Story Search Results

Advanced Search

There are so many ways to search the solutions journalism stories in this database. Explore our searchable fields:

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 146 results for your search. View and Refine Your Search Terms

How a Cincinnati domestic violence survivor got the help she needed to break the cycle

Cameron Knight

October 25, 2021 |

Cincinnati Enquirer |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Cincinnati, Ohio

Dvert is a partnership between Cincinnati police and Women Helping Women, a social services agency that puts domestic-violence survivors in touch with an advocate from the moment they report abuse. Advocates can provide for survivors' immediate needs, including childcare and safe shelter. They provide counseling and support to survivors throughout the prosecution of a case, should the survivor choose to pursue that remedy. More women have found the strength to pursue prosecutions, which advocates hope will ultimately keep more women safer than if they drop a complaint and reconcile with an abusive partner.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Home was a nightmare, then home was prison. Finally home is now a refuge.

Marisa Endicott

October 21, 2021 |

Mother Jones |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Home Free is a small, transitional-housing program for women who served long prison sentences for crimes against or on behalf of their abusers. A population long neglected, the women are part of a community recovering from the trauma of prison and the trauma that put them there. Giving them autonomy, in ways typical re-entry programs do not, is key to their recovery. “Home Free is the culmination of a decades-long struggle by women to be seen and supported by a system that has condemned and ignored them.”

Read More
Go to Original Story
Hello? This Is Colombia's Antimachismo Hotline.

Julie Turkewitz

October 18, 2021 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Colombia, Bogotá

Bogotá’s city government started the Calm Line to give men a way to connect by telephone with psychologists trained in therapeutic responses to the machismo that leads to gender-based violence. Despite doubts that Colombian men would use the service, the line fields about a dozen calls a day. "Fear, shame and confusion pervade many of the conversations," but also can lead to breakthroughs in understanding the attitudes that oppress women. That understanding is the first step toward cultural change, the Calm Line's supporters believe.

Read More
Go to Original Story
When Abusers Keep Their Guns

Jennifer Gollan

October 09, 2021 |

Reveal |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

Starting in 1968, Congress has passed a series of laws, as have some states, stripping gun possession rights from people convicted of felonies or of domestic violence, or who are the subjects of restraining orders. But neither federal nor most state authorities do much to enforce the laws, relying instead on an honor system that often fails. Some places, like Washington's King County (Seattle), have done more to track who has guns they are barred from having. Thorough follow-up enables them to confiscate such guns in a process that can be less potentially violent than assumed.

Read More
Go to Original Story
‘I Don't Want to Hit My Children. I Don't Want to Hit Anybody.'

Rachel Louise Snyder

October 01, 2021 |

The New York Times |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: England

The Respect Phoneline started in the UK in 2004 to give anonymous callers, usually men, a way to seek help for their violent impulses. Rather than putting the burden for resolving domestic violence on survivors and on the punitive tools of the criminal justice system, the hotline approach recognizes that people prone to abusing others are frustrated and unhappy and want to change but need help to figure out how. While the aftermath of anonymous phone counseling can't be tracked, the author observed the process helping many men change their thinking. Similar hotlines have started in multiple places.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Maybe Cops Shouldn't Handle Domestic Violence Calls

Melissa Jeltsen

September 22, 2021 |

The Cut |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Moab, Utah

The case of Gabby Petito illustrates how decades-old laws meant to make police take domestic violence more seriously can backfire on the people who most need protection. Mandatory-arrest laws require police responding to a domestic-violence complaint to determine who is the primary aggressor, as a prelude to an arrest. In Petito's case, as in many, Moab, Utah, police deemed her the aggressor based on a cursory investigation, and possibly based on ingrained biases against women. This does nothing to get at the root of the problem and get people the help they need.

Read More
Go to Original Story
He Beat Her Repeatedly. Family Court Tried to Give Him Joint Custody of Their Children.

Megan O'Matz

September 16, 2021 |

ProPublica |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a leader in the movement to treat fathers as equal caregivers and to prioritize shared custody in divorces. But this fathers' rights reform, combined with outmoded ideas about women who allege domestic violence, often forces domestic violence victims to maintain frequent communication with their abusers and to turn over their children to violent former spouses for visits. Although the shared-custody law does exempt cases of serious domestic violence, advocates say the law allows large exceptions, makes proving allegations too hard, and is overseen by courts dismissive of women's allegations.

Read More
Go to Original Story
‘Every man was drinking': how much do bans on alcohol help women in India?

Preeti Jha

September 14, 2021 |

The Guardian |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: India, Bihar

The Bihar, India, state government banned drinking and selling alcohol in 2016 after women in the mostly rural state mounted protests blaming men's alcohol abuse for rampant violence against women. Hundreds of thousands of arrests, carrying severe penalties, resulted from the ban. Previous bans in Bihar and other states failed because of unpopularity and loopholes. This one has some evidence to suggest a 15% decline in drinking, but only a 4% decline in violence, while bootlegging and other crimes have increased. The prohibition protests have spread to other states.

Read More
Go to Original Story
Sexually Abused Women Are Running To This 'Secret Safe House' For Healing

Ekpali Saint

September 04, 2021 |

Prime Progress |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria, Ibadan, Oyo State

In Nigeria's Oyo state, survivors of sexual abuse and gender-based violence can find emergency shelter and a host of services at Women Safe House. The stigmas attached to these crimes and the government's failure to enforce the relevant laws leave women and girls with emotional challenges that can be addressed through counseling and support groups. The safe house supplements its limited bed space with a network of volunteers willing to house survivors. The safe house's services include low-interest loans to help women achieve independence by starting their own small businesses.

Read More
Go to Original Story
"I Wouldn't Take No For An Answer"

Sanket Jain

August 03, 2021 |

Unbias The News |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India, Kolhapur, Maharashtra

Married off to an abusive older man at age 9, Akkatai Teli could not read or write. But she recognized how the rural India justice system neglected women like her in a misogynistic society with high rates of domestic violence, creaky legal machinery, and social pressure to cover up abuse and stay in awful marriages. Teli built a sisterhood movement throughout 50 villages that has helped more than 1,000 women fight for their rights by agitating for attention from police and courts.

Read More
Go to Original Story