation will be opened against the complainant. In response to this, Puah asked to receive the data on the subject in order to examine how many false complaints were opened in the last ten years and for how many of them an indictment was filed.
The new procedure is still missing a number of significant things. One of them is the distinction between different levels of suspicion, especially in cases where there is no evidence, only claims, and cases where there is evidence or testimony. "It is not possible for there to be equal treatment between the cases, and ignoring these distinctions is something that goes against the presumption of innocence," Choosing Family commented.