Still have many issues with the Weskoppies psychological report from Jonathan Schotz that I will go through in a few different posts.
First Issue – Abusive relationship finding:
The report states Pistorius become “insecure and jealous at times”.
Yet the psychologist Scholtz writes, “there was no signs of abuse or co-ercion” like those “often found in these kinds of relationships.”
It’s notable that Scholtz thinks this amount of insecurity and jealously is “normal for the specific occasion.”
Scholtz report quotes two academic studies which he presumably based his idea of what consisted “these types of relationships”. (see p.30 section 5.6)
[*]Main problem is that the co-author of the study he quotes, ‘Spiral of Entrapment – Abused Women in Conflict with the Law’, seems to think this actually is a case around a domestic violence context.
[*]The researcher and expert in violence against women, Lisa Vetten, is quoted in multiple articles and think-pieces discussing issues around violence and the Pistorius trial.
[*]Lisa Vetten even goes as far to say that the victim herself, from Steenkamp’s background and trial tweets, would likely want her death to be seen as a domestic violence case.- (The other co-author is Hallie Ludsin and somehow Schotz incorrectly spells her name as Ludson. http://books.google.com.hk/books?id...=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false)
- Second study Scholtz quotes seems to be on 60 men arrested by domestic violence in the United States written by Mauricio and Gormley, 2001. https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=209195 - Perhaps they have written another study, or updated the original in 2009, as I was unable to find the stated 2009 reference.
List of Lisa Vetten talking about domestic violence and Pistorius case:
1. "Lisa Vetten, research associate at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, said that in light of Steenkamp’s own tweets and actions ahead of her death, it was likely she would have wanted her case to be seen in the broader context of domestic violence. She said despite being “one of the most significant social problems that controls us”, it was given little attention.
Vetten said unfortunately Steenkamp’s case was unlikely to be helpful to the fight against domestic violence as long as the focus stayed on her alone.
“When the trial is over it will all be forgotten,” she said, “It is not going to change future murders.”"
http://www.security.co.za/fullStory.asp?NewsId=27540
2. "Lisa Vetten in International Business Times: “Pistorius’ disability may have exacerbated his insecurities, forcing him to compensate for his perceived deficiencies.
"Disabled men and women often struggle with their sense of masculinity or femininity because they are to some degree dependent,” she said.
“I have seen examples of them placing particular pride on physical attractiveness. Maybe he [Pistorius] struggles with that. The guns and sports cars gave an impression that he was over-compensating so as to be seen as 'normal'.""
http://www.ibtimes.com/oscar-pistorius-symbol-south-african-mens-war-violence-against-women-1093778
3. ""Only with a sensational case like this do people remember domestic violence is a problem."
Vetten said many intimate-partner homicides centred on a woman's sexuality, the desire to control it and suspicion of affairs.
With athletes, other things come into play.
"They live in an unreal world ... They get distorted pictures of themselves and their entitlements," she said."
http://m.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/?articleId=11170398
4. "Vetten said she was not surprised that many members of the public immediately concluded that abuse was a factor in Steenkamp’s killing.
“Domestic violence is just so thoroughly entrenched and woven in the day-to-day fabric of your life, invisible, mundane. It’s bread and butter for most women,” she said.
“If you look at the statistics, this is the most common form of violence that women experience, and it’s the most likely way they are going to die.
“So domestic violence is a daily reality for most women.
“If it hasn’t happened to them, they’ve seen it with mothers, they’ve seen it with their sisters, they’ve sat and heard it from their next-door neighbour, they’ve watched it happen in public – and everybody stands back and does nothing.
“And that is across the board. Domestic violence is not class-based or race-based in South Africa.”
Vetten says the high rate of domestic abuse may boil down to that old chestnut: apartheid.
Black men were oppressed and abused by society and infantilised as “boys”, while white men were given an inflated sense of their own importance.
Both treatments resulted in the same reaction, she says: men who felt powerless in society tried to right the balance by exercising their authority in the home; men who felt all-powerful in society took that authority home with them."
http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/why-black-women-are-protesting-at-oscar-trial-1.1658960#.U8OEyqjd2BA
5. Lisa Vetten writing in ‘The Conversation’
“Who is responsible for violence towards women? This question runs like a thread through some of the public discourses swirling around the trial of athlete Oscar Pistorius. In some ways he represents an inconvenient truth – that not all violence against white women in South Africa is carried out by black men…
The social and political dynamics of men’s violence towards women are fraught and frequently work in ways that downplay men’s responsibility for their actions. The Pistorius trial is thus far more than a legal enquiry into the athlete’s responsibility for the death of Reeva Steenkamp. Indeed, it is a window onto the larger narratives and politics of gender and race permanently under construction in South Africa.”
http://theconversation.com/profiles/lisa-vetten-124695/articles
6. Vid interview with Lisa Vetten talking generally about causes of violence and homicide in South Africa.
Also worth looking at is another interview from a women who faced a partner who threatened her with a firearm.
http://www.independent.ie/world-new...e-against-women-in-south-africa-30248445.html
