4. Attitudes to violence against women
The NCAS asked respondents their attitudes towards violence against women, broken down into five themes:
- excusing the perpetrator and hold women responsible;
- minimising violence against women;
- mistrusting women’s reports of violence;
- condone male peer relations involving aggression and disrespect towards women; and
- disregarding the need to gain consent.
The majority of Australians reject attitudes supportive of violence against women, and there is there is clear public support for intervention policies enabling violent partners to be removed from the home.
Few Australians believe that women are lying about sexual violence just because they don’t report straight away.
2 in 5 Australians believe that women make up false reports of sexual assault in order to punish men.
Too many Australians are willing to excuse violence as part of a ‘normal’ gender dynamic in a relationship.
1 in 5 Australians believe domestic violence is a normal reaction to stress, and that sometimes a woman can make a man so angry he hits her without meaning to.
1 in 8 believe that if a woman is raped while she is drunk or affected by drugs she is at least partly responsible.
1 in 3 Australians believe that if a woman does not leave her abusive partner then she is responsible for the violence continuing.
Nearly 1 in 5 Australians do not believe financial control is a serious problem.
Many Australians hold attitudes suggesting that sexual aggression can be attributed in part to men’s ‘natural sex drive’.
GO TO CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH PEOPLE JUSTIFY NON-CONSENSUAL SEX
Download the NCAS summary report
The National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women and Gender Equality Survey
