In fact, says Cronin, there are virtually no laws against domestic battering or program funding. She has gone on three training trips to Odesa, Ukraine, with a research team from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The team did a random sampling of women to gauge the victimization rate. Preliminary results, says Thompson, show one in two women in Odesa are victims of violence. There is a recognition that it's a profound issue.
People really care about people over there.
Here are the people coming out of a Communist regime who are extremely committed to human rights. We see this as the best peace-keeping mission, because it turns a country to a less violent country. The first phase, explains Cronin, begins with choosing a country in the former Soviet Union to visit and hiring a training team. Team members, who hail from all corners of the United States, need to have a background in social services, good organizational skills, and a sensitivity to other cultures. Trainers are most typically police officers, victim advocates, judges, district attorneys, psychologists, social workers, doctors, and nurses.