Vic Health: 17 August 2006
Female victims of assault are seven times more likely to have been assaulted by a partner or ex-partner than male assault victims, the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.
But despite this, the number of Victorians who mistakenly believe that men and women are equally responsible for domestic violence has doubled in the past decade, according to Dr Rob Moodie, the CEO of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth).
Dr Moodie says a disturbing finding of a yet-to-be-released survey by the Australian Institute of Criminology reveals that 20% of Victorians believe domestic violence is committed equally by men and women, compared with 9% who believed this in 1995. The survey, commissioned by VicHealth, is due for release in October.
He says the ABS 2005 Personal Safety Survey released earlier this month shows that the incidence of violence in Australia remains alarmingly high, and it is having dramatically different impacts on women compared to men.
The survey shows that women are most at risk in the home and from men they know, while men are most at risk in public spaces and from men they don’t know. Women remain far more likely to be assaulted by a partner or ex-partner.
“Intimate partner violence has wide-ranging and persistent effects on a woman’s physical and mental health,” Dr Moodie says. “VicHealth’s earlier research shows that it contributes about 9% to the total disease burden in Victorian women aged between 15 and 44.
“It is the leading preventable cause of death, disability and illness in this age group.”
La Trobe University’s Dr Michael Flood says the ABS survey revealed that 10 per cent of men and 5% of women suffered either violence or the threat of violence in 2005, but that there was a marked contrast in men’s and women’s experiences of violence.
“There is a very serious problem of violence to men in Australia, but like women they are most at risk from other men,” he says.
“Among the large numbers of men physically assaulted each year, close to 70% were assaulted by strangers. Less than five per cent were assaulted by a female partner or ex-partner.
“In contrast, among the female victims of physical assault, 31% were assaulted by a male partner or ex-partner.”
Dr Flood believe the increasing misconception that men and women are equally affected by domestic violence rises out of the success of some fathers’ and men’s rights groups in spreading the myth that domestic violence is gender equal.
“There may be a reluctance to see men as the more violent sex, and an appeal in the idea of gender equality in regards to domestic violence. But the data simply doesn’t support this view.”
Dr Flood says the ABS survey and the results of a similar survey in 1996 shows that violence prevention efforts are contributing to a decline in the incidence of violence against women.
“However, we’re still talking about hundreds of thousands of women. Over 440,000 Australian women experienced physical or sexual violence in the past year,” says Dr Flood.
Danny Blay, Manager of ‘No to Violence’, the peak men’s organisation responding to male violence, believes there are insufficient resources to respond to the numbers of men requiring behaviour change programs, an important part of the process of preventing domestic violence.
“More than 300 men attend Victoria’s Men’s Behaviour Change programs every week, yet more needs to be done to challenge men about their use of violence and provide more opportunities to change,” he says.
“The ABS survey shows that men are overwhelmingly responsible for violence across the community, as well as within families and intimate relationships. Men must take responsibility for their own use of violence and cease blaming other people or experiences.”
Dr Melanie Heenan, a violence prevention expert in charge of implementing the AFL’s Respect and Responsibility policy for women, says women are now more likely to report violence to police. “Last year, 36% reported the physical assault they’d experienced to the police, compared to 19% in 1996. For sexual assault, the proportion who’d reported to the police rose from 15% to 19%.”
Jean Cameron, Director of the Women’s Domestic Violence Crisis Service, says that while it’s good there is a slight decrease in the numbers of women experiencing violence and that more are reporting it, the community’s capacity to respond to the needs of women and children escaping violence remains grim.