National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women and Gender Equality: What do Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders think?

Dr Heather Nancarrow (CEO, ANROWS) and Dr Kyllie Cripps (Faculty of Law, UNSW) are at the Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Prevention Forum in Mackay today to launch the report Attitudes towards violence against women and gender equality among Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders: Findings from the 2017 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS).  This report explores the responses of the 342 NCAS respondents who identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. The report found that most Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders have a good understanding of violence against women, support gender equality and do not endorse attitudes supportive of violence against women.

Respondents to the survey who identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander were asked additional questions relating to their understandings of the causes of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls, and their views on reporting violence to the police. Dr Kyllie Cripps, Pallawa woman and lead author said: “These additional questions were developed with the input of an expert panel. The inclusion of these questions is very important because previously there was no known national survey research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into their views of factors contributing to violence against women and girls.”

Accordingly, this report provides valuable and much needed insight from within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

10th anniversary of Time for Action, the blueprint for the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022

On 10 May ANROWS co-convened a reception at NSW Parliament House together with newly appointed Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, The Hon Mark Speakman, SC MP, NSW Attorney-General and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence. This event marked 10 years since the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (2008-2009) presented Time for Action to then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd; then Minister for Women, Tanya Plibersek; and then Attorney-General, Robert McClelland. Time for Action provided the blueprint for the subsequent Council of Australian Governments’ National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022 (the National Plan), under which ANROWS was founded.

The event began with a moving Welcome to Country given by Yvonne Weldon. Other speakers included Libby Lloyd AM, Chair of the former National Council. Ms Lloyd said: “This is an opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve come, and where we’re going in our efforts to achieve a significant and sustained reduction in rates of violence against women. It is also time to celebrate the passion and commitment of the sector working toward the National Plan goals”.

Minister Speakman said: “We will continue to support ANROWS’s work to drive evidence-based reforms and solutions for some of the most vulnerable people in our community”. Minister Speakman also took the opportunity to reiterate his announcement from earlier in the day that NSW would join Our Watch.

New research & resources

Insight Exchange centres on the expertise of people with lived experiences of violence and gives voice to these experiences. It is designed to inform and strengthen social, service and systemic responses to Domestic and Family Violence. Insight Exchange has been designed by Sightlines Professional Services Division of Domestic Violence Service Management (DVSM), in collaboration with Dr Linda Coates and Dr Allan Wade from Centre for Response-Based Practice Canada.

The Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA) at Durham University (UK) have recently created some videos using the words from participants in the Project Mirabal research on domestic violence perpetrator programmes. The videos are designed to work as ‘men speaking to other men’.

The Empowering Internet Safety Guide for Women – from VPN Mentor
https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/the-empowering-internet-safety-guide-for-women/

Financial abuse: a silent form of domestic violence (podcast) https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/financial-abuse-a-silent-form-of-domestic-violence/11103920

Australia

Primary Prevention Activity and Infrastructure in Victoria: Summary Report

Holder, R. (2019). A cross-national data collaboration of domestic violence specialist courts: a research note. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice. Published online at DOI: 10.1080/01924036.2019.1599971 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01924036.2019.1599971?af=R&journalCode=rcac20

Parkinson, D., & Duncan, A. (2018). Lesbian and bi women’s experience of emergency management. Thornbury, VIC: Gender and Disaster Pod.

Parkinson, D., Duncan, A., & Kaur, J. (2018). Long-term disaster resilience: Vol. 1 Executive summary and recommendations. Thornbury, VIC: Gender and Disaster Pod.

Parkinson, D., Duncan, A., & Kaur, J. (2018). Long-term disaster resilience: Vol. 2 Full report. Thornbury, VIC: Gender and Disaster Pod.

Parkinson, D., Leonard, L., Duncan, A., & Jeffrey, J. (2018). Research project on identifying the experiences and needs of LGBTI communities before, during and after emergencies in Victoria. Thornbury, VIC: Gender and Disaster Pod.

Price, E., Sharman, L. S., Douglas, H. A., Sheeran, N., & Dingle, G. A. (2019). Experiences of Reproductive Coercion in Queensland Women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519846851

Spencer, C., Majeed, S., & McArdle, D. (2018). Long-term disaster resilience: Vol. 3 Literature review. Thornbury, VIC: Gender and Disaster Pod.

Hameed, M. (2019). The tripartite tragedy: Alcohol and other drugs, intimate partner violence and child abuse. Children Australia, 44(1), 32-41. doi:10.1017/cha.2018.52

International

Gezinski, L.B., Gonzalez-Pons, K.M., & Rogers, M.M. (2019). “Praying does not stop his fist from hitting my face”: Religion and intimate partner violence from the perspective of survivors and service providers. Journal of Family Issues. DOI:10.1177/0192513X19830140

Van der Put, C.E., Gubbels, J., & Assink, M. (2019). Predicting domestic violence: A meta-analysis on the predictive validity of risk assessment tools. Aggression and Violence Behavior, 47, 100-16.

Walklate, S., & Hopkins, A. (2019). Real lives and lost lives: Making sense of “locked in” responses to intimate partner homicide. Asian Journal of Criminology. DOI:10.1007/s11417-019-09283-2