"Violence remains preventable, not inevitable." So says Dr. Hans Henri
P. Kluge, the WHO Regional Director for Europe. Dr. Kluge has called for
more action to be taken in every country that has seen a surge in
domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic. If steps are not
taken, the world could see 31 million cases of gender-based violence, he
warned. This stark warning is an indictment of our failure, in Europe
and elsewhere, to reduce the level of male intimate abuse, in spite of
the extraordinary energy and dedication of thousands of practitioners
and academics.
In this challenging book, Don Hennessy examines our practices and
procedures, our attitudes and our beliefs. He demonstrates how we have
made few inroads in this area - either into the prevalence of male
intimate abuse, or in relation to the tactics that support the ability
of the male intimate abuser to establish and maintain his control.
It is vital that all agencies, both statutory and non-governmental,
recognize that we need to change our position from one of support to one
of protection. The protection that Hennessy promotes is not that of the
physical refuge alone, but the mental safeguard which will allow each
target woman to follow her own intuition.
How He Wins is essential reading for any woman who has been the target
of such abuse and has found herself abandoned by the community.
