DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
The NSW Bureau of Crime and Statistics has found that rates of intimate partner violence have remained stable over the last 15 years. Despite being statistically stable, the rate is alarmingly high. It remains a cause of concern. We read stories of women who have died horrible deaths as an end result of domestic violence, but are we seeing the hundreds of cases happening around us today? To some extent the four women who died at the hand of their partner in South Australia at the end of November 2023 are a catalyst to this blog.
The federal government introduced a National Action Plan 2019-2022 to focus on attitudinal change to domestic violence. The narrative prior to this was bias toward allocating blame to the victim, and so the National Action Plan has been a good thing. It is wrong to blame the powerless. It is incredibly damaging to women and children who not only suffer the violence, but are then identified as the cause of it. The wider community can generally appear to be a bit numb to this phenomena. Perhaps it is a case of ‘the standard you walk past is the standard you accept?’
A shift in responsibility to the offender / instigator of domestic violence is paramount. If we don’t shift the responsibility then we may miss the current opportunity to create a more humane society for women and children (and men suffering DV), and to address the problem in a more effective way.
However a very real problem with the federal governments initiative is that simply telling people their behaviour is wrong and that they need to change, does not result in change.
Experts say that not all domestic violence is the same, and this is a point we have to grasp. There is a complexity of causal issues, and therefore one solution will not drive the statistics down or address domestic violence. The Multi Causal understanding of the drivers of domestic violence is a game changer.
Domestic Violence is part of a broader social problem arising from inadequate supports and treatments for those who experience the following; child abuse, parental abuse of children (especially where both parents are violent - or allow violence toward children to occur), trauma, mental illness, personality disorders, poverty, coercive control, and substance abuse. These all play a causal role in domestic violence. These issues are all part of life but when we don't treat them effectively, the rate of domestic violence is bound to remain high.
(We must remember that not all people who have issues related to substance abuse, trauma, child abuse, poverty or personality disorder are responsible for domestic violence. It is quite possible to have these issues and not be a perpetrator of domestic violence.)
There is a complex web of causal factors in domestic violence. To make progress in incident reduction, domestic violence has to include the treatment of causal factors. This would require a multi-tiered process of identification and treatment from community, health and government.
While we view domestic violence as a gender based issue, or an attitudinal issue, we will limit effective treatment that causes women and children to be safer. It is unlikely that people who intitiate domestic violence will see an advertisement on TV and think to themselves, "shit, i think i'll change."
There must be a will to address domestic violence by addressing the causal factors; substance abuse, personality disorders, trauma, mental illness, poverty, parental violence toward children, and coercive control.
Great Reads:
Eureka Street, Jesuit Journal. Why Aren’t Rates of Domestic Violence Going Down?
Published, 2nd November 2023.