tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/attitudes-to-violence-12382/articlesAttitudes to violence – The Conversation2015-11-13T00:37:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/506022015-11-13T00:37:17Z2015-11-13T00:37:17ZChange the story: how the world’s first national framework can help prevent violence against women<p>In Australia, one woman is killed almost every week by a <a href="http://anrows.org.au/sites/default/files/Violence-Against-Australian-Women-Key-Statistics.pdf">current or former partner</a>. By now, these horrifying murders are all too familiar. But they are just a small part of the bigger story. </p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands more women are physically and psychologically harmed by men’s violence, threats and controlling behaviour. Many suffer long-term trauma and harm to their health, well-being and life chances. Many live in fear.</p>
<p>But violence against women is not inevitable. Rather, it is driven by a series of complex and entrenched but changeable <a href="http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/violence/primaryprev/en/">social and environmental factors</a>.</p>
<p>In other words, violence against women is preventable. We can change this story. A new framework shows how. </p>
<p>The world’s first national <a href="http://www.ourwatch.org.au/getmedia/1462998c-c32b-4772-ad02-cbf359e0d8e6/Change-the-story-framework-prevent-violence-women-children.pdf.aspx">framework</a> to focus on preventing violence against women was <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/natasha-stott-despoja-launches-world-first-framework-to-address-domestic-violence-20151109-gkuwp8.html">launched</a> this week. Change the Story: A shared framework for the primary prevention of violence against women and their children in Australia was developed by <a href="http://www.ourwatch.org.au/">Our Watch</a>, the <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/">Victorian Health Promotion Foundation</a> and <a href="http://anrows.org.au/">Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Change the Story aims to prevent violence against women, a campaign that begins with tackling gender inequality.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>What is the framework based on?</h2>
<p>Change the Story draws upon the latest international evidence on what drives violence against women and what works to prevent it. Its development included consultations with over 400 stakeholders across Australia. It uses this research and practice expertise to demonstrate how, by working together, we can create an Australia where women live free from violence.</p>
<p>Although violence against women has no single cause, Change the Story points to substantial evidence that higher levels of violence against women are consistently associated with lower levels of gender equality in both public life and personal relationships. For example, a <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(15)00013-3/fulltext?rss=yes">major study</a> found that higher gender inequality predicted higher levels of intimate partner violence across 44 countries.</p>
<p>Within this broader context, Change the Story identifies four specific, gendered drivers of this violence:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>condoning violence, particularly by excusing or trivialising it, or “blaming the victim”;</p></li>
<li><p>men’s control of decision-making, and limits to women’s independence in public life and relationships;</p></li>
<li><p>rigid gender roles and stereotyped constructions of masculinity and femininity; and</p></li>
<li><p>male peer relations that emphasise aggression and disrespect towards women.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>To illustrate the last two, there is a particularly clear relationship between violence and the dominant, aggressive and controlling characteristics associated with stereotypical ideas of masculinity, which are expressed in some male peer relations. In Australia, <a href="http://anrows.org.au/publications/horizons/PSS">95% of victims</a>, women and men, experience violence from a male perpetrator.</p>
<h2>We can’t ignore the bigger picture</h2>
<p>The framework makes it clear we can’t just focus on the violence itself; we must change the bigger story behind it. We must challenge the social, political and economic structures, practices and systems that created gender inequality, and the beliefs, attitudes and behaviours that continue to support and normalise it. </p>
<p>Change the Story outlines a range of supporting actions that can be taken to address various “reinforcing factors”. These range from alcohol used in ways that weaken people’s positive behaviours, to exposure to, or normalisation and valorisation of, other kinds of violence in society.</p>
<p>The framework provides evidence-based guidance to government, organisations and communities. It outlines a strategic approach to achieve effective leadership, co-ordination, resourcing and support for violence-prevention efforts across Australia.</p>
<p>It calls for complementary initiatives that engage people throughout their lives and where they live, work, learn, socialise and play. These include schools and other education institutions, sporting, social and leisure spaces, workplaces, the media, popular culture, advertising and entertainment, faith-based contexts and transport and public spaces.</p>
<h2>What practical steps can be taken?</h2>
<p>Change the Story points out that prevention activities should reinforce each other. For example, best-practice respectful relationships education programs involve the whole school. These engage not just students, but teachers, staff and the wider school community in conversations about gender equality, respect and non-violence.</p>
<p>School activities can then be reinforced by other programs, such as through sporting clubs or social media. Similarly, adults should be engaged in multiple ways – in workplaces, communities and social spaces. Our media, popular culture, policy and legislation should all support and reinforce the aim of gender equality.</p>
<p>This kind of consistent, comprehensive approach, which reaches and engages everyone, is needed to prevent violence against women in Australia. </p>
<p>At the same time, a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to be effective; prevention must be tailored to the diverse contexts of people’s lives. Greater effort and resources are required for groups affected by multiple forms of discrimination and disadvantage, or experiencing the cumulative impact of many negative factors – for example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.</p>
<p>Small steps can make a big difference. If we reduced the prevalence of intimate partner violence in Australia (affecting 27% of women across their lifetime) to that of Denmark (22%), this small reduction <a href="http://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30020085/magnus-reducingdiseaserisk-2009.pdf">would prevent</a> 6000 cases of violence-related injury, illness and disability. It would also save many millions of dollars in health sector and productivity costs. </p>
<p>With Change the Story, 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.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article has been co-authored by Dr Emma Partridge, Co-ordinator, National Framework to Prevent Violence Against Women and their Children, at Our Watch, and Dr Lara Fergus, Director, Policy and Evaluation, at Our Watch.</em></p>
<p><em>The National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault. Or you can go online to <a href="http://www.1800RESPECT.org.au">1800RESPECT</a> and <a href="http://www.ourwatch.org.au/">Our Watch</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50602/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anastasia Powell receives funding from the Australian Research Council, and was a member of the National Technical Advisory Group for 'Change the Story: A shared framework for the primary prevention of violence against women and their children in Australia'. </span></em></p>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.Anastasia Powell, Senior Lecturer, Justice and Legal Studies, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/318772014-09-19T16:37:01Z2014-09-19T16:37:01ZWe’re all to blame when American football stars turn violent off the field<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59468/original/yczj3rrj-1411061153.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Celebrating violence on, and condoning it off the field.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/2759868691/in/photolist-5cT3NX-6RmnyB-6Rke8n-icMEQh-6M8ZSj-5aRQ8q-6M4PWe-5dMufL-6RkPC4-5bGoBR-5cXsrm-5cXsgG-6RpoHS-6RkYUx-6RkwrK-6Rq6Qb-6RpsFs-5cXpid-6RqqNY-6RLYtD-5dH8Gk-6RRiwC-b53U22-5dMtRy-6RRhJ1-oYFEZw-6RAGuf">Keith Allison</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As yet another NFL player stands accused of <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2202494-jonathan-dwyer-arrested-for-domestic-violence-latest-details-comments-and-more">domestic violence</a>, it is beginning to look as though the sport is riddled with wife-beaters and child-abusers.</p>
<p>By apparently sweeping such behaviour under the rug and not engaging in thorough investigations as they have claimed to do, NFL officials are, in effect, complicit in that violence and abuse. This is the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/09/jerry-sandusky-sentenced-child-abuse">Penn State</a> scandal all over again on a larger scale.</p>
<p>But it’s not just the NFL or the players who are to blame. These acts of violence reflect a national system that allows young men to grow up without checks on their behaviour. </p>
<p>The Penn State case, which saw college football coach Jerry Sandusky jailed for a minimum of 30 years for abusing boys, caused an eruption of public outrage. The public backlash from the domestic violence cases that have emerged in recent weeks is even more pervasive. It reflects the fact that these were not localised examples of moral corruption. </p>
<p>They have happened across the US: in <a href="http://deadspin.com/ravens-release-ray-rice-1632042601/+dodai">Maryland</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/minnesota-vikings-bans-adrian-peterson">Minnesota</a>, <a href="http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/09/greg_hardy_convicted_of_domest.html">North Carolina</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/01/sports/football/49ers-ray-mcdonald-is-arrested-on-felony-domestic-violence-charges.html?_r=0">California</a>, and now <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/17/us/nfl-jonathan-dwyer-alleged-domestic-violence/">Arizona</a>, as part of a beloved national institution. The perpetrators are people who are supposed to represent what is best about us and our cities.</p>
<p>The revelation that the men we celebrate as heroes for their athletic accomplishments engage in violent acts away from the field makes many of us queasy. Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Jonathan Dwyer are supposed to be role models for our children. They entertain us and make us happy and proud. They are emblematic of what we hold to be most dear in our lives. They embody what it is to be an American. This scandal reveals the hideous, stomach-churning underbelly of the enthralling spectacle we so cherish. But really, should we expect anything more from them?</p>
<p>Football players who behave violently off the field are exhibiting behaviour they have learned since childhood. I am not saying that they come from violent homes. That would not be an excuse and it would be too easy and too simplistic an explanation.</p>
<p>These young men learn that violence is acceptable behaviour from a young age by playing football. They learned that their athletic violence was laudable, admirable and cherished. As teenagers, their violence on the field of play raises their social standing in their school and community to the point that when some commit violent acts away from the field of play – acts that would otherwise be socially unacceptable, if not outright illegal – those actions are blithely ignored or made to go away. </p>
<p>Because they are “star athletes”, these players are special and cannot be held to the same standards as the rest of us. Their ability to be violent was a vital aspect of what made them who they are as a person and they are celebrated for being that kind of man. It is how they are taught to relate to one another. It is what we, as Americans, want them to be.</p>
<p>The exposure of these reprehensible acts certainly evokes disgust and revulsion. Yet it is not the acts of domestic violence and child abuse themselves, as ugly as they are, that has generated the public outcry. All too sadly these kinds of violence go unremarked upon every day.</p>
<p>What generates even greater revulsion is the apparent disregard and utter moral failure of football authorities to uphold the law and moral codes of society. But again, how could we expect otherwise? The pattern of NFL officials to <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/nfl-controversy/still-playing-12-nfl-players-have-domestic-violence-arrests-n204831">casually dismiss</a> socially repugnant behaviour and even illegal acts is merely a continuation of what is done for football players as soon as they show talent. Institutional authorities, from high schools to universities, tacitly condone their behaviour as long as they are successful on the field.</p>
<p>Child abuse and domestic violence are unspeakable, reprehensible acts that have no forgiveness in the American moral value system. They are acts that victimise the weak and the vulnerable. They are, in short, un-American.</p>
<p>We can indignantly chastise those who enable such acts but ultimately, we have to look hard at ourselves in the mirror before we do. We have to come to grips with what we are now being shown. It has always been there. We just chose to ignore it.</p>
<p>What really makes us feel sick is the moral contradiction: the men who perform the acts we celebrate under the bright lights of a football stadium are the same men who perform other acts that we would denigrate and punish away from the spotlight. The thought that we are all complicit fuels our revulsion and consequently our denial.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31877/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas F Carter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As yet another NFL player stands accused of domestic violence, it is beginning to look as though the sport is riddled with wife-beaters and child-abusers. By apparently sweeping such behaviour under the…Thomas F Carter, Principal Lecturer, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/317502014-09-17T00:36:32Z2014-09-17T00:36:32ZRape culture: why our community attitudes to sexual violence matter<p>Results from the National Community Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women (NCAS) 2013 Survey have been released today by <a href="http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/">VicHealth</a>, and there is reason to be concerned about Australians’ attitudes to rape and violence. A surprising proportion of Australians endorse attitudes that minimise and trivialise rape. Many apportion blame to the victim while excusing the actions of perpetrators. </p>
<p>The findings reflect heightened concerns globally over the extent of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/rape-culture">rape culture</a> - widely held societal norms and attitudes that condone, normalise or minimise sexual violence against women in our communities. Such attitudes play a key role in shaping the way that individuals, organisations and communities respond to sexual violence. The NCAS results show that Australia, like many other countries, has a real problem.</p>
<h2>Key survey findings</h2>
<p>While overall the <a href="http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/Publications/Freedom-from-violence/2013-National-Community-Attitudes-towards-Violence-Against-Women-Survey.aspx">NCAS findings</a> showed stability in many areas, some key attitudes regarding sexual violence had worsened since the survey was last run in 2009. </p>
<p>Fewer Australians agreed that women are more likely to be raped by someone they know than a stranger in 2013 (64%) than in 2009 (70%) and 1995 (76%). More of us agreed that rape results from men being unable to control their need for sex in 2013 (43%) than in 2009 (35%). Together these findings show a decline in community understandings of the nature and causes of sexual violence. </p>
<p>One in six in our community agreed with the deplorable notion that women say “no” when they mean “yes”. One in ten endorsed the view that if a woman doesn’t physically resist, even if protesting verbally, then it isn’t really rape. Slightly more (12%) agreed that if a woman goes to a room alone with a man at a party, it is her fault if she is raped. </p>
<p>Perhaps most concerning is that more than one in three (38%) Australians holds the attitude that a lot of times women who say they were raped had led the man on and later had regrets.</p>
<p>These results reveal a very poor understanding of sexual consent among a sizeable minority of the Australian community.</p>
<p>Younger people aged 16 to 25 generally had poorer attitudes about sexual assault. This is particularly alarming since this age group is also over-represented among both <a href="http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/644152/StudyofReportedRapes.pdf">victims and perpetrators</a>. With as many <a href="http://www.anrows.org.au/sites/default/files/Violence-Against-Australian-Women-Key-Statistics.pdf">as one in five</a> women experiencing sexual violence since the age of 15, there can be no doubt that Australia has a long way to go to overcome this problem.</p>
<h2>Why culture matters</h2>
<p>Too often when people talk about culture and sexual violence, they think of problems “out there” in the world. It is comforting, perhaps, to criticise other nations for their attitudes towards women and to tell ourselves that in Australia women are treated equally and with respect. </p>
<p>But rape culture and its impacts are a global problem and the NCAS survey results show that Australia is not immune. </p>
<p>In a culture that minimises, trivialises or excuses sexual violence - and shifts responsibility away from perpetrators and onto victims - individuals, organisations and communities are less likely to respond. When attitudes condoning sexual violence are common, some men are more likely to feel it is okay to behave disrespectfully or even violently. We as a community are less likely to take action to intervene, or to support a victim.</p>
<p>In a culture that fails to take rape seriously, victims feel afraid to seek help. They are unsure of what kind of response they are going to receive from friends, family and institutions like police and courts.</p>
<p>Yet sexual violence and the attitudes that condone it are not character faults in individuals; they are learned. If we want to change attitudes we need to change our culture and the influences that shape it. This involves the way we raise boys and girls, the way men’s and women’s relationships are shown in media and popular culture, and the position our leaders take on this issue. </p>
<p>Much important work remains to be done to tackle, and ultimately prevent, sexual violence in Australia. We have to challenge rape culture at its source. This means addressing gender inequality as well as the attitudes and behaviours that minimise, trivialise or excuse sexual violence. </p>
<p>We can start with early education with young people, delivering programs that teach <a href="http://www.dss.gov.au/women/news/2011/national-plan-to-reduce-violence-against-women-and-their-children-respectful-relationships-round-three">respectful relationships</a> and <a href="http://www.sexandethics.net/">sexual ethics</a> as the basis for consent. Individuals can <a href="http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/Publications/Freedom-from-violence/Bystander-Research-Project.aspx">take a stand</a> against gender inequality and its everyday occurrences - whether it’s sexism, harassment or violence against women. Organisations and workplaces have an important role in acting on <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/ending-workplace-sexual-harassment-resource-small-medium-and-large-employers">sexual harassment and discrimination</a>.</p>
<p>State and territory governments and law enforcement must improve <a href="https://theconversation.com/justice-reform-a-better-way-to-deal-with-sexual-assault-19692">justice options</a> for victim-survivors of sexual violence. National leadership and political commitment, through the <a href="http://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/women/programs-services/reducing-violence/the-national-plan-to-reduce-violence-against-women-and-their-children-2010-2022">National Plan To Reduce Violence against Women and Their Children</a> and independent bodies such as <a href="http://www.ourwatch.org.au/">Our Watch</a>, are vital to ensure consistent action. </p>
<p>To prevent sexual violence we must work together to reject inequality and build an Australian culture of respect.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: Anastasia will be on hand for an Author Q&A session between 9:30 and 10:30am tomorrow (September 18). Post any questions about rape culture and sexual violence in the comments below.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31750/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anastasia Powell is a co-author of the National Community Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women Survey report with VicHealth. She receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Results from the National Community Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women (NCAS) 2013 Survey have been released today by VicHealth, and there is reason to be concerned about Australians’ attitudes to…Anastasia Powell, Lecturer, Justice and Legal Studies, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.