Pulitzer Prize voor serie artikelen over huiselijk geweld

De krant The Post and Courier heeft in de categorie Public Service de Pulitzer Prize gewonnen voor hun serie artikelen over huiselijk geweld. De Pulitzer Prize is een prestigieuze Amerikaanse literatuurprijs die jaarlijks wordt uitgereikt op het gebied van nieuws, kunst en letteren. Met de serie “Till death do us part”, bestaande uit meer dan 40 follow-up artikelen over huiselijk geweld, heeft The Post and Courier een buitengewone journalistieke prestatie geleverd. Door de methodologie van het journalistieke onderzoek en alle onderzoeksdata openbaar te maken voor lezers, werd kritiek door sceptici voorkomen. Bovendien is de serie artikelen een zeer waardevolle maatschappelijke bijdrage. Niet alleen omdat het een zeer ernstig probleem onder de publieke aandacht heeft gebracht, maar met name omdat het beleidsmakers tot actie heeft gedwongen. Op dit moment wordt er gekeken naar hoe wetten hervormd kunnen worden, zodat huiselijk geweld in de toekomst zwaarder zal worden bestraft.

Hieronder kunt u een fragment van een van de artikelen lezen. Het complete artikel vindt u de website van de Pulitzer Prize.

“I just remember the fear”

A woman who survived a bullet to the head describes the abuse her husband used to break her spirit, and how she survived his attempt to kill her.

For 13 years, Therese D’Encarnacao stayed with her husband through the biting insults and accusations: You’re fat. You’re ugly. Nobody else will want you. She stayed through the times he hit her. She stayed through his chronic health problems and depression and unemployment. She stayed until the day Keith Eddinger walked into their long, narrow master bathroom and pointed a gun at her head. He calmly shot her between the eyes. Then he killed himself. At first, Keith was a gentleman, a welder who shared her love of fishing and camping. He took an interest in her young son. And an interest in her. Fresh from a failed marriage to her high school sweetheart, Therese desperately wanted someone to love her. So for 13 years, she endured the abuse, partly out of hope, largely out of fear. When she finally told her husband she wanted out, Keith got his gun.

Very real fear

Why do women stay in — and return to — abusive relationships, even until their deaths? The question is central to helping them. And the fact that women do stay so often provides a convenient excuse to blame victims rather than the men who pull triggers (or knives or fists). A lack of understanding prompts many, lawmakers included, to turn their backs on the pervasive, deadly problem. It’s not a simple question to answer. Experts and survivors both describe an all-ensnaring web of hope, culture, dependence, fear, religion and even love that binds women to their abusers. But mostly it comes down to what he controls — which often is everything, even her life. The late state Rep. John Graham Altman sparked a furor in 2005 when he told a reporter that domestic violence victims are at fault if they return to their abusers. He had just been asked why the House Judiciary Committee wanted to make cockfighting a felony but tabled a bill that would have done the same for domestic violence.

“The woman ought to not be around the man,” Altman said. “I mean you women want it one way and not another. Women want to punish the men, and I do not understand why women continue to go back around men who abuse them. And I’ve asked women that and they all tell me the same answer, ‘John Graham, you don’t understand.’ And I say, ‘You’re right, I don’t understand.’” He’s not alone.

Many people don’t realize that when a woman tries to leave, or press charges, she is in the most danger she will face. Lees hier verder.

Naast dit artikel zijn er via deze link nog zeven artikelen die binnen dezelfde serie zijn geschreven terug te lezen.