Leadership, Influence, Interruption, Pressure, Guidance, Prevention, and Education
Violence Against Women - It's a Men's Issue
"We need more men with the guts, with the courage, with the strength, with the moral integrity to break our complicit silence and challenge each other and stand with women and not against them."
The Bystander Approach focuses on helping people who are not in an abusive situation - not the batterer and not the victim - interrupt or challenge the behaviors. The approach provides strategies and training to support victims and help hold batterers accountable as a community.
The Bystander Approach asks questions like:
- Why do some young men make it clear that they won't accept abusive sort of behavior from their peers, while others remain silent?
- How is the silence of peers understood by the batterer?
- What are some informal policing mechanisms in male peer culture that keep young men from speaking out about these issues?
- What message is conveyed to victims when the abuser's friends don't confront them?