Cook Islands - Pacific Prevention of Domestic Violence Programme

Cook Islands
Others felt that Police commanders needed to pay more attention to the views and experience
of frontline staff.
Sometimes management come with their own concepts, which are not the concepts of
Officers involved directly with domestic violence. They need to take into consideration
what those people say. They think they know more than those dealing directly with
domestic violence. For example, the level of staffing needed to attend to complaints: if
an offender is aggressive and there are only junior staff available, this can cause
problems if you need to arrest the offender. Also if the offender knows you’re by
yourself and have limited resources. You can’t take the risk; you have to retreat.
Management don’t take things seriously from workers. They try to blame us and
criticise when a file comes in, without realising the severity of the problem attended.
They see the papers, not the actions that were carried out and how risky it was at the
time. They don’t see the actual scenario. You can’t paint a picture on a piece of paper.
Finally, there was a view that procedures were not being enforced top-down and there was no
mechanism for ensuring accountability for non-compliance.
Discussion
The points raised by Police interviewees in relation to this question indicate that the capacity
of CIPS to lead by example in the community largely reflects the commitment of Police
commanders. The outcome of the review of CIPS is likely to offer opportunities to reflect on
and strengthen practices in this area.
Police attitudes and perceptions of domestic violence
Police attitudes to domestic violence
I asked Police Officers what sorts of acts they considered to be domestic violence. Most
defined it in terms of physical violence and arguing, although some recognised that emotional
violence was as damaging as physical violence. 1
Men get angry; they compare their spouses to animals. This is violence. They call them
names. That’s the thing that really hurts them, but they don’t show it.
The focus on physical violence is consistent with the Crimes Act 1969, but is out of step with
the definition developed as part of the Cook Islands Domestic Violence Strategy. This
definition covers physical, sexual and psychological (emotional) violence, including
intimidation and threats of violence (Commonwealth Secretariat, United Nations
Development Fund for Women, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Secretariat for the Pacific
Community, 2003).
Alcohol, jealousy and financial stress were perceived to be the main causes of domestic
violence. There was a view that domestic violence and general crime had decreased on
Aitutaki following the introduction of tighter liquor licensing laws around two years ago. If
this is the case, then more stringent policing of liquor laws may be an effective intervention
on Rarotonga, although one Officer said that resource constraints meant that policing there
was not up to scratch.
The interviewees were unanimous in saying that it is never acceptable for a man to hit his
wife, although some (both male and female) qualified this statement, saying that some women
provoke violence.
1 They also referred to violence between other family members.
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