I mostri non esistono

Gender-based violence is an ongoing emergency. In recent years, the number of women killed by their partners or ex-partners shows no sign of decreasing, while the number of cases of abuse against family members and cohabitants is increasing, with women accounting for the vast majority of victims.

Can this violence be stopped? And how? If we are talking about combating it, we need to go to the root of the violence. And the issue, which is also cultural and social, concerns men.

They have different names and are located in different cities, but the main objective of their work is the same. These are Centres for Men Who Commit Violence (CUAV): they implement specific programmes with the aim, on the one hand, of stopping violence and protecting victims and, on the other, of ensuring that men become aware of their actions and take responsibility for them, also to prevent recidivism.

Men can access these centres independently, on the advice of a solicitor, or upon referral by the judicial authorities, the police commissioner, or local services. The phenomenon is constantly growing.

How do these centres work? Who are the men who follow this type of programme? Through fieldwork and a journey into the real country, Michela Giachetta came into contact with organisations that work with abusive men. She met them, attended meetings and got personally involved in an attempt to understand, where possible, the reasons behind the violence. Not to judge or justify, but to try to go beyond detention and imprisonment, which are not always effective solutions.

A book that turns the narrative on its head and tells us about the perpetrators, the violent ones, sometimes murderers, who are trying to embark on a journey of awareness and reconstruction. The violent male is not a monster, as he is often described by the press, with the risk of relegating him to a pathological exception.

Gender-based violence is structural, and men who commit violence are normal men. Monsters do not exist.