The Domestic Abuse Fallacy: Why Australia Has It Wrong

In March 2015 Prime Minister Tony Abbott described domestic violence as a ‘tragic and deadly epidemic,’ with his government in agreement that the ‘National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children’ was a reasonable measure to tackle the issue, they allocated close to $120 million dollars over a four-year period.[1]

The media followed Abbotts’ trend, with the national broadcaster the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) making the unsubstantiated claim: “Domestic violence is the leading cause of death and injury in women under 45”[2] additionally the Huffington Post described it as a ‘scourge.’[3] One of the most widespread government actions is the 30 million dollar campaign: ‘Stop it at the start, (SIATS)’[4] which included an advertisement campaign featuring a male at different stages of his life, acting aggressively towards women.[5]

We see a young white boy in an upper middle class household slamming a door on a female peer, knocking her down. The girl’s mother, instead of chastising the incredibly rude behaviour like any mother would, she says ‘He only does it because he likes you.’ The narrative then continues to show the boy as a teenager taking a picture of a girls cleavage as she bends down, then having an outburst at his girlfriend in a car as a young man and finally as a middle aged man pushing over his partner at which point he is shown as a young boy again.

‘Violence against women starts with disrespect’ the narrator says ‘The excuses we make allow it to grow.’

On YouTube the original version of the advertisement disabled the comments section, but another version[6] of the video uploaded by the advertising firm was afflicted with quite a negative response, with a like/dislike ratio of 200/557. Social commenters, rightly insist that it portrays men negatively and demonises young boys, one commenter brought up the high male suicide rate and insists that portraying men in this light will only make the problem worse.

The campaigns website features the ‘excuse interpreter’[7] beginning by quoting a series of statistics on violence against women, mostly gathered from 2012 ‘Personal Safety Survey’[8] by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)’

The findings from the ‘Personal Safety Survey’ included; since the age of 15, one in three women have reported being a victim of physical or sexual violence, from someone known to them, the claim being that the combined total of sexual and physical violence was formed into one statistic, the figure of 35%.[9]

The combined male figure reveals the figure of 26%, or, to word it as SIATS does: one in four.

The interpreter then features a number of popular phrases we may say to children, as well as children’s possible interpretations of them.

It’s not a stretch to conclude that the preventative measures SIATS are suggesting to stop violence against women are to watch how we raise our children, particularly what phrases we use when they suffer or commit violence. Upon looking at the phrases and after examining the survey statistics earlier quoted by SIATS however, there are contradictions.

Phrase: “It’s only a bit of fun”

What a young person might think:

Girl: “I shouldn’t take it so seriously”

Boy: “I can get away with this”

The implication here is that young girls may regard violence against them as a non-issue, not worthy of reporting to authority figures in the future, whereas the boy may view it as acceptable.

There is a section of the ABS survey that covers a victim’s likeliness to seek help or support after experiencing violence, a good source to measure if this implication holds any statistical weight. According to the survey, after being physically assaulted by a male, women are more than likely to seek help or support, at a rate of 68.1%, compared to men at less than half with only 44.9%.

Even more significant is the difference in the likelihood of seeking support after being physically assaulted by women. With women seeking out support at a rate of 60.7%, compared with only 35.3% men.

Another relevant section, details a victim’s likelihood to contact police that provides similar results. If a male physically assaults either a man or a woman their rate of contacting police is very similar, with women at 32.8% and men at 32.1%. The discrepancy is again evident when the perpetrator is a female: Women will contact police at a rate 31.6% and men at only 18.8%.

According to the survey SIATS quoted, their interpretation that women feel reluctant to inform authority figures about their victimization by men, isn’t reflected in the statistics, in fact victimized men are far more likely to shrug off violence committed by women.

Phrase: “It takes two to tango”

Girl: ‘I probably did something to start it”

Boy: “She started it, so my actions are okay”

Another study cited by SIATS is the ‘2013 National Community Attitudes towards Violence Against Women Survey (NCAS).’[10] The study focuses on the opinions of Australians aged 16 years and over, and their opinions towards violence against women. According to NCAS, the amount of people who agree there are ‘circumstances in which violence towards a current/former partner can be justified’, never exceed 6% of respondents. The claim that the phrase may result in youth excusing violence is not supported by the source SIATS used.

Phrase: “He didn’t know he was doing anything wrong”

Girl: ‘It wasn’t his fault”

Boy: “I’m not responsible for this”

According to the NCAS survey, 98% of Australians aged 16 years and over are prepared to intervene if a partner is assaulting a known woman. Furthermore, 95% agree that violence against women is a serious issue. Going by the survey results, Australians on the whole are not unsure about their opinions on violence against women; they condemn the behaviour in almost all circumstances and all platforms.

This brief analysis of sources used by SIATS shows, rather unsurprisingly, that there is not some invisible countrywide acceptance of domestic violence; rather, it found that our culture vehemently condemns it as a whole.

What was revealed however is the reluctance of SIATS to mention the statistically significant lack of police notification, or seeking of support by men who experience violence at the hands of women. What is quite worrying about this blatant misdirection of fact by the government campaign is that it suggests SIATS has an underlying agenda with no regards for the statistical reality. Ignorance of this data isn’t a possibility as they cited the very same studies cited in this article.

As mentioned earlier, the most pervasive tool of this campaign is the TV advertisement, posted on YouTube by The Department of Social Services with over 591,718 views. The advertisement portrays an upper middle class white family, suggesting that the demographic portrayed are the same demographic being targeted.

Andrew Barr of The Sydney Morning Herald shares a similar sentiment:

“Family violence is unacceptable. It is not a police problem or a government problem or a poor people's problem or a Canberra problem. It is everyone's problem... All of us need to stand up and say enough is enough. There is no place for family violence in our community.”[11]

According to the data cited earlier from the NCAS, family violence is not accepted Australia wide, although it is accepted in some communities more so than others.

The NCAS took a separate survey interviewing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) for their opinions on violence against women.[12] The majority of the ATSI community agrees that violence against women is unacceptable at a similar rate to the non-ATSI results, however, though there were a few exceptions.

One fifth of ATSI surveyed hold the attitude that Domestic violence can be excused if the violent person is affected by alcohol compared to one tenth of non-ATSI holding the same view.

This finding is particularly significant, as according to the ABS survey, half of the female victims of physical violence report that the perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Research by ‘The National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children’, claims that: “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 34 times more likely to be hospitalized due to family violence related assaults than other women and police data suggests they are up to 3.7 times more likely than other women to be victims of sexual violence.”[13]

In light of this severely disproportionate rate of domestic violence and higher cultural acceptance by aboriginal communities, it’s a wonder the advertisement isn’t targeted towards that demographic.

The same excuse manufacturers exists for an ATSI aimed campaign,[14] though it begins quoting different statistics, including the ‘34 times more likely’ figure, as well as another statistic claiming that indigenous women in remote areas experience a rate of domestic violence 45 times higher than other women.

Looking through the campaign page for ATSI’s does reveal an advertisement directed towards the indigenous population, a short documentary focused on a father and cultural mentor for the community, talking about how a conversation needs to be started to ensure the rate of domestic violence is reduced.[15]

What’s unfortunate is how little this sensible approach to the issue has been promoted: The widespread SIATS advertisement has more than half a million views, whereas this video has a mere 194.

It’s a wonder they didn’t deem this advertisement as necessary to promote as the other advertisement, despite the obvious domestic violence problem in the aboriginal community.

The SIATS campaign relies on scrutinizing phrases and misbehavior by children as the source of Australia’s domestic violence problem, without any evidence from there quoted sources.

There appears to be an agenda afoot, to portray young middle class white men as the most necessary target for domestic violence awareness, as well as an urge for authority figures to treat them delicately so as to not cause a violent man in the future.

To say, the campaign is misguided in their mission to reduce violence against women in Australia, is an understatement, instead they appear to be kowtowing to political correctness, instead, adopting the ever popular, F#@K white men angle.

[1]

http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/BudgetReview201516/DV

[2]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-05/domestic-violence-reaches-epidemic-proportions/5426214

[3]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/05/03/victorias-2-billion-for-domestic-violence-could-be-a-game-chan_a_22066442/

[4]

https://www.respect.gov.au

[5]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjBfU-bfGII

[6]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_WcaIkWYuk

[7]

https://www.respect.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Excuse-Interpreter.pdf

[8]

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4906.0

[9]

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4906.0

[10]

https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/media-and-resources/publications/2013-national-community-attitudes-towards-violence-against-women-survey

[11]

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/family-violence-is-everyones-problem-20160602-gp9w7a.html

[12]

www.vichealth.vic.gov.au%2F%2Fmedia%2FResourceCentre%2FPublicationsandResources%2FPVAW%2FNCAS%2FNCAS-ATSI-summary.pdf&h=ATO_H2yfLl5nYCJhPnahe-Xh_kQCroilY5BFfJJd6AWssiFbtgIeDdX5oQHWgMyglWslvu1MfdgqlX8r5X-4WEHTK_1pnSCWXpUwa1J4L33y3Zg6D43Al0Oo801Tj71JLYwsKVPqUrH1QmjM7MZmFyBCed-qfN8Ujw

[13]

https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/10_2016/fact_sheet_on_national_priority_area_2_-_aboriginal_and_torres_strait_islander_women_and_their_children.pdf

[14]

https://www.respect.gov.au/campaign/atsi-materials/

[15]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP-ZVnHYtBw

#WilliamSullivanRobertson #feminism