The poster is deliberately sober, with white text on a black background. “It was just a little couple argument that got a little out of hand”, can we read there, just in front of the Auchan supermarket on rue Jean-Jaurès, in Noisy-le-Sec (Seine-Saint-Denis). During the week of November 25, twenty-one more posters were put up around the city, offering two more quotes (“It was just a slap… But it’s the first time” Where “I won’t do it again… But she had really been looking for it! »).
These words were not chosen at random: they were pronounced by Noiseans during hearings at the local police station. Through this shock campaign, the municipality continues its fight, which began two years ago, against violence against women, by first raising awareness of the perpetrators, who are rarely singled out during these initiatives.
This approach was thought up by Gaïa Riet Moszkowski, social worker at the Noisy-le-Sec police station. Since January 2020, she has accompanied women victims of violence there to file a complaint, but at the same time undertakes work with the perpetrators. For this poster campaign, she asked the local family protection brigade to identify the ten most pronounced justifications by perpetrators of domestic violence at the police station. Three of them were chosen for the posters in the street, the rest were shared on social networks and the municipality’s website. The project was carried out in conjunction with the National Federation of Associations and Centers for the Care of Perpetrators of Domestic and Family Violence (Fnacav).
Touch “all invisible”
Through this campaign, Gaïa Riet Moszkowski hopes to fill a gap in France on the work with the perpetrators of domestic violence. “You have to talk to them so that the accountability process is a personal process. A court or association injunction will be rejected or will not be effective the majority of the time, which explains the recidivism rate”regrets the social worker, who also hopes to touch “all invisible” that she does not receive at the police station.
At the entrance to the town hall, a panel pays tribute to Edna Daconceicao, a 31-year-old young woman killed on July 16 by her husband in Noisy-le-Sec, who would be the 59e feminicide in France in 2022. The municipality quickly validated the initiative, which is part of a plan to combat domestic violence led by Mayor Olivier Sarrabeyrouse since his election in 2020. “It is obvious that if there are no perpetrators of violence, there are no victims. This new approach immediately convinced us”supports the elected communist.
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