Baoan District, Shenzhen： Building an Anti-domestic Violence System and Building a Life Protection Network
Bao ‘an Women’s Federation relies on Xinhe Home Studio in the community to provide psychological counseling services.
Family is the cell of society, which is related to everyone’s happiness and the foundation of social harmony and stability. However, "domestic violence" hangs over the head like a sword and becomes a lingering shadow of some families. According to the survey, about 30% of China’s 270 million families have domestic violence, especially women, children and the elderly who often become victims of domestic violence.
As a populous area in Shenzhen, some families in Baoan District are also troubled by domestic violence, which even leads to criminal murders and seriously affects social stability. According to the data, in 2018, Baoan District Public Security Bureau established 24 homicide cases, 8 of which were caused by family emotional disputes, accounting for 33.3% of the total number of homicide cases.
What should be a shelter from the wind has become a cage that you want to escape but can’t escape because of violence. How can such a tragedy be avoided and resolved?
Baoan district is trying to find the answer. In order to create a social governance pattern of co-construction, co-governance and sharing, the Fourth Party Congress of the Sixth Baoan District Committee and the work report of the district government in 2019 clearly put forward the working idea of "formulating and introducing domestic violence prevention and emergency treatment measures", and acted quickly to start a new round of exploration to establish an "anti-domestic violence" system.
Driven by the deployment of Baoan District Party Committee and District Government, over the past six months, many departments in Baoan District have joined forces, combined prevention, protection and punishment, and established a system of preventing and resolving the source of domestic violence and rapid emergency treatment and disposal, gradually weaving a "protection net" for life safety, and a "Baoan sample" for social governance that promotes social harmony and stability through family harmony has taken shape, further improving the level of social governance in Baoan and promoting the formation of a social governance pattern of joint construction, governance and sharing.
Take the lead in establishing a compulsory reporting system for minors’ domestic violence.
In mid-2018, a grid worker in Fenghuanggang Community, xixiang street City, Bao ‘an District, accidentally discovered that due to the serious family preference for sons, the 11-year-old girl Xiaoyi (pseudonym) not only did not go to school, but was abused by her parents for a long time. Grid members quickly reported to the higher authorities that with the intervention of the public security, women’s federations, communities and grid members, parents’ abuse of Xiaoyi was effectively stopped, and Xiaoyi officially entered school in September of that year.
In this case, "the grid worker is the main body of the report, and minors are forced to report domestic violence" has become the biggest highlight.
Under the framework of People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s Anti-Domestic Violence Law, in January this year, Baoan promulgated the Eight Measures for Prevention, Assistance and Emergency Treatment of Domestic Violence (hereinafter referred to as the Eight Measures), which comprehensively used various means such as punishment according to law, people’s mediation, psychological intervention, assistance and publicity and education to strengthen legal authority, improve the efficiency of departmental linkage, improve the professionalism of anti-domestic violence and achieve rules-based prevention and suppression of domestic violence. Yao Ren, secretary of the District Party Committee, said: "We should pay close attention to the Eight Measures and establish a working mechanism that can be found in time and effectively disposed of."
In view of the private and hidden nature of domestic violence, which is difficult to find before the incident, the Eight Measures, combined with the actual situation in Baoan, took the lead in establishing a compulsory reporting system for minors’ domestic violence in Shenzhen, requiring "school teachers, medical staff, property managers, community workers, etc. to promptly dissuade, help and deal with minors who have suffered or are suspected of suffering from domestic violence, and must report the case to the public security organ or complain to the women’s Federation at the first time."
It is understood that at present, only Yunnan Province has introduced the relevant mandatory reporting system, but it has not broken through the reporting subjects such as "schools, kindergartens, medical institutions, residents’ committees, villagers’ committees, social work service institutions, rescue management institutions and service institutions" as stipulated in the Anti-Domestic Violence Law, and the Eight Measures clearly stipulate that in addition to the reporting subjects stipulated in the Anti-Domestic Violence Law, grid staff and building directors are added.
"Because of traditional ideas, domestic violence is often very hidden. Baoan has a population of more than 5 million, and it is more difficult to carry out anti-domestic violence work. Implementing a mandatory reporting system will help to find clues about domestic violence and better weave a protective net against domestic violence from the source. " Zhao, a lawyer who has long been concerned about Baoan, said.
The "Eight Measures" also refined the responsibilities of various departments, such as clarifying that the people’s court should open a green channel for minors to protect their personal safety and issue it within 24 hours; Clearly set up a domestic violence protection center in the district women’s Federation, and at the same time formulated a "work flow chart" and a "work guide" for domestic violence prevention, rescue and emergency treatment, and set up a "general program" for Baoan to promote anti-domestic violence work.
Constructing an orderly working chain "a game of chess in the whole region" to form a joint force
Family harmony is an important foundation of social harmony. Guo Ziping, the head of Baoan District, put forward that "a good environment should be created for women and children".
Therefore, the anti-domestic violence work has formed a work pattern of "a game of chess in the whole region". Baoan made it clear that five units, namely public security, women’s federations, judiciary, courts and communities, are the main responsible units in the fight against domestic violence, and implemented the working mechanism of "taking responsibility first, multi-party linkage", making clear responsibilities, taking a multi-pronged approach, performing their respective duties and cooperating with each other, thus jointly forming a joint force in the fight against domestic violence. The "first-in-charge system" means that the unit that receives the case first bears the lead and overall responsibility for the case, so as to avoid mutual prevarication between different units; Under this principle, the first department will evaluate the comprehensive case, and according to the evaluation results, the case will be circulated among the five responsible units in an orderly manner, forming a "punishment according to law — Carry out psychological counseling — Carry out people’s mediation and legal aid — Issue personal safety protection orders — Carry out the orderly pattern of follow-up care and assistance.
At the beginning of the year, a police station in Baoan District received Xiaowen (a pseudonym) for help. Xiaowen has lived with her boyfriend for many years, and they have a daughter. During the period of cohabitation, her boyfriend always had domestic violence against her, but Xiaowen never left any evidence. On the one hand, Xiaowen wants to escape; On the other hand, I am afraid of violence and threats from my boyfriend, and I am also afraid of losing my daughter. Faced with this situation, she doesn’t know where to go.
After receiving help, the police station immediately went to the police to verify and issued a domestic violence warning to Xiaowen’s boyfriend; In the face of Xiaowen, who was crying and trembling because of fear, the police station contacted the community women’s Federation and arranged "Xinhe Home" to give Xiaowen psychological counseling for the first time to help her establish self-confidence; Street judicial offices also organize community joint mediation, and community women’s federations pay regular visits … … Shocked by the authority of the law and the close attention of many departments, Xiaowen’s boyfriend did not dare to commit violence again. Through repeated counseling and help, Xiaowen also began to understand that she should use legal weapons to protect herself.
Not only Xiaowen, but also under this tight protective net, more and more families and the once "weak" began to face life again and find themselves — — Chen Mou of Songgang Street was violently abused by her husband, and Songgang Judicial Office organized community joint mediation to urge the two sides to reach a settlement; Zhang in Shajing Street often encounters domestic violence from her husband Li, and the Community Women’s Federation assists Zhang to apply to the District Court for a personal safety protection order; Xixiang street Liu turned to the Women’s Federation for help because of her husband’s domestic violence, and the Women’s Federation referred him to the community "Xinhe Homeland". After counseling, the relationship between Liu and his wife has been greatly improved … …
The data shows that in January this year — In August, Baoan resolved 2,509 cases of family emotional disputes, the district procuratorate accepted zero cases of child abuse, and successfully carried out 61 cases of high-risk domestic violence intervention. A total of 23 cases of domestic violence against minors were accepted by compulsory reports; The District Public Security Bureau issued a total of 221 domestic violence warnings, up 453% year-on-year; The district judicial bureau accepted 23 cases of legal aid for marriage and family disputes; People’s mediation organizations at all levels accepted 1147 cases of marriage and family conflicts and disputes, and 1082 cases were successfully mediated, with a success rate of 95% and a prevention rate of 100%; The District Civil Affairs Bureau carried out 23 domestic violence shelters and rescued 78 minors; The District Court issued a total of 18 Personal Safety Protection Orders, up 50% year-on-year; All departments in the region have carried out more than 500 anti-domestic violence education, training and publicity activities.
"Smart platform" realizes intelligent control of the whole process of preventing and controlling domestic violence
The construction of "smart city" is an innovative move in urban governance in Baoan District. Chongyang Financial Research Institute of Renmin University of China issued "Smart City Governance in Big Data Era — — The Research Report on Smart City Governance in Baoan District, Shenzhen believes that Baoan District has innovated the social governance system and reconstructed the urban governance system by using big data platform and modern information and communication technology, providing valuable experience in the construction of new smart cities.
Anti-domestic violence work is also closely integrated with the construction of "smart cities". Due to objective reasons such as difficulty in discovery and many participating units, under the traditional working mode, there are still some shortcomings, such as unclear information of circulating cases, low timeliness of case handling, low pertinence, and difficulty in tracking services afterwards.
In order to break the "pain point", Baoan District developed the "intelligent mediation platform for family emotional disputes" by giving full play to the foundation and advantages of the intelligent management platform, and realized the "whole process digital recording and whole process information investigation" for the protection of women and children.
On the platform of intelligent mediation, the disposal systems of public security, women’s federations, courts, judiciary, street communities and other units have all been opened. After receiving the case, the platform implements "high school and low school" classification management according to the nature and harm degree of the case, and automatically assigns the case to the public security, women’s federations, courts, judiciary, street communities and other departments for collaborative disposal in combination with the demands of the parties; After the first department handles the case, the relevant handling records will be interconnected and shared to the system platform, so as to realize the information sharing and linkage mechanism of the whole process of the case offline and offline, and help all relevant units to accurately follow up the conflict resolution. The whole system can also realize the man-machine binding, "leaving traces after the incident", the case status and disposal responsibility can be checked online, and the business data can be directly counted in real time through the system, which truly realizes the closed-loop disposal of the whole process of domestic violence incidents and the linkage efficient disposal.
At the beginning of July, Bao ‘an Women’s Federation received a case of male domestic violence against women for four years, and the risk assessment showed that it was high risk. The Women’s Federation immediately reported the case to the intelligent mediation platform for family emotional disputes, and the system automatically distributed it to the police station, court, judicial office, community women’s Federation and grid where the case occurred according to the danger level. After receiving the case, the police station interrogated the perpetrators and held them in administrative detention for 3 days; The parties apply to the court for a personal safety protection order and it is issued within 72 hours; The judicial office takes the initiative to contact the parties to provide legal aid; Community Women’s Federation has provided psychological counseling services for clients for many times, and the follow-up treatment is also ongoing, which has solved the contradictions in time and prevented possible social risks.
By the end of August, 9749 cases had been managed by the system, and 9522 cases had been involved, with a handling rate of 97.7%, which showed initial results in the prevention, treatment and rescue of domestic violence.
Since ancient times, "it is difficult for honest officials to break housework." However, at the moment when "ruling the country according to law" is vigorously promoted, the prevention and control of domestic violence is by no means a matter of one person or one family, but a common responsibility of the whole society. After more than half a year’s exploration and practice, the anti-domestic violence system in Bao ‘an District has achieved initial results, and the mechanism for preventing and controlling contradictions and disputes with multi-department coordination and whole process closed-loop disposal has been initially established. Under the protection of this protective net, many people and families have stepped out of the haze of domestic violence and bathed in the sun again; The whole society is also more harmonious and stable, adding warmth to the "shared home".
Text/Photo: Cui Jie Liu Shuli Liu Guihe