LAST week support workers revealed that nine new secret refuges have had to be opened in Blackburn to cope with the rising tide of women and children seeking safety from violent, abusive partners.

In 2009 alone apparently, despite the fact that this is a problem the council have been campaigning about for the last two or three years, there has been a 50 per cent increase in the number of women referred for help.

What an indictment of the society we live in that a town the size of Blackburn should have to have at least nine houses where they have to be sheltered?

The recession has been blamed for imposing stress that leads to relationship breakdowns and it’s certainly true that the divorce rates seems to be perpetually going up.

But there’s a hell of a difference between couples arguing, deciding they are no longer compatible and splitting up to go their separate ways and a situation where a wife and youngsters have to go into hiding at a secret address to avoid being tracked down, attacked and beaten up.

It’s a symptom of something much more sinister in our society – the growing tide of violence.

Youngsters, although more boys and than girls, from ten to their late 20s spend hours playing alarmingly realistic computer games in which they are routinely beating, maiming and killing people. The most ordinary of family runabouts are being made with doors which automatically lock as you drive off to prevent you being carjacked when you slow down and stop at traffic lights or roundabouts.

And despite the fact that we are in the midst of the worst economic downturn for a generation consumption of booze and drugs seems to be unaffected enabling so many males to become super-aggressive bullies as they lose any self control they might have had when sober.

The idea that the punishment should fit the crime and that these oafs should suffer state-sponsored birching or flogging is not the answer. There’s plenty of evidence that meeting with violence just doesn’t work.

But there’s a lot that can be done.

For a start women and children shouldn’t have to run away and hide while the abusive male carries on living in the matrimonial home.

As soon as an allegation is made the male should be able to be forcibly removed from the house by police and order to remain out of contact until complaints are properly investigated and action is taken.

If there’s any suggestion that he is breaking that restriction then he should lose his liberty immediately with no ifs or buts.

It’s the only way we can begin to reverse a trend which seems to be taking us back to the Stone Age or beyond where speech sheer brute force rather than speech and rational discussion is seen as the only form of communication for settling disagreements.