A submission to the Senate Inquiry into Domestic Violence in Australia “I think the sad part is the way husband abuse is treated at the moment is exactly the way wife abuse was treated thirty years ago” Dr Sotirios Sarantakos1 The Inquiry’s Terms of Reference My submission addresses the nature and adequacy of policy and community responses to domestic violence. I also wish to submit the following comments in relation to the Inquiry’s terms of reference: Points six and seven of the terms of reference limit consideration of certain matters to their impact on women only: the effects of policy decisions regarding housing, legal services, and women‘s economic independence on the ability of women to escape domestic violence; how the Federal Government can best support, contribute to and drive the social, cultural and behavioural shifts required to eliminate violence against women and their children I disagree with this limitation given the substantial number of men who are also victims of domestic violence, and who face the same or similar issues as do female victims. That this restriction was considered appropriate reflects the existence of gender bias and outdated notions of gender stereotyping, viz. there are now for example substantial numbers of house-husbands who may be financially reliant on a working partner. I also object to the use of the phrase “violence against women and their children”. Firstly, it should be recognized that children generally have two parents and they are not the property of one or the other. Neither should it be assumed that one particular parent is more competent to look after the children than the other, based purely on their gender. Secondly, when men are victims of domestic violence, it is often the case that the female partner is also abusing or may potentially also abuse children in the household. In such cases the male partner may be forced to leave the home and take the children with him for their safety. Clarification and disclaimer Domestic violence (DV) is comprised of man-on-man, woman-on-woman, man-on-women, and woman-on-man violence. The current debate about DV, and the community’s response to it, focuses almost entirely on man-on-woman violence. 1 http://mensrights.com.au/domestic-family-violence/violent-women/ I believe that such a focus more closely reflects the prevailing ideology within the DV sector, rather than actual patterns of perpetration. The continued existence of this disparity constitutes a significant barrier to effectively dealing with domestic violence and related issues of concern. I believe that a solution to the problem of domestic violence will continue to elude us as long as we continue to only recognise and address one piece of the puzzle. Further, the current narrow focus on male-on-female violence generates or accentuates additional problems that I will touch on in this submission. Those who have previously advanced this perspective have been accused of seeking to ameliorate the behavior of male perpetrators and/or to downplay the suffering experienced by female victims. Be advised that this is most certainly not my intention. From my research regarding the subject of DV, I am well aware of the highly defensive and oftentimes aggressive response directed towards those who question the ‘DV=men’s violence towards women’ model. This pattern of threatening behavior, shaming and abuse is nothing new, and dates back to the experience of Erin Pizzey in Britain in the 1970’s.2 It is for this reason, and out of concern for the welfare of my family, that I have chosen to put forward this submission on a confidential basis. Much of the data about patterns of domestic violence that appears in the media and in the web sites of DV agencies is misleading The starting point of any discussion about domestic violence must be accurate assessment of the nature and extent of the problem. In my view many of the statistics being circulated in discussions about DV are inaccurate or at the very least, highly misleading. This is unfortunate as suitable data, albeit imperfect or incomplete in some regards, is available for those who genuinely seek it. From this one might well conclude that misleading statistics are at times being deliberately advanced in order to support a particular ideological perspective that is held by many, if not most, working in the field of DV. A red flag for astute observers is the absence of comparative statistics for men and boys within much of the literature about domestic violence.3 In some cases this is because men were not surveyed, or in other cases survey instruments were biased and/or did not ask appropriate questions about female perpetration and male victims. In other cases the relevant comparisons were available but were not reported, presumably as doing so would undermine the predetermined narrative. For me to provide details concerning the debunking of these widely cited yet misleading ‘findings’, and to provide accurate statistics in their place, would substantially increase the length and complexity of this submission. What I will do instead is provide a series of links to relevant online 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Pizzey 3 http://www.fighting4fair.com/misrepresenting-reality/gender-bias-at-the-australian-department-of-social- services/ sources within the body of this submission where the Committee may readily access the relevant information. The view that is put forward by most within the DV sector is that this preoccupation with male violence is justified because the number of female perpetrators is almost insignificant – that female perpetrators are almost an aberration. When provided with irrefutable statistics showing gender symmetry (or near symmetry) in rates of perpetration, the fall-back position is typically that females only perpetrate violence in self-defence, that the physical violence they perpetrate is less severe, and/or that the impact of DV is greater for women than men. The first statement is demonstrably false4 and the subsequent statements demand careful qualification and interpretation. The US organization ‘Stop Abusive and Violent Environments’ (SAVE) examined DV research results from around the world and noted that “These studies show that rates of female perpetration are very similar to male perpetration rates. The authors conclude, Results of this review suggest that partner abuse can no longer be conceived as merely a gender problem, but also (and perhaps primarily) as a human and relational problem, and should be framed as such by everyone involved. These conclusions mirror findings in the United States, where research shows men and women initiate most forms of abuse at equal rates, for similar reasons, and rarely in self-defense.” 5 4 See for example http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/Dutton_GenderParadigmInDV-Pt1.pdf, See p687 5 http://www.saveservices.org/dvlp/policy-briefings/partner-abuse-worldwide/ I would invite members of the Committee to review the following references: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsgeDrlRQWc (Donald Dutton) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KgBVedec_0 http://www.reddit.com/r/mensrightslinks/comments/y0mnx/dvipc_summary/ Intimate partner abuse of men (Edith Cowan University, 2010) at http://www.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/178297/10_Tilbrook_Final-Report.pdf http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/V71-Straus_Thirty-Years-Denying-Evidence-PV_10.pdf http://www.fact.on.ca/Info/dom/heady99.pdf ‘Domestic Violence in Australia – Are men and women equally violent?’ http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/V74-gender-symmetry-with-gramham-Kevan-Method%208-.pdf http://newscastmedia.com/domestic-violence.htm http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=12153&page=0 http://reason.com/archives/2014/02/22/are-domestic-violence-statistics-bogus http://www.familylawexpress.com.au/family-law-news/research/family-violence- research/domestic-violence-study-suspended-by-unsw-for-breach-of-ethics/2165/ http://time.com/#2921491/hope-solo-women-violence/ http://www.avoiceformen.com/women/working-with-violent-women/ (Erin Pizzey) These and further references can be found at http://www.fighting4fair.com/misrepresenting- reality/domestic-violence-one-sided-media-coverage-and-bogus-statistics/ Consider also the trend of increasing violence by women and girls generally The claim that women are rarely responsible for domestic violence becomes all the more implausible when one considers recent trends showing substantial increases in violent crime by women and girls. Such increases also exceed the trend in similar crimes by males. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/violent-crimes-committed-by-teenage-girls-have-surged-in- nsw/story-e6freuy9-1226239405809?nk=5f0a5e0064e7e26d5416acaf028e02d8 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/girls-get-violent-1345290.html http://www.theage.com.au/national/girls-at-war-the-new-face-of-violence-20090815-elsm.html http://www.news.com.au/national/arrests-of-women-in-nsw-are-rising-and-now-at-a-faster-rate- than-men/story-fncynjr2-1226937589292 http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/conferences/evaluation/gelb.pdf These and further references can be found at http://www.fighting4fair.com/women-behaving- badly/on-the-recent-increase-in-violent-crime-carried-out-by-women-and-girls/ How and why is the current focus on men’s violence towards women a problem? Firstly it is a problem because this focus is reflected in language and in statements that paint a picture of all men as abusers or potential abusers. Web site content, even to promote help-lines, is written in such a way as to pre-judge visitors based on their gender. I will provide a link to one such site in a footnote, but the agency in question by no means unusual in this regard.6 The material posted online in most Australian federal, state, and NGO web sites dealing with DV is assiduously judgmental and anti-male in its nature.