New Methods Coming To Combat Domestic Violence

Press/Media: Expert Comment

Description

With statistics showing that one in three women and girls will be exposed to domestic violence at some point in their lives, an initiative to fight the problem will soon begin in Barbados.

The scheme, which involves the use of computer game technology, is part of None in Three, a two-year project for tackling domestic violence in the Caribbean. It is led by the University of Huddersfield in England in partnership with several governmental and non-governmental agencies in the region, and will be rolled out first in Barbados and Grenada.

Subject

Professor of Social Work at the Centre for Applied Child, Family and Youth Research at the University of Huddersfield Professor Adele Jones pointed out that one of the exciting features of the project was an anti-violence video game, Jessie, which is aimed at generating empathy among children and young adults as a long-term prevention tool to help change attitudes towards domestic violence.

“It is a game that both boys and girls can play and we will be piloting it in the schools when the new academic year starts,” Jones said at a training workshop on Preventing Domestic Violence at United Nations House.

“There is a growing body of research that shows violence in computer games can contribute to aggression and violence, but research also shows that pro-social games can build children’s cognitive and attention skills in different ways, and we are working with professors who specialize in computer game technology to accomplish that.”

Period21 Jul 2017

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