Victoria’s family violence system unintentionally protects male perpetrators by making them invisible and providing opportunities for them to avoid responsibility.
Mainstream family violence services must also become culturally sensitive and responsive so they too can provide services to Indigenous community members.
Children may endure family violence directly, or witness violence perpetrated on others. Both scenarios result in severe adverse effects for children in the short and long term.
Programs that aim to prevent violence against women through gender equality at work are facing opposition from leaders who don’t see it as a workplace issue.
When adult children abuse their parents, feelings of parental love and responsibility coupled with shame and guilt often stop the parent from seeking help and protecting themselves.
Australia is poised to lead the world by demonstrating the kind of nationwide, cultural and structural change necessary to forever change the story of violence against women.
We’ve heard promises to act on domestic violence too often before. But a new Queensland plan offers public accountability measures – which could finally turn rhetoric into real action.
Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence will today hear how the health system can better respond to partner abuse, with the help of trained professionals and broader, government support.
Many public awareness campaigns fail to change attitudes and behaviours because they start from the flawed premise that just telling someone something is bad will make them stop doing it.
The royal commission presents a timely opportunity to greatly improve responses to family violence in Victoria. But as the volume of submissions reveal, this is a task not easily achieved.
Giving people the right to ask about their partner’s history of domestic violence sounds like a good idea – but there are good reasons why Rosie Batty and others have raised concerns.
While the disability system has undergone significant and important reforms over the past three decades, many problems remain. We’re still failing to protect people with disabilities.
Legal requirements for doctors to report family violence to police may sound good at first glance. But evidence shows it’s better doctors are trained to support women to make their own decisions.
Jenny Ostini, University of Southern Queensland and Susan Hopkins, University of Southern Queensland
Technology violence is a term that encompasses all types of harassment and abuse that occurs online and serves to control or intimidate women in particular.
We need to support those who are subjected to family violence – mostly women and children – and this must remain our priority. But we must also intervene at the source of the problem.
Director Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, CI ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women (CEVAW), School of Philosophical, Historical & International Studies (SOPHIS), School of Social Sciences (SOSS), Faculty of Arts, Monash University
Lead Researcher with the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre and Lecturer in Criminology at the Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University