White Ribbon day.

All the politicians are wearing a " White Ribbon day " symbol on their lapels this week to bring support to the movement to stop violence against women.  In particular, all the sporting codes have been at the forefront in promoting this anti violence message.    They must despair at picking up the daily newspaper and finding a front page crime report about police charging a leading Rugby League player with an incident of domestic violence against his wife.

Over the past few days there probably have been the normal spate of disagreements between family members that have progressed from a shouting match - and in some cases - ended with some sort of physical action.   They often involve the neighbours calling the police and in many instances the wife refuses to press charges against her husband.   It goes down in the police log books as just another " domestic " !

From a media point of view it falls into that old adage of " Dog bites man " failing to merit interest as a news story - but " Man bites dog " making it onto the front page.    When one of the participants in a domestic incident is a leading sporting figure - hold the press !

This weekends " domestic " involved a man who is a regular item in the news for his prowess on the Rugby pitch and his value as a member of one of the big sporting clubs.  It seems that he got involved in an argument with his wife that resulted in a door getting kicked in, some furniture broken - and a possible " physical contact ".   This man drove away from the scene, refused a police order to pull over and led police on a short chase.   He was breath tested, and will face a DUI charge.

Rugby League will possibly impose some sort of penalty for " bringing the game into disrepute " and most certainly the drink driving incident will go to court.  All this will be avidly covered by the media and quite likely the domestic violence aspect will be quietly dropped for lack of evidence  and a refusal to testify.

There seems to be a degree of discord amongst psychologists on the harm done by reporting incidents of domestic violence.   Some suggest that it's prevalence amongst our sporting heros brings justification in the minds of lesser mortals while others think that the " shame " factor deters some people from employing the same end to anger.

The main aim of events such as White Ribbon day is to try and achieve a degree of self control to stop arguments getting out of hand.  It can be deemed a success if even a few learn to walk away when their temper reaches boiling point.   At least one small step in the right direction !