Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

In respect of the victimisation piece, I do not know if Dr. Lambert agrees, but in Ireland there needs to be a better understanding that being a victim and being a perpetrator are not mutually exclusive groups. A person can be both a victim and a perpetrator. Unfortunately when it comes to men and violent crime or to violence in general in Ireland, the moment a person goes from being a young boy who is experiencing violence within the home or community, to an adolescent with more of a presence in the world, who is taller, and begins to exert the manifestation of their own victimisation by becoming a perpetrator of violence, we tend to have a cut-off point. We see a person who has perpetrated violence on people and may be in prison serving a long or life sentence, who may have taken a life. We then have a cut-off point, decide that person is a perpetrator now and ignore the history. In doing so, we do not ever meet the needs of that individual to be able to go on and heal in a particular way in order that we do not have that cycle of violence perpetuated in generation after generation.

In the sphere of academia but also societally and politically, does Dr. Lambert see any way in which we can - sensitively as obviously there are victims and when it comes to manslaughter or murder there is a family without a loved one – create safer societies? That is the aim. We do not create a safer society if we do not recognise the individual who has committed harm and work with them. From a campaign or learning perspective or even that of community workers - and I have watched those at service provision level exclude the hardest to reach or hardest to work with who are potentially engaging in particular behaviours – does Dr. Lambert have any thoughts on how to raise awareness and understanding of the issue and to develop a skill set in front-line service workers and people working in psychology and academia in order to change the narrative of who is a victim and who is a perpetrator, as well as on an understanding of the core drivers of violence and how, if we do not meet the needs of those people, we are perpetuating the cycle? It is difficult to find the question there, but how do we enhance and empower people to understand that if we do not work with those who have potentially engaged in harmful behaviours, we will not achieve anything overall? How do we establish an understanding in Ireland of the correlation between victims and perpetrators? They are not different groups, they are one and the same.