Monsieur

Many stories have been told about domestic violence, but we have been excluding one key character from the conversation. Men.

“Monsieur” is a project about men attending the only rehabilitation center in France for perpetrators of domestic violence. All of them have either been sentenced or have acknowledged the facts of domestic violence. The center helps them to find the right keys to reintegrate society as a better person, husband & citizen.

Studies on IPV (Inter Partner Violence) have notably highlighted a relation between domestic violence and addiction but also psychology triggers that could be better controlled to avoid violent behaviours. Yet, only few places exist to take care of IPV perpetrators.

Perpetrators’ guilt is obvious, their dehumanisation less. Reality is more complex and various typologies of perpetrators, victims and violence exist.

In order to approach that complexity, I am articulating this project through portraits of the perpetrators and images of their daily life in the center with the aim to outline their psychological states and to explore their paths towards rehabilitation.

"Monsieur" is a French word that literally means "My Lord" but is used to politely refer to a male person, an equivalent of "Mister" in English. At the centre every perpetrator is being called "Monsieur" by all the social workers to insist on the seriousness of the situation and establish a sign of mutual respect and adulthood.

The project started 10 months ago and is still on-going, I am starting now to explore the life of perpetrators that have been released from the center to follow on their reintegration to society and sometimes their return to the household.

I believe that we need to bring back men in the general awareness about domestic violence to better understand the human issue behind and invest in better fixing humans.