Domestic Violence In Australia: Impact And Preventive Measures

HSH725 Research Literacy for Health Practice 3

Understanding the problem

Domestic Violence is a global phenomenon that indicates a continuous pattern of behaviour in which an individual controls another one’s activities through domination, threatening and fear. The association between the two individuals is usually close and intimate, for example, partners or close family members.  The primary aim of the perpetrator is to instil fear in minds of the ones they abuse and to inflict physical and emotional pain in them. Domestic Violence can be of criminal as well as non-criminal nature. It perpetuates in many forms like verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, social, economic and spiritual abuse. The stigma of Domestic Violence aggravates when it remains unattended or is ignored with the excuse of being a private family matter (Woodlock 2017). Consequentially, it takes the form of a long term behaviour and cause serious disruption in the mental health of the victims.

Domestic Violence against an individual, irrespective of their gender and age, not only cause damage to their own mental and physical well-being but also attribute to an everlasting damage in other Family relationships and coerces workplace dynamics. Statistics regarding the prevalence of violence and abuse have exhibited that it is women and children who are mostly at the receiving end of assaults. This have even increased homelessness among women and children. As stated by (White Ribbon, 2018), 33% of women in Australia have been victimized by a close relation or friend; each year, an average of one woman loses her life to domestic violence, one out of every four children have been found in a vulnerable abusive situation. The rationale of this review is to uncover the various context in which domestic violence takes place and to highlight the possible measures by which it can be prevented.

Domestic violence is a widespread notoriety in Australia that even affects the country’s economy accounting for almost $21.7 billion in a year (Berns 2017). The basic issue with preventing the problem lies with the fact that is often treated as a private affair by both the perpetrator and the victim. Hence most cases of domestic abuse often go unreported. Evidence suggest that domestic violence has a strong and positive correlation with the abuser’s drinking habit. In most incidents of Intimate Partner Physical Violence, especially among the Indigenous community, it was observed that an individual’s aggressive nature and low self-control were associated with his over-consumption of alcohol. As mentioned before, domestic violence against women and children have let to poor economic growth for the country because such circumstances act as barriers in their path of advancement and equal involvement in the society.

Different forms of domestic violence

The Indigenous community of Australia comprise of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. As facts collected from the Australian Institute of Health and Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate, the census of domestic violence against indigenous women is comparatively higher than the general population in Australia. Social stressors, overcrowding due to poor housing facilities and low rate of employment serve as the precipitating factors for this unfavourable situation (Fisher 2013). Every year, one out of 7 indigenous women were found to be hospitalised due to domestic violence by a cohabiting partner. There are associated risks of family abuse such as unwanted and premature pregnancies, babies with low immunity and birth-weight, unsafe abortions, and HIV. Long term effects included premature ageing, lack of self-confidence arising from prolonged trauma and chronic stress. Abused women in this community also exhibited fear of living their partners for the sake of their children’s safety and their own financial security. Often she is under severe stress of threat of retaliation from her perpetrator (Herman 2015).

The impact of domestic abuse is not limited to the co-habitating partners. In nine out of ten cases, their children are the direct sufferers of such violence. The foundations of values like trust and respect usually occurs at a young age. If children witness uncivilized and violent behaviour, verbal abuse and disrespect on part of one parent towards another, it deeply gets ingrained into their mind and there is a high probability of them repeating similar incidents in their adulthood (García-Moreno 2015). They fail to learn appropriate coping mechanisms, are usually mal-adjusted in their social and personal needs and develop low resiliency in conflicting environment. High animosity among parents leading to divorce and the subsequent post separation parenting arrangements are not always willingly accepted by the children and these may implant anti-social attributes in their behaviour. Apart from this fact, it has also been observed that children who were victims of physical and verbal abuse themselves have three times more chances of getting victimised by their partner in their adulthood.

A survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Women’s Safety produced data according to which around 36% women reported of being victims to Family Abuse during the course of their pregnancy (Othman, Goddard and Piterman 2014). Pregnant women who separated from their partners owing to violence were more vulnerable of facing abuse from their ex-spouse than those who were married. These facts and figures provide reflection of the lethal nature of divorce or separation itself that intensifies with the woman getting consensually or non-consensually pregnant. Trauma and distress during pregnancy, due to Domestic Violence, often lead to cardiovascular and psychosocial disorders in the child later in their lives.

Prevalence and impact

Reports of violence by Intimate partners are common among heterosexual women who are in heteronormative liaison with heterosexual men. However, individuals of the LGBTQ community experience similar kind of distress from their partners which often go unrecorded due to lack of awareness in the society (O’Brien et al. 2013). The members of this community face primary hindrance about the recognition and acceptance of their preference. In addition to this problem, the administrative authority fail to acknowledge policies for their protection from their abusive partners. The voice of Feminism has offered some amount of assistance to curb the patriarchal structure of the society and notions of inequality that ignores the gravity associated with this issue (Renzetti and Miley 2014).

Conclusion and Recommendations 

To conclude the above review of literature on the impact of domestic abuse in various communities across Australia, it can be stated that Women and Children are the primary victims of this behavioural distortion. However, in certain cases, especially those of LGBTQ, even men were found at the receiving end of Abuse. Women are hindered access to the outer world by their dominating abusive partners which in turn creates barrier in their financial autonomy and overall development. Children tend to suffer more under shared parental care in light of their parent’s Divorce.

Few recommendations that could be suggested as preventive measures against domestic abuse would be:

• Being alert about any direct or indirect sign of abuse from one’s partner.
• Keeping children away in educational facilities in case of frequent occurrence of domestic violence.
• Have courage and conviction to report against such violence.

References

Fisher, C., 2013. Changed and changing gender and family roles and domestic violence in African refugee background communities post-settlement in Perth, Australia. Violence Against Women, 19(7), pp.833-847.

Berns, N.S., 2017. Framing the victim: Domestic violence, media, and social problems. Routledge.

Woodlock, D., 2017. The abuse of technology in domestic violence and stalking. Violence against women, 23(5), pp.584-602.

Othman, S., Goddard, C. and Piterman, L., 2014. Victims’ barriers to discussing domestic violence in clinical consultations: A qualitative enquiry. Journal of interpersonal violence, 29(8), pp.1497-1513.

White Ribbon. (2018). Prevent Men’s Violence Against Women | White Ribbon Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.whiteribbon.org.au/ [Accessed 10 Aug. 2018].

García-Moreno, C., Zimmerman, C., Morris-Gehring, A., Heise, L., Amin, A., Abrahams, N., Montoya, O., Bhate-Deosthali, P., Kilonzo, N. and Watts, C., 2015. Addressing violence against women: a call to action. The Lancet, 385(9978), pp.1685-1695.

O’Brien, K.L., Cohen, L., Pooley, J.A. and Taylor, M.F., 2013. Lifting the domestic violence cloak of silence: Resilient Australian women’s reflected memories of their childhood experiences of witnessing domestic violence. Journal of Family Violence, 28(1), pp.95-108.

Renzetti, C.M. and Miley, C.H., 2014. Violence in gay and lesbian domestic partnerships. Routledge.

Herman, J.L., 2015. Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence–from domestic abuse to political terror. Hachette UK.