Swedish ‘social experiment’ shows people ignoring domestic abuse in a lift

A Swedish organisation has posted a distressing video showing women being abused physically and verbally – yet only one person reacts.

A Swedish “social experiment” has shown only one person of 53 reacting to what seemed like a scene of domestic abuse in a lift.

The video was posted by an organisation called STHLM Panda, which describes itself as “doing social experiments, joking with people and documenting the society we live in”. Their most recent posts include a Halloween prank and another prank in an elevator.

But their latest video takes on a more serious tone. They set up a hidden camera in a lift while members of the group played an abusive boyfriend and his victim. The male actors swore at the women and physically assaulted them while members of the public were in the lift.
Click the image below to watch the video on YouTube. (Once there, click the subtitles icon on the bottom right of the bar for English subtitles).

One shouted, while pinning the woman to the wall: “You are not worth anything, I hope you get that! You’re not worth anything!”

Most of the lift’s passengers ignored the abuse, with one woman saying: “I’m here too. Please let me get off first.”

Only one intervened. “I’m gonna call the police if you touch her again,” she said.

STHLM Panda said she was the only one to react out of 53 people who got into the lift while they were running the social experiment.

Konrad Ydhage, who runs the channel with Olle Öberg and appears in the video playing one of the abusive partners, told the Guardian: “We made this video to test domestic violence and violence in close relations and to see if people react when they really need to.”

He added that they did not expect so few people to react. “We were expecting that about 50% would intervene. I was prepared to take a hit by the bigger lads who entered the lift. But sadly enough they walked out on the girl.”

Photo: STHLM Panda/YouTube.

High-profile cases trigger a wave of support – AUS

Campaigners in Australia believe there is a groundswell of support for action in the wake of a number of high-profile domestic violence cases.

Photographs of celebrity food writer Nigella Lawson being gripped by the throat by her partner sent shockwaves around the world.

This was followed by the trial of Sydney man Simon Gittany, who was found guilty of murdering his fiancée Lisa Harnum by throwing her off a high-rise balcony when she tried to leave him.

“I would say there was a bit of a turning point with the Nigella Lawson case (and) Lisa Harnum’s matter.  I think the public started to say this is something that impacts everyone in the community,” the chief executive of Domestic Violence NSW, Australia, Tracy Howe said.

“I think until then there was a supposition that it sat in certain pockets of the community, but in fact there was an understanding coming through that it’s everyone’s issue.”

Ms Howe says there is also a growing understanding that domestic violence is not just physical.

“Mostly it’s not about women and black eyes… domestic violence is a continuum of behaviours always based in power and control,” she said.

“One partner takes a position of privilege or control over another and diminishes self-esteem and worth until she’s almost immobilised from it.”

Karen Willis from Rape and Domestic Violence Services NSW has been working in the field for 35 years.

“It’s about social isolation, it’s about financial control, it can be about spiritual control, nearly always there’s sexual assault in the domestic violence process and there can be emotional control, undermining and humiliating [the victim],” she said.

“It doesn’t matter what she does, it’s never good enough.”

©Ursula Malone and Juanita Phillips, ABC News, Australia.

 

New proposed domestic abuse law – UK

UK MPs from all parties are backing a tough US-style law that would make domestic abuse a specific offence carrying a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.

A new bill, which is sponsored by the Justice Unions’ Group and the All Party Group on Stalking and Harassment, would, for the first time, make sentences reflect whether domestic abuse – both physical and psychological – was part of a pattern of behaviour. It is modelled on legislation introduced in the US that has resulted in a dramatic increase in convictions and reporting of domestic abuse.

The proposed law would provide a legal framework that would make domestic abuse a specific offence, and would allow for the examination of an offender’s course of conduct over a period of time. Supporters say this would encourage more women to report a crime that is often neglected by the criminal justice system, sometimes with tragic consequences.
Research shows that the average victim does not report abuse until subjected to at least 30 incidents. Only 30% of reports to police result in arrest and only one in six reports lead to a charge.

The law would see domestic abuse categorised as both physical and psychological, and perpetrated against the victim or the victim’s children. It would define abuse as “intentionally, wilfully or recklessly causing, or attempting to cause, physical injury or psychological harm to a person” and introduce protective orders prohibiting an abuser from making contact with their victim.

The bill’s supporters believe that it will enjoy broad support in parliament and is likely to become law.

Since similar laws were introduced in the US, reporting of domestic abuse has increased by nearly 50%. Incidents of violence have decreased by more than a third.
Ensuring that domestic abuse is recognised in both psychological and physical terms has already been broadly welcomed by senior police officers.

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According to the Home Office, some 1.2 million women in the UK said they had experienced domestic abuse in 2013.
Two out of three incidents involved repeat victims.
Two women are killed by a partner, ex-partner or lover each week.
Last year 400,000 women were sexually assaulted, of whom 70,000 were victims of rape or attempted rape.

But the true number of victims is likely to be even higher. Research carried out by Citizens Advice estimates that more than half a million victims of domestic abuse are too frightened to report their experiences.

Sources: Justice Unions’ Group and the All Party Group on Stalking and Harassment, the probation service union Napo, The Guardian.

Characteristic Behaviour

Click for a full-size image.

The table shows some of the warning signs, behaviours and situations that characterize a relation containing abuse. Perpetrators of abuse are often very clever and manipulative and often blame you as a victim.

You are YOU and if you feel that you have to change who you are to make a partner or someone else happy, then it is a warning bell. Remember that abuse is never your fault! It is everyone’s human right to live a life free from any form of violence and abuse.

To break out of a violent and abusive relationship can be a difficult process. But we all need to pull together to inform and to be alert for warning signs such as these in our own lives as well as in the lives of our friends and relatives, and so that vulnerable women get to know their rights and so that they know that someone out there cares and listens and take their situation seriously. Physical, emotional, sexual and psychological abuses are criminal acts!