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Submission to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee’s Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality One in Three Campaign PO Box 1292, Bondi Junction NSW 1355 T 02 8006 1IN3 (02 8006 1463) E info@oneinthree.com.au W oneinthree.com.au Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign Table of Contents ABOUT THE ONE IN THREE CAMPAIGN INTRODUCTION Executive summary TERMS OF REFERENCE 3 3 3 5 a. the role of gender inequality in all spheres of life in contributing to the preva- lence of domestic violence 5 Comprehensive review of international research does not ﬁnd gender inequality is a risk factor for 5 partner violence Gender inequality is important, but not a major risk factor Gender inequality within relationships The impact of gender inequality in domestic violence service provision Domestic violence against children 7 7 8 10 b. the role of gender stereotypes in contributing to cultural conditions which support domestic violence, including, but not limited to, messages conveyed to children and young people in: i. the marketing of toys and other products, ii.
edu- 11 cation, and iii.entertainment The role of gender stereotypes in supporting domestic violence against men Gender stereotypes held by young people about domestic violence RECOMMENDATIONS CONCLUSION 11 11 12 13 Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 2 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign Submission to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee’s Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality ABOUT THE ONE IN THREE CAMPAIGN One in Three is a diverse group of male and female professionals – academics, researchers, social workers, psychologists, counsellors, lawyers, health promotion workers, trainers and survivor/advocates.
The Campaign aims to raise public awareness of the existence and needs of male victims of family violence and abuse; to work with government and non- government services alike to provide assistance to everyone affected by family violence; and to reduce the incidence and impacts of family violence on Australian men, women and children.

You can ﬁnd out more about the Campaign by reading our 5 Year Report1 released in March 2015.
INTRODUCTION We welcome this opportunity to provide input into the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality.

Domestic violence is a serious and deeply entrenched problem in Australia.

It has signiﬁcant impacts upon the lives of men, women and children.

It knows no boundaries of gender, geography, socio- economic status, age, ability, sexual preference, culture, race or religion.
Thankfully reducing family violence against women and children has been ﬁrmly on the agendas of government for many years.

Now is the time to move to the next, more sophisticated stage of tackling the problem: recognising men as victims as well.

Executive summary 1.

A comprehensive literature review demonstrates the risk factors that contribute to the prevalence of domestic violence.

Gender stereotypes and gender inequality are not present.
Taxpayer resources would be better spent addressing the risk factors for domestic violence and exploring solutions that have been proven to make a real reduction in prevalence rates.

“She reduced me to a state of total powerless- ness.

I couldn't function as a husband, as a father.

I did everything she wanted and got abused for it.

The more I gave in to her the more she destroyed me.

I became like a little man just towing the line.

I had to ask permission to go and see a friend.


I was just her slave in the relation- ship.” Nigel 1 http://www.oneinthree.com.au/storage/pdfs/1IN3_5_Year_Report_2015.pdf Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 3 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign 2.

The picture of gender in Australia is not that either men or women fare better overall, but that each gender has its areas that need improvement.
Governments need to work hard to ensure that all Australians, whether born male, female or intersex, have the opportunity to live happy, healthy, productive lives, and to fulﬁl their potential.

3.

Research shows that the vast majority of relationships involve equal power between partners.

Relationships in which one partner is dominant are in the minority, and are just as likely to be female-dominant as male-dominant.

4.
4.

By reducing the existing gender inequality in service provision for victims of domestic and family violence, as recommended by all major recent inquiries, governments will reduce the prevalence of domestic violence.

“I’ve put myself in my own prison because I don’t want to have any interaction with society any more.

I feel too vile, too dirty, because the mainstream of society says this kind of behav- iour from a woman is OK” 5.
We are concerned that supporting a position that gender inequality Kevin contributes to the prevalence of domestic violence may overlook the fact that women are the greatest family violence risk to children, and is likely to prevent addressing of this issue to increase the safety of children.

6.

Gender stereotypes about men (that they should be tough and strong) prevent many male victims from disclosing their abuse because of the challenges such disclosure brings to their sense of manhood.

7.
7.

Existing attitudes by young people to both violence against women and violence against men need to be improved.

Any campaigns targeting children and young people should be presented in a gender-neutral fashion with the aim of encouraging respectful relationships whether young people are male, female or intersex, straight or gay.
Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 4 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign TERMS OF REFERENCE a.
The role of gender inequality in all spheres of life in contributing to the prevalence of domestic violence Comprehensive review of international research does not ﬁnd gender inequality is a risk factor for partner violence In March, 2010, the Senior Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Partner Abuse recruited family violence scholars from the United States, Canada and the UK to conduct an extensive and thorough review of the empirical literature, in 17 broad topic areas.
Researchers were asked to conduct a formal search for published, peer- reviewed studies through standard, widely-used search programs, and then catalogue and summarise all known research studies relevant to each major topic and its sub-topics.

In the interest of thoroughness and transparency, the researchers agreed to summarise all quantitative studies published in peer- reviewed journals after 1990, as well as any major studies published prior to that time, and to clearly specify exclusion criteria.
Included studies were organised in extended tables, each table containing summaries of studies relevant to its particular sub-topic.

“I was petrified to come home from work and would see her car in the drive and have to drive away and sit for an hour or so by myself to pre- pare for the likely barrage to come.

I lived in terror walking on eggshells around her for nigh on 20 years.
I attempted suicide a number of times.” Dan In this unprecedented undertaking – the Partner Abuse State of Knowledge Project (PASK) – a total of 42 scholars and 70 research assistants at 20 universities and research institutions spent two years or more researching their topics and writing the results.

Approximately 12,000 studies were considered and more than 1,700 were summarised and organised into tables.
The 17 manuscripts, which provide a review of ﬁndings on each of the topics, for a total of 2,657 pages, appear in 5 consecutive special issues of Partner Abuse published between April, 2012 and April, 2013.

All conclusions are based strictly on the data collected.

One section of the PASK project involved a systematic review of risk factors for intimate partner violence in the USA.
It found the following2: • Certain demographic risk factors are predictive of intimate partner violence (IPV): younger age, low income/unemployment, and minority group membership • There are low to moderate correlations between childhood-of-origin exposure to abuse and IPV • Protective factors against dating violence include: positive, involved parenting during adolescence, encouragement of nonviolent behaviour, and supportive peers • Negative peer involvement is predictive of teen dating violence • Conduct disorder/anti-social personality are risk factors for IPV 2 Capaldi, DM, Knoble, NB, Shortt, JW and Kim, HK, A Systematic Review of Risk Factors for Intimate Partner Violence, Partner Abuse, Volume 3, Number 2, April 2012, pp.
231-280(50).
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/springer/pa/2012/00000003/00000002/art00005;jsessionid=14dgz0pacq44s.alice Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 5 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign • There is a weak association between depression and IPV, and it is strongest for female perpetration • There is a weak association overall between alcohol and IPV, but a stronger association for drug use • Alcohol use is more strongly associated with female-perpetrated than male- perpetrated IPV • Married couples are at lower risk than dating couples, while separated women are the most vulnerable • Low relationship satisfaction and high conﬂict are predictive of IPV, especially high conﬂict • With few exceptions, the risk factors for IPV are the same for men and women (exceptions being the higher risk for women’s perpetration of IPV associated with internalising problems and alcohol use).
“Poor dad.

I had seen him walking naked in the back yard at night all up- set and embarrassed; and I had seen him crawl- ing under the bed to escape her vicious attacks, and I have seen him nursing his fresh wounds in the toilet, and he would say no word against her.” Son talking about parents Another section of the project examined partner abuse in ethnic minority and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender populations of the USA3.
If found that: • Risk factors for ethnic minority partner violence include: substance abuse, low socio-economic status, and violence exposure and victimisation in childhood • Risk factors for LGBT groups include discrimination and internalised homophobia.

A third section of the PASK analysis looked at partner abuse in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Europe4.
It found that: • The most common risk factors for partner violence worldwide have also been found to be signiﬁcant risk factors in the USA and other English-speaking industrialised nations • Most often cited are the risk factors related to low household income and victim/perpetrator unemployment (n=36).

An almost equally high number of studies (n=35) reported the victim’s low education level.

Alcohol and substance abuse by the perpetrator was a risk factor in 26 studies.
Family of origin abuse, whether directly experienced or witnessed, was cited in 18 studies.

Victim’s younger age was also a major risk factor, mentioned in 17 studies, and perpetrator’s low education level was mentioned in 16 studies.

This comprehensive review of the literature demonstrates the risk factors that contribute to the prevalence of domestic violence.

Gender stereotypes and gender inequality are not present.
The evidence for gender stereotypes and gender inequality being contributors to the prevalence of domestic violence appears to be weak and highly contested.

We believe the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee would best use taxpayer resources by addressing the proven risk factors for domestic violence and exploring solutions that have been proven to make a real reduction in prevalence rates.
3 West, CM, Partner Abuse in Ethnic Minority and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations, Partner Abuse, Volume 3, Number 3, July 2012, pp.

336-357(22).

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/springer/pa/2012/00000003/00000003/art00003 4 Esquivel-Santoveña, EE, Lambert, TL., Hamel, J, Partner Abuse Worldwide, Partner Abuse, Volume 4, Number 1, January 2013, pp.

6- 75(70).
6- 75(70).

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/springer/pa/2013/00000004/00000001/art00002 Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 6 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign Gender inequality is important, but not a major risk factor The most recent Gender Indicators report 5 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (Feb 2016) was published with a media release titled “Gender equality – are we there yet?”.
It found that when it comes to gender equality, statistics continue to diverge over gender lines.

There are many areas in which men fare better than women, for example, representation in business and government leadership roles, average wage earnings, certain health conditions (psychological distress, long term health conditions), feeling rushed or pressed for time, and rates of sexual assault.
However there are just as many areas in which women fare better than men, for example, Year 12 and bachelor degree completion rates, education participation rates, life expectancy, overall death rates; deaths from cancer, Ischaemic heart disease, suicide, motor vehicle accidents and drugs; work-related injuries, illnesses and deaths; rates of smoking and risky alcohol consumption, obesity, victimisation from robbery and violence, and imprisonment.
The picture of gender in Australia is not that either men or women fare better overall, but that each gender has its areas that need improvement.

We need to work hard to ensure that all Australians, whether born male, female or intersex, have the opportunity to live happy, healthy, productive lives, and to fulﬁl their potential.

This means actively addressing all areas in which one sex fares better than the other.
Unfortunately we sometimes do the opposite: research funding for men’s health is currently a quarter of funding for women’s health despite men’s poorer health status6; and the ABS Personal Safety Survey interviews almost four times as many women as men7, despite men being the main victims of violence 8.
What we don’t need is more action in just the areas in which women fare worse than men (driven by the ‘excuse’ of domestic violence prevention), while the areas in which men fare worse are ignored or dismissed as “men’s own fault”.

Gender inequality within relationships If gender inequality in any sphere of life was to contribute to the prevalence of domestic violence, it would be gender inequality within relationships.
Fortunately, empirical research on American couples has found that the vast majority of relationships involve equal power between partners.

Relationships in which one partner is dominant are in the minority, and are just as likely to be female-dominant as male-dominant9.

We have been unable to ﬁnd comparable research carried out in Australia, but there is no reason to believe Australian relationships would be any different to those on the other side of the Paciﬁc.
5 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 4125.0 - Gender Indicators, Australia, Feb 2016, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4125.0 6 Dunlevy, S, Cornish, L and Scarr, L, Men die earlier but women's health gets four times more funding, http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/men-die-earlier-but-womens-health-gets-four-times-more-funding/story-fneuzlbd-1226794504245 7 Finance and Public Administration References Committee, Domestic violence in Australia, August 2015, The Senate: Canberra.

p36.
p36.

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Finance_and_Public_Administration/Domestic_Violence/Report 8 Finance and Public Administration References Committee, Domestic violence in Australia, August 2015, The Senate: Canberra.

p35.

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Finance_and_Public_Administration/Domestic_Violence/Report 9 Medeiros, R. A., & Straus, M. A.

(2006).
(2006).

Risk factors for physical violence between dating partners: Implications for gender-inclusive pre- vention and treatment of family violence.

In J. Hamel, & T. Nicholls (Eds.

), Family approaches to domestic violence: A practioners guide to gender-inclusive research and treatment.

(pp.

59-85).
Springer Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 7 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign The impact of gender inequality in domestic violence service provision All the major recent government inquiries into domestic violence have acknowledged both the existence and needs of male victims of domestic and family violence, and the lack of existing services to assist these men and boys, recommending that governments do more to provide such services.
The NSW Government Legislative Council’s Standing Committee on Social Issues’ 2012 report on Domestic violence trends and issues in NSW10 found that, “Of [reported] victims of domestic assault in 2010, 69.2% were female, while 30.8% were male.” (p.28) “Male victims have been much less visible and able to access supports than should be the case” (p.xxiv) [We recognise] “the gap in services for male victims and “Almost everything I did that wasn’t done with her constituted a threat to her.
By the end of the re- lationship I had no friends.

I had no outside activities.

I had nothing, because everything that I was interested in, every friendship I had, threat- ened her.

She would make things so difficult for my friends that they just drifted away.” [encourage] the government to examine how services can Scott most appropriately be provided to male victims of domestic violence” (p.xxxii).
The Finance and Public Administration References Committee’s 2015 report into Domestic violence in Australia11 found that, “In the twelve months to March 2014, 69 per cent of victims of domestic violence-related assaults in NSW were women.
There were 21,664 female victims compared to 9,925 male victims” (p.40) “The committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government recognise the need to provide appropriate services to male victims of domestic and family violence” (p.xi) The Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence’s 2016 report12 found that, “Over the ﬁve years from July 2009, the proportion of male victims has increased and in 2013-14 male victims made up 31% (n=5,052) of total victims of family violence” (p.89) “the family violence system needs to respond better to male victims of family violence” (p.211) “Any response should be suﬃciently ﬂexible to meet the needs of male victims” (p.212) “The [Victims Support] Agency and all other relevant support services should develop joint arrangements to ensure that male victims of family violence are supported in obtaining the help they need [within two years]” (p.212) 10 Standing Committee on Social Issues, Domestic violence trends and issues in NSW, August 2012.
Standing Committee on Social Issues: Sydney.

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/2340ACAD17F1E8C4CA257A6700149EFD 11 Finance and Public Administration References Committee, Domestic violence in Australia, August 2015, The Senate: Canberra.

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Finance_and_Public_Administration/Domestic_Violence/Report 12 State of Victoria, Royal Commission into Family Violence: Summary and recommendations, Parl Paper No 132 (2014–16).
http://ﬁles.rcfv.com.au/Reports/RCFV_Full_Report_Interactive.pdf Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 8 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign Many barriers to male victims disclosing their abuse are created or ampliﬁed by the lack of public acknowledgement that males can also be victims of family violence, the lack of appropriate services for male victims and their children, and the lack of appropriate help available for male victims from existing services 13.
Many men and their children are living in situations of domestic and family violence, but without services to: • help them escape from or seek protection from the perpetrator • seek help for the perpetrator’s violent and/or abusive behaviour • keep them safe and assisted through the often daunting court process • be screened for domestic and family violence by health services • help them in a wide range of other ways.

While some generic (not male-speciﬁc or male-friendly) support is available to men (e.g.
police, Lifeline), such services are often unaware of the issues faced by male victims and unable to offer effective and appropriate help.

While individual workers within generic services might be aware of the issues, they often face workplace cultures and systems that aren’t supportive.

Some generic services do not believe male victims, minimise their experiences or blame them for the abuse.
For example, the Common Risk Assessment Framework14 used by many key family violence service providers, advises them to refer male victims of domestic violence to a male perpetrator service and their female (ex)partner to a women’s family violence service, thus assuming the male victim is actually a perpetrator and endangering his safety by alerting the female perpetrator to his actions.

In order to address these issues, the One in Three Campaign recommends: 1.
That government-funded public awareness campaigns be conducted to raise awareness of domestic and family violence against men.

Such campaigns need to be very carefully designed so as to complement campaigns about family violence against women and children and not to damage the effectiveness of those campaigns.

2.

Consideration should be given to providing publicly-funded services speciﬁcally for male victims of domestic and family violence 3.
Consideration should be given to how services for male victims of domestic and family violence can be integrated with services for female victims and general services for victims of family violence in all its forms.

It is likely that some types of service can be effectively integrated while others will need to be gender- speciﬁc.

4.

Workers in the broader health and welfare ﬁelds should be provided with training to assist them to respond effectively to male victims of domestic and family violence.
In particular, these workers need training in how to dismantle the barriers to men disclosing their abuse and strengthening the factors that facilitate men’s disclosure of their abuse.

13 Tilbrook, E., Allan, A., & Dear, G. (2010).

Intimate partner abuse of men.

Men's Advisory Network: East Perth.
http://www.oneinthree.com.au/storage/pdfs/ECU_Final_Report.pdf 14 Department of Human Services, Family Violence Risk Assessment and Risk Management Framework and Practice Guides 1-3, 2nd Edi- tion April 2012, pp 40-41. http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_ﬁle/0010/718858/1_family_violence_risk-assessment_risk_management_framework_manual_ 010612.PDF Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 9 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign If Government and NGO community awareness and education campaigns were to start including male victims and female perpetrators in a meaningful way, more male victims would begin to identify what they and their children are experiencing as domestic and family violence, and be aware of the pathways to ﬁnding help.
If appropriate services and community awareness campaigns were to be made available, more male victims would begin to: • understand the need to seek help • know how and where to seek help • know there was somewhere to escape to • feel they would be believed and understood • know their experiences wouldn’t be downplayed or minimised • be conﬁdent they wouldn’t be blamed for the perpetrator’s behaviour • know they would receive appropriate and compassionate help from properly trained professionals • know the perpetrator would receive appropriate help to stop their violent and abusive behaviour • be conﬁdent they wouldn’t be arrested on the basis of their sex, and • be reassured that their children wouldn’t be left alone with the perpetrator.
If this were to happen, the cycle of violence would begin to be broken, and rates of domestic violence would decrease.

Domestic violence against children The 2015 Children’s Rights Report15 by the National Children’s Commissioner found that children comprised the second most frequent group of victims of family and domestic homicides after intimate partner homicides (quoting data from the Australian Institute of Criminology’s National Homicide Monitoring Program for the 10 years from 2002-2012).
Over half (52%) of all family violence child murders were perpetrated by women.

These ﬁgures do not include more recent murders such as the eight children stabbed in Cairns by their mother/aunt, which would raise this percentage signiﬁcantly.

In 1997, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 16 made a decision not to publish data indicating the gender of child abuse perpetrators.

No such data has been published since.


The action was taken just one year after the ﬁgures were ﬁrst published in 1996 (968 men and 1138 women).

It has taken an FOI request to all states and territories (only the WA Government complied) to obtain more recent data: mothers once again made up the vast majority of reported child abusers in WA in 2007-08 17.
The One in Three Campaign is concerned that supporting a position that gender inequality contributes to the prevalence of domestic violence may overlook the fact that women are the greatest family violence risk to children, and is likely to prevent any addressing of this issue to increase the safety of children.

15 Australian Human Rights Commission, Children’s Rights Report 2015, Australian Human Rights Commission: Canberra, pp104-5.
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/childrens-rights/publications/childrens-rights-report-2015 16 Broadbent, A, and Bentley, B (1997), Child abuse and neglect Australia 1995–96, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare: Canberra.
http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=6442455160 17 Ward, K, Department for Child Protection Western Australia, Relationship to Child of Persons Believed Responsible for Substantiated Maltreatment 2007-08. http://www.oneinthree.com.au/storage/pdfs/WA_Child_Protection_Statistics.pdf Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 10 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign b.
The role of gender stereotypes in contributing to cultural conditions which support domestic violence, including, but not limited to, messages conveyed to children and young people in: i. the marketing of toys and other products, ii.

education, and iii.entertainment The role of gender stereotypes in supporting domestic violence against men We as a society have a deep psychological resistance to perceiving men as victims of (especially female-perpetrated) domestic and family violence.
We want to believe that men are tough, strong, able to defend themselves, able to protect us, resilient, resourceful, able to look after themselves without asking for help, able to ‘take it on the chin’, to ‘man up’.

Admitting that men can be victims of domestic and family violence threatens this deeply held and cherished view of masculinity.
Therefore we say ‘he must have done something to deserve it’, or ‘he must really be a perpetrator’, or ‘why doesn’t he just leave?’ Many male victims face barriers to disclosing their abuse because of the challenges such disclosure brings to their sense of manhood18: • They can feel a deep sense of shame and embarrassment for ‘allowing themselves’ to be a victim of domestic abuse • They can be held back by the strong social stigma against ‘real men’ being victims of domestic abuse • They can feel emasculated by their inability to protect themselves from violence and abuse in the home, and the loss of independence that comes as a result • They can fear being laughed at or ridiculed, or being called ‘weak’ or ‘wimpy’ if they do summon up the courage to come forward and seek help (often with good reason) • They can experience disbelief (“I’m a man - how can this be happening to me?”), denial (“I’m a man, this can’t be domestic violence”), or make excuses for the abuse (“If only I hasn’t said that to her/him, she/he wouldn’t have hit me”).
Recommendation No.1 on page 9 of this submission would help challenge these gender stereotypes and encourage more male victims to come forward.

Gender stereotypes held by young people about domestic violence The most recent Australian population survey on young people and domestic violence is Young people and domestic violence – national research on young people’s attitudes to and experiences of domestic violence19.
Published in 2001 by the National Crime Prevention division of the Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department and the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, the national research involved a quantitative survey of 5000 young Australians aged between 12 18 Tilbrook, E., Allan, A., & Dear, G. (2010).

Intimate partner abuse of men.

Men's Advisory Network: East Perth.

http://www.oneinthree.com.au/storage/pdfs/ECU_Final_Report.pdf 19 National Crime Prevention.

(2001).
(2001).

Young people and domestic violence: National research on young people's attitudes to and experi- ences of domestic violence.

Attorney-General's Dept: Barton.


http://www.oneinthree.com.au/storage/pdfs/Young_People_and_Domestic_Violence_-_full_report.pdf Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 11 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign and 20, and in-depth discussions with special groups, namely homeless youth, victims of domestic violence, and youth from different ethnic backgrounds.
This is the largest sample of young people ever surveyed about their experience of and attitudes towards domestic violence in Australia or, most likely, the world.

Unfortunately this study has not been replicated since.

Looking at the attitudes of young people to domestic violence, the National Crime Prevention study found that while some young people held unacceptable attitudes to violence against women, many more held unacceptable attitudes to violence against men.
Unacceptable attitudes about violence against women: • 11% agree “If a guy hits a girl he loves because he is jealous, it shows how much he feels for her” • 8% agree “It’s okay for a boy to make a girl have sex, if she’s ﬂirted with him, or led him on” • 5% agree “It’s alright for a guy to hit his girlfriend if she makes him look stupid in front of his mates” • 10% agree “It’s okay for a guy to put pressure on a girl to have sex but not to physically force her” Unacceptable attitudes about violence against men: • 25% agree “When a girl hits a guy, it’s really not a big deal” • Young people are more likely to say a woman is right to, or has good reason to, respond to a situation by hitting (68%), than a man in the same situation (49%) • Female to male violence was not only viewed light-heartedly, it was also seen as (virtually) acceptable • There was no spontaneous recognition that verbal abuse or a female hitting her boyfriend could also constitute dating violence.
However these were among the prevalent forms of violence occurring.

Attitudes by young people to both violence against women and violence against men need to be improved.

It it critical that any Government or NGO education campaigns targeting children and young people are presented in a gender-neutral fashion with the aim of encouraging respectful relationships whether young people are male, female or intersex, straight or gay.
To target only violence against women would end up reinforcing the dangerous gender stereotypes already held by many young people that violence by females against males is acceptable or can be justiﬁed.

RECOMMENDATIONS 1.

That government funded public awareness campaigns be conducted to raise awareness of domestic and family violence against men.
Such campaigns need to be very carefully designed so as to complement campaigns about family violence against women and children and not to damage the effectiveness of those campaigns.

2.

Consideration should be given to providing publicly-funded services speciﬁcally for male victims of domestic and family violence 3.
Consideration should be given to how services for male victims of domestic and family violence can be integrated with services for female victims and general services for victims of family violence in all its forms.

It is likely that some types of service can be effectively integrated while others will need to be gender- speciﬁc.

4.

Workers in the broader health and welfare ﬁelds should be provided with training to assist them to respond effectively to male victims of domestic and family violence.
In particular, these workers need training in how to dismantle the barriers to men disclosing their abuse and strengthening the factors that facilitate men’s disclosure of their abuse.

Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 12 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30 One in Three Campaign CONCLUSION On behalf of all male victims of family violence and abuse, we hope the Committee gives serious consideration to this submission.
We encourage the Federal Government to implement our recommendations to provide better support for male victims of domestic and family violence in line with the recommendations of all recent major Australian inquiries and Royal Commissions, while at the same time increasing assistance for female victims.

Thank you once again for the opportunity to provide input into this inquiry.
Greg Andresen Senior Researcher 31st March 2016 Submission to the Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Gender Inequality Page 13 of 13 Domestic violence and gender inequalitySubmission 30