Everyone Has an Opinion About Slava Voynov, But No One’s Asking the Experts
Spoiler alert: Call someone who knows what they’re talking about.
I am a journalist, but I do not cover the LA Kings or, except in a broader cultural and occasional manner, write about sports at all.
But I know something about reporting, and I have some questions for anyone who has been covering Slava Voynov’s case. Why have we heard nothing from local or national organizations that work with survivors of domestic violence? There are many, many such groups. They are accustomed to being asked all manner of questions by reporters.
I have almost no actual answers about this specific situation or about how the team or league will handle the larger, ongoing issues with their players and violent behavior. Like a lot of fans, especially female ones, I am super frustrated, scared, concerned, angry and disheartened.
What I do have to offer — call it a professional hazard — are a lot of questions I would hope anyone who does cover the Kings or hockey would be asking as part of their reporting on this subject, but that I have not seen anywhere in the coverage of this incident specifically or other pieces about how the NHL will handle domestic violence allegations in a post-Ray Rice era. No matter what personal experience anyone writing or talking about this case may have with intimate partner or family violence, it’s not quite the same as what a professional advocate may be able to bring to the discussion.
(I’ve seen some statistics quoted, and some personal stories relayed, which is a good start, but that’s still inadequate in fully addressing the incredible nuance and complexity of intimate partner abuse. I’ve seen you all dissect those fancy stats. I know you could handle this being a better, more complicated conversation.)
I would actually love to be proved wrong about any or all of this, so please — if you have written or read or seen coverage that did address these aspects, please let me know.
Here are some questions that if this were my beat I would be asking of local or national organizations that work with domestic violence issues (please feel free to steal/modify/improve any of these):
What kind of support do you think families of professional athletes might need or find helpful if they are being abused? What kind of support should teams and leagues provide partners and families separately and confidentially apart from the athlete? (Chanelle and Diane discussed a version of this on THXBUD’s excellent podcast, but I haven’t heard anyone actually ask or report on the Kings’ or NHL’s response to this question, or even ask an advocacy group to provide suggestions or recommendations.)
What examples or trends have we seen in other situations in which people alleged to have been abused are then subject to massive amounts of media scrutiny? Do victims routinely change or retract their stories? How does increased attention even just among family and friends (not media) lead to increased concern or fear, and how might that influence their statements to police, lawyers or others about what occurred? What risks are victims of abuse facing in the aftermath of a highly publicized incident, and what might they be able to do in order to protect themselves and their families?
What impact does an abuser or a victim primarily speaking a language other than English have in a potential domestic violence situation in the U.S.? What impact does immigration status play for either an abuser or a victim and how they interact with police? What is appropriate protocol for an alleged abuser’s lawyer to speak directly to the possible victim? What role should a team, league or police department/DA play as an intermediary between a victim and an abuser’s lawyer, or the media, or the public more generally?
Some other questions I haven’t seen asked:
What kind of accident might cause enough screaming that police are called by neighbors?
What kind of accident is most likely to be mistaken for abuse by hospital employees and police officers who are trained to recognize signs of domestic violence? How often does this probably happen?
Did police officers at any point use a translator when speaking to either party?
Does or should a team or league play a role in securing representation, bail or other legal assistance to a player? Specifically for this situation, who put Voynov in contact with his lawyer, and is it the same lawyer he would have had if, for example, he’d been arrested for a DUI? Who is paying for the lawyer?
I do not care what you, as a hockey fan, or even you, a hockey writer, think the answer to these questions might be or should be. I care that no one seems to be asking actual experts in the field any of these questions or conveying their answers to the many people who are closely following this story. If you are asking these questions and getting stonewalled, you should be reporting that, too.
I’m glad to hear the team, organization, league and players pressed to articulate what could be better done to educate men who may struggle for some reason to separate out how to play a very violent game with how to conduct themselves off the ice. But these voices are already very well represented — even when you don’t ask anyone from the Kings about this directly, you have any number of bloggers, former professional athletes turned broadcast commentators, and other opinionated talking heads all happy to share their thoughts.
Who is asking these questions of police departments or district attorneys or other official agencies that handle domestic violence stats, education or other programs? Who is asking other athletes’ wives? Who is asking any of the dozens of domestic violence advocates who appeared in media in the wake of Ray Rice’s indefinite suspension? Who’s asking any of the organizations the NFL has so belatedly teamed up with to raise awareness on this issue to comment on it right now?
You don’t have to be a journalist working at a mainstream media outlet to do this. You can call up or email a local or national organization using their media contacts listed on their website and ask to do an interview with them for any of your very popular, very well-read blogs or podcasts or websites. Ask them the questions. Ask them what you’re not asking but should be. Ask the reporters (and their editors) and bloggers who are regularly covering this issue to do this, too. Ask the team and the league to make these experts available as part of their own media efforts.
Stop talking to each other and over each other and around each other and maybe let any of the MANY MANY people who have dedicated their professional lives to confronting domestic violence tell you what else we should know about this issue. Start now.
Here, I spent 10 minutes on Google and did more to help you get started on this than I ever would for a reporter who worked for me. I prioritized LA area groups with dedicated media contacts.
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: hotline.media@ndvh.org, 512-426-4904 (media request line), thehotline.org
- Peace Over Violence: Darcy Pollan, Director of Communications & Events, 213.955.9090, darcy@peaceoverviolence.org, peaceoverviolence.org
- Break the Cycle: Joseph Jessie at 310.424.2802 or media@breakthecycle.org, breakthecycle.org (works with youth and young adults)
- Good Shepherd Shelter: kbuczko@goodshepherdshelter.org, goodshepherdshelter.info
- Institute for Multicultural Counseling and Education Services: 213-381-1250, imces.org (provides domestic violence and other social service resources for Russian-speaking people in LA area, among other communities)
- Jenesse Center: (323) 299-9496, jenesse.org
- California Partnership to End Domestic Violence: Communications & Development Manager Jessica Merrill at jessica@cpedv.org or 800-524-4765 (direct: 916-444-7163 x118), www.cpedv.org
- California Coalition Against Sexual Assault: media@calcasa.org, calcasa.org
I have some questions for you since I am not an expert in any of the fields of the questions you pose in your article and thus aren’t interested in my opinions. Why do you feel it’s ok to assume he’s guilty? Were you in the room? Do you have a crystal ball or a time machine? For the sake of argument can we assume for a second he’s innocent (even though you’ve already demonized the man by associating his name with DV even before he’s been charged of a crime let alone convicted of one) and discuss the effect of all these accusations that will have on his career and reputation? Even if he’s innocent, this will follow him around the rest of his professional career. Oh but you don’t care about that. Why should you? There was an alleged crime against a woman! Women are always the victims! Another question for you, this time let’s assume he’s guilty, which YOU know for a fact he is. What do you say about the wives/girlfriends of these high profile athletes who stay with these guys after they are beaten? Obviously they’d rather stay with a guy who has millions of dollars at the expense of their own self respect and personal safety. Guess they don’t want to slay the goose with the golden egg.
Listen, I’m not an animal. I truly understand the severity of DV and have zero tolerance for it. I just feel that all of you so called journalists out there that are so quick to judge should take into account that innocent people are falsely accused and convicted of crimes they did not commit everyday and the results are devastating. If you want to write articles about DV and provide help to people out there who are at risk, more power to you. I just hope that you take a bit more of a responsible approach to your journalism and realize that throwing someone’s name around associating them with serious allegations is no better then the slop that’s found in the National Enquirer.
I would invite you to learn more about domestic violence, which is what this post is encouraging us to do.
As for Voynov: it’s not “throwing a name around” to discuss the fact that Voynov was indeed arrested on the suspicion of domestic violence, and that police felt they had enough evidence to do so. Articles are being written not because of rumors, but because there has been an arrest. So far we know that the police belive a crime occured, and don’t believe the claims that it was an accident.
None of the article’s questions “presume guilt”–they simply point out that the perspective of domestic violence experts have been lacking in public discussion of this case. These experts would provide valuable context.
According to Department of Justice studies, false accusations of DV are rare. On the contrary, violence against women is an under-reported crime.
Women also comprise the vast majority of domestic violence victims (85%).
DV is a notoriously difficult crime to prosecute even when instances come to the attention of the police, as victims do not always co-operate for a variety of reasons, including intimidation and emotional attachment. There is a possibility that it’s happening here. But concealment of this crime is not something that just happens among athletes’ wives and girlfriends–it happens in all walks of life.
No matter what you think of Voynov’s guilt or innocence, this is a perfect opportunity to learn more about this subject. Why not start here?
[…] about domestic violence, and I appreciate having been allowed a little corner of that space to call for better coverage of Slava Voynov’s arrest. I love that Jen Neale at Puck Daddy embraced that challenged and interviewed advocates in the […]