convicted of domestic violence -- and would also afford greater protection to its victims.

The Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Act 1996 received general support in the House, despite moves by the Opposition to make counselling for batterers compulsory.

Opening the debate, Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness said Bermuda is no longer an emerging domestically violent country -- it is a domestically violent country -- highlighting the need for new legislation.

Mr. Edness reeled off a list of statistics supporting the need for the legislation.

He said that in 1995 more than 500 domestic disputes were reported to Police, of which 76 percent did not fall under protective legislation.

Last year the Physical Abuse Centre received 577 calls for help and provided shelter for 58 women and 59 children and the Women's Resource Centre saw a 34 percent rise in cases handled over 1994.

"These hard figures cover a whole range of human torment from fatalities to physical injury to women and emotional damage to children,'' said Mr. Edness.

He said the Bill aimed to address shortcomings in the existing legislation in nine areas including: Broadening the scope of protected persons from married or formerly married people to include those in "significant dating relationships''; Increasing the area of safety zones, under a Protection Order, to include home, work or place of education; Giving Police a copy of the Protection Order -- which they did not have before -- so they know an order is in place when they are called to a domestic incident; To allow other people -- such as the Police Commissioner -- to apply for a Protection Order; Increasing the duration of a Protection Order from a maximum of three months to a maximum of 12 months; To include psychological abuse as a type of abuse in addition to sexual and physical abuse; and To help children who experience or witness abuse.

Mr. Edness said the Bill also aimed to encourage people to break their silences and come forward -- knowing they will be well protected.

The Bill helped to remove the hidden protection given to offenders by the silence of their victims as the Bill aimed to give greater protection.

The number of people who will be able to help in cases of domestic violence will be widened -- with family members, women's groups, the Police and others who can play a role.

Paula Cox (PLP) said there were many reasons to support tougher measures against domestic violence. The Bill was a step in the right direction, but did not go far enough and it should be mandatory for a convicted person to get counselling.

It was also important to introduce measures to help those in the vanguard of promoting change -- saying the Physical Abuse Centre had only one counsellor, a $60,000 Government grant and operating costs of $250,000.

"I hope this House will consider measures that will give real remedies so that it not only sounds and looks good politically, but demonstrates that we care,'' she said.

Government Whip Rick Spurling spoke of the importance of the family unit, compassion and prevention.

"Domestic violence including child abuse is a horrific crime and has a lifetime's effect. We must prevent or minimise it at all costs,'' he said.

"This is not a `lock `em up' bill, it is focusing on prevention and this Bill will have an immediate effect in stopping some crimes of domestic violence,'' he said.

Shadow Human Affairs Minister Ewart Brown said Government had ignored Bermuda's "cultural peace'' when it put the Bill together.

"In putting together this legislation where did Government focus its attention? Violence occurs inside a culture, but Government leaves out the cultural peace.'' He also criticised Government for going to the US to look at legislation -- using Quincy, Massachusetts as an example although it is not similar to Bermuda.

Former Premier Sir John Swan again complained about behaviour in the House, saying it was up to MPs to set an example and not trivialise the issue.

"It's so easy to talk about who is right and wrong, but the real question is what are we going to do right now to help Bermuda to address the domestic violence in our society,'' he said.

Sir John said housebreakers and violent criminals have suffered from major social problems themselves.

He said: "We must learn to listen to each other, be more tolerant of each other -- we must recognise that the cause of it is how people treat each other.'' Sir John said violence in the media must also be considered a major cause of trouble.

He added he had been to see the latest Spike Lee film Get on the Bus -- about a group of men travelling to the Million Man March in Washington last year.

Sir John said it was a pity that more people had not taken the time to see the film.

He said: "Nobody got shot, there was no real violence on the bus, people talked rationally and soundly about things which affected them -- there was culture.'' Nelson Bascome (PLP) told the House that the law must crack down on so-called "cradle robbers.'' And he claimed that older men preying on young girls was contributing to the problems of society.

Mr. Bascome said: "They used to call it robbing the cradle -- but in more graphic terms, it's child molestation.

"Too many of our young women, young girls, are being adversely affected by these older men who are preying on them and creating division in our community.'' Mr Bascome pointed out Bermuda had a high marriage rate -- but also a very high divorce rate, leading to unbalanced families.

Mr. Bascome said: "Violence is being broadcast through the radio -- songs with explicit lyrics. There is violence on TV and in the movies, projected through the storylines, which is a very big part of why individuals cross that line and violate the rights of others.

Grace Bell (UBP) reminded the House of the horrific killing of Rochelle West by her husband in her Front Street office.

Mrs. Bell said: "The time is really here to take this on board and say `that's enough'.'' Health and Social Services Minister Harry Soares (UBP) said many Bermudian families were doing extremely well.

He said the young people involved in Youth to Youth were "charged up about their glorious future''.

But there were others he had seen in the Island's training schools and prisons who exhibited phenomenal anger and alienation.

"I believe very strongly that we are the products of our environment,'' he said. "And witnessing violence in the home numbs them into believing that it may be normal.

"It is incumbent upon all of us to break the cycle. There is a myth that domestic violence only occurs in certain homes...it is in the whole vertical slice of the community. It is pervasive throughout the community.'' Mr. Soares said that he was excited to see third parties being able to provide protection orders and initiate prosecutions.

He said children are the first priority for rehabilitation in his Ministry, followed by the victims and then the perpetrators of the violence.

The Health Minister said there will be steps taken to deny parole to inmates convicted of domestic violence who have not taken prescribed courses and this would extend to other offenders.

Shadow Health Minister Renee Webb (PLP) said the debate had skirted around the core issues.

"I have a serious problem with the term domestic violence,'' she said.

"Violence is violence, no matter where it takes place.'' The term domestic violence has been used to justify less serious punishments than in other instances when the violence occurs at the hand of a stranger out in the streets.

"We should have a problem with violence altogether -- whether it is inside or outside the home. We as a society need to look at what can be done to modify the behaviour of those who offend.

"The punishment must be tempered with help for the offender. It is pointless sending them continually to prison without any help.'' Ms Webb said Government needed to put money into counselling and therapy instead of spending $40,000 per year to house each inmate in prison.

Government backbencher Maxwell Burgess agreed that the term domestic violence often sent the wrong message.

He said violence anywhere was unacceptable but violence in the home was particularly unsavoury.

Mr. Burgess said he hoped that the legislation would send a clear message that violence was unacceptable and in so doing the frequency of the problem would decrease.

He said Bermuda was today carrying a tremendous "social mortgage'' as a result of its prosperity and the best way to end violence was to get rid of the underclass.

At the moment he said the black female has been responsible for the carrying the burden of paying off the social mortgage.

The solution would be to create jobs for young men so that they can "get dignity back into their souls.'' Stanley Morton (PLP) said where a person lived or their income was no indicator of their predisposition to commit violent acts.

He said individual behaviour patterns goaded on by alcohol was to blame and he said he would like to see mandatory counselling in place as well as judges having no discretion in sentencing.

Deputy Premier Jerome Dill said domestic violence was a topic that should have bipartisan support free of politics.

He said the legislation was based on a law in Barbados and it contained a specific offence for anyone who abuses a partner in the presence of children.

Mr. Dill said it was untrue that the Government had not done anything with the recommendations that came out of the Blow the Whistle on Violence conference.

He said peer mediation, conflict resolution, links between the Police and schoolchildren were just some of the more than ten recommendations that the Government has already set in place.

Opposition Leader Jennifer Smith said that while it was good to see that the Ministry of Education had taken some action on the recommendations in the report, it would have little effect unless the children were actually attending school.

She said the Ministry had no figures on the extent of truancy and did not see the need for truant officers.

Ms Smith said the violence that occurs within a home setting derived from a desire on the part of the abuser to exercise power and had little to do with anger management.

She said she was concerned that girls in short term relationships who were abused would not get the protection that the law gave for those in a "live-in'' kind of arrangement.

Dr. David Dyer (UBP) said: "This is the beginning of a necessary direction in which this Country, and a lot of other countries, should be moving. It won't stop this problem but it will help to give people treatment and help in dealing with it.'' Minister for Information and Technology John Barritt added: "There is a line across which you can't go without becoming a criminal -- that I think is the message this House wishes to send.'' Concluding the debate, Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness said he had attended a conference in Cairo preparatory to a major women's conference in China.

"When we arrive at the stage where we honour and pay respect to the women in our society, then and only then will we effectively deal with the problems of violence which affect young people and then on into adulthood,'' he said.

He added: "I don't think we know the genesis of all these problems -- but we know that children exposed to violence in childhood are likely to resort to violence in adulthood.'' In committee -- when MPs debate each section of a bill individually -- Opposition MPs criticised the fact that there was no provision for mandatory counselling for both offenders and their victims.

But Mr. Edness said: "We understand what is being asked for and we are quite prepared to look at it and come back with a possible amendment in the future.'' And he added such counselling would probably be delivered best by the private sector rather than creating another Government department.

Ms Webb (PLP) asked for attendance at counselling and therapy sessions for offenders and victims to be an option for the courts.

Mr. Edness said that he could not include counselling in the bill if the facilities were not there.

He added: "We would have to ensure counselling services for violent acts -- for batterers. There are no counselling services for batterers.'' He said services becoming a charge on the public purse could only be voted in under the Budget -- which was only two months away.

But Lois Browne Evans (PLP) said: "It's laughable to bring a bill to this House which has no teeth to back it up.'' Ms Webb introduced an amendment to the act barring people unconnected to the case from being present at court hearings.

The amendment read: "No person except by leave of the court shall be present at any sitting of the court other than the parties to the case, their counsel and other persons directly concerned in the case and children's officers.'' Ms Webb said the premise of the amendment was to ensure the privacy of the victim and children.

She said only those concerned with the case should be there and it would then be an offence to broadcast or publish the identity of either party to the protection order.

Ms Webb said such proceedings were of a sensitive nature because violence within a home, especially where there are children, has all kinds of effects.

Consequently, confidentiality is important.

In response Mr. Edness said that the courts already have the power to control who was allowed into cases but he said Government would accept the amendment "in the spirit of cooperation.''