Australians' Attitudes to Violence Against Women And
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Australians’ attitudes to violence against women and gender equality Findings from the 2017 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS) In partnership with: Australians’ attitudes to violence against women and gender equality Findings from the 2017 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS) In partnership with: Suggested citation Acknowledgement of lived experiences Webster, K., Diemer, K., Honey, N., Mannix, S., Mickle, J., of violence Morgan, J., Parkes, A., Politoff, V., Powell, A., Stubbs, J., & It is also important to acknowledge the lives and Ward, A. (2018). Australians’ attitudes to violence against experiences of the women and children affected by women and gender equality. Findings from the 2017 National domestic violence and sexual assault. Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS) (Research report, 03/2018). Sydney, NSW: Caution: Some people may find parts of this content ANROWS. confronting or distressing. Recommended support services include: 1800 RESPECT – 1800 737 732, Lifeline – 13 11 14 Acknowledgements This material was produced with funding from the Australians’ attitudes to violence against women Australian Government. Australia’s National Research and gender equality. Findings from the 2017 Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) gratefully National Community Attitudes towards Violence acknowledges the financial and other support it has against Women Survey (NCAS) / Kim Webster et al. received from the Government, without which this Sydney, NSW: ANROWS. work would not have been possible. ANROWS led the Pages ; 30 cm. (Research report, 03/2018) project in collaboration with The University of Melbourne I. Women – Violence against – Australia – Public opinion. (UOM), University of New South Wales (UNSW), the Royal II. National Community Attitudes Towards Violence Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT) and Against Women Survey (Australia : 2017). III. Family the Social Research Centre (SRC) as research partners. violence – Australia – Public opinion – Statistics. IV. Gender ANROWS is indebted to all these research partners as mainstreaming – Public opinion – Statistics. well as to the many research, practice and policy experts from across Australia who contributed to the 2017 survey I. Webster, Kim. II. Diemer, Kristin. III. Honey, Nikki. IV. through the project’s advisory structures. Although too Mannix, Samantha. V. Mickle, Justine. numerous to name here, they are listed in Appendix A. VI. Morgan, Jenny. VII. Parkes, Alexandra. VIII. Politoff, Violeta Marticorena. IX. Powell, Anastasia. ANROWS acknowledges the Victorian Health Promotion X. Stubbs, Julie. XI. Ward, Andrew. Foundation (VicHealth) for its consistent support, with John Fulcher and Renee Imbesi making particular ISBN: 978-1-925372-91-5 (print) contributions. Thanks are extended to Dr Stuart Ross and 978-1-925372-90-8 (online) Dr Walter DeKeseredy for their thoughtful review of this report as part of ANROWS peer review processes, and Creative Commons Licence for their helpful suggestions for strengthening it; to Mark Attribution Non-Commercial Richardson for his invaluable contribution and unwavering CC BY-NC 4.0 International generosity and support; and to Holly Windle for her https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 design expertise. Acknowledgement of Country ANROWS acknowledges the traditional owners of the land across Australia on which we work and live. We pay our Please note that there is the potential for minor respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders revisions of this report. Please check the online past, present, and future, and we value Aboriginal and version at http://ncas.anrows.org.au for any amendment. Torres Strait Islander history, culture, and knowledge. The findings and views reported in this paper are those of the authors and cannot be attributed to the Australian Government, or any Australian state or territory government. Contents Project implementation group, research team and peer reviewers .......................................................................................................2 Abbreviations ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................3 About this report ...................................................................................................................................................................................................4 1 Executive summary ......................................................................................................................................................................................5 2 About the National Community Attitudes Survey towards Violence against Women Survey ..............................................17 3 The need for action to reduce and prevent violence against women .........................................................................................18 4 Why measure knowledge, attitudes and intentions? ........................................................................................................................24 5 About the 2017 questionnaire ................................................................................................................................................................31 6 Conducting the NCAS ............................................................................................................................................................................... 36 7 Analysing and reporting the results ......................................................................................................................................................37 8 Benchmarking knowledge and understanding of violence against women ..............................................................................41 9 Benchmarking attitudes towards gender equality ........................................................................................................................... 63 10 Benchmarking attitudes to violence against women ...................................................................................................................... 77 11 Knowledge and attitudes among people and in places.................................................................................................................. 94 12 Knowledge and attitudes in social contexts and occupations ................................................................................................... 100 13 Factors influencing knowledge and attitudes .................................................................................................................................. 108 14 Intended responses to violence against women .............................................................................................................................118 15 Key findings in Australian states and territories ............................................................................................................................. 129 16 Strengths and limitations of the NCAS .............................................................................................................................................. 135 17 Discussion of findings and implications for policy, practice and further research ............................................................... 137 18 References ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 159 19 Appendix A: NCAS expert and advisory group members ............................................................................................................ 180 20 Appendix B: Glossary and terminology ............................................................................................................................................. 182 21 Appendix C: Attitudes to general violence and prejudice: frequencies ................................................................................... 185 Australians’ attitudes to violence against women and gender equality. Findings from the 2017 NCAS 1 Project implementation group, research team and peer reviewers Implementation group (including lead Researchers and project contributors researchers) Professor Jenny Morgan, Melbourne Law School, The Social Research Centre University of Melbourne (co-chair) Ms Alexandra Parkes, Research Consultant Professor Julie Stubbs, Faculty of Law, UNSW, Sydney Mr Andrew Ward, Principal Statistician (co-chair) Dr Kristin Diemer, Senior Research Fellow, Department Australia’s National Research Organisation for of Social Work, The University of Melbourne Women’s Safety Associate Professor Anastasia Powell, Criminology and Ms Violeta Marticorena Politoff, Senior Research Officer Justice Studies, RMIT University Ms Samantha Mannix, Research Officer Dr Nikki Honey, Research Director, Social Research Ms Justine Mickle, Project Officer Centre Dr Kate O’Halloran, Research Officer Ms Kim Webster, Project Manager, Australia's National Ms Nicolette Solomon, Research Officer Research Organisation for Womens Safety and lead Ms Rosie Yasmin, Research Officer author Dr Mayet Costello, (then) Director, Research Program, Peer reviewers Australia’s National Research Organisation