National anger at men’s violence against women is at boiling point. After multiple killings, Australians are marching on the streets demanding change. Governments are nervous, emphasising their existing approaches in media interviews, but searching for new solutions.
Data is critically important to prevention: it helps us to understand whether we are gaining or losing ground, what might be making violence better or worse, and what interventions could work. But data will never fully capture what it is like to endure, or witness, that violence or live in a society saturated with it. Data might fluctuate here or there, but the fact remains that men’s violence is a constant threat in Australia.
We have made some gains. Homicide rates in Australia have halved since 1990, almost certainly due to John Howard’s gun control legislation rather than positive cultural change. With guns off the streets, men’s violence became less lethal. When gun control measures were introduced after the Port Arthur massacre, an unintended but important consequence was that rates of intimate partner homicide saw a long-term decline.
Another intervention designed to reduce men’s public violence – alcohol restrictions – has also had the effect of reducing domestic violence in some places. When the New South Wales government responded to alcohol-related violence and street deaths in 2008 with restrictive late-night alcohol policies in Newcastle, the reported rate of domestic violence dropped by almost one-third, while it increased in places without those policies.
The fact is that the most effective interventions to prevent domestic, family and sexual violence and homicide have been made in response to male public violence, not men’s private violence. Prevention approaches specific to violence against women have focused on changing attitudes to gender equality and violence and are struggling to demonstrate positive outcomes.
Despite record levels of national investment in gendered violence prevention, intimate partner homicides now appear to be on the increase. Meanwhile, in NSW, reports of domestic violence to police have risen over the last five years, particularly in relation to stalking, intimidation, harassment and breaches of apprehended violence orders. Reports of sexual assault have also increased, suggesting a greater willingness to report and the profile of victims is becoming younger.
A major child victimisation survey suggests that minors engaging in harmful sexual behaviour towards other minors is more common now than in previous generations. Girls and young women are complaining about their male partners mimicking sexual behaviour from pornography that is unwanted and painful, even if it is not necessarily illegal. Early childhood victimisation for boys and girls increases their risk of perpetration and victimisation respectively, yet therapeutic services for traumatised children are scarce and waitlists are long.
Social norms and attitudes are important drivers of violence (and non-violence), but they do not arise independently of our everyday lives. They reflect our attempts to understand and cope with the society that we find ourselves in: one in which male violence seems natural and inevitable because it is ubiquitous, where industries such as alcohol and pornography are permitted to profit from violence against women, where victimised children and women have to cope with the trauma of abuse because we haven’t committed the resources to their wellbeing and safety.
This is not a perfect analogy but men’s violence is a bit like an infectious disease. If it is not prevented or treated, it tends to spread. Education and public awareness are important but they are not, in themselves, a cure. It is one thing to be told that men’s violence is driven by gender inequality and those inequalities must be rectified by collective action, but if the practical work of prevention and treatment is neglected, while the community struggles under the burden of violence with inadequate investment in safety, healing and recovery, and the problem is exacerbated by predatory industries and harmful systems, then little wonder that we are not making the headway we hoped for.
Where we see positive change happening, it is not at the level of an entire country, state or territory. It is at the level of motivated communities and institutions, where people have banded together to identify local problems and develop innovative solutions, based on the research evidence but also their knowledge of what works in their own context. There is no whole-of-population panacea for violence against women. We need a strategic, coordinated, practical approach that integrates many different responses and listens closely to frontline workers and community members.
Professor Michael Salter is the director of Childlight UNSW in School of Social Sciences at UNSW and an expert in child sexual exploitation and gendered violence
In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org
