After decades of concerted effort to address domestic, family and sexual violence, it’s hard not to feel despondent about their continued prevalence. It seems rarely a day goes by without the names of its victims making headlines in news media, each case of murder or assault just as shocking as the last. Domestic, family and sexual violence against women and their children is not a new phenomenon nor is it a passing one. The figures prove it.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Personal Safety Survey 2012 found one in five (19%) Australian women had been subjected to sexual violence, and one in six (17%) had experienced physical or sexual violence from a current or former partner. Of the women who had experienced violence by their current partner, 54% had children in their care at the time.
The research found there’s been virtually no reduction in the rates of women reporting partner violence between the 2005 ABS Personal Safety Survey and that undertaken in 2012. This flies in the face of the fact that it has been 40 years since the landmark establishment of the first women’s refuge in Australia, and the ensuing decades of tireless work of advocates in community services and government agencies to build policies and programs and shift attitudes.
My work over 30 years in violence against women service provision, research and policy development in Queensland and at the national level has led to the conclusion, supported by research, that there is no single cause of violence against women. Domestic, family and sexual violence is a product of many factors related to the individual abuser and the society in which he lives. These factors include personal beliefs, family values, community norms and social structures that reinforce gender inequality. It is not enough to ask what works in stopping men’s violence against women and supporting its victims and survivors; a more appropriate question is what works for whom?
Much is said about the need to ‘hold the perpetrators accountable’, yet the formal justice sanctions we already have in place, such as court orders or criminal assault charges, do not always work. There are men who continually breach orders and simply plead guilty, cop fines and even go to jail, without any impact on their abusive behaviour. And others, encouraged by our adversarial justice system, deny, justify, minimise or blame others for their offence – seeking to avoid responsibility for their damaging actions. What more can be done to hold these men accountable for the devastation their abusive behaviour wreaks on women, children, extended families and the broader community?
And how do we know what approach to take with victim’s safety? A high security refuge, for example, in the case of domestic violence remains an important service for many women, while for others, staying in the family home with enhanced home security and the perpetrator removed, is the priority. Little is known about how effective these approaches are depending on a woman’s age, economic status, cultural background or geographic location.
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), launched this month, is a critical step in supporting national efforts to answers these types of questions. It recognises that research is key to reducing violence against women. We are finally laying the cornerstone for building solid evidence-based policy and practice that I hope, in my lifetime at least, will see the reduction of violence against women from figures such as 1 in 5 experiencing sexual violence and 1 in 6 experiencing violence from a current or former partner, to none.