WUNRN
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-05/domestic-violence-reaches-epidemic-proportions/5426214 -
May 6, 2014
AUSTRALIA DOMESTIC VIOLENCE OF
EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS
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Victoria, a state in south-east of Australia,
is its second most populous state overall. The capital and largest city of
Victoria is Melbourne.
AUSTRALIA - DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
IS LEADING CONTRIBUTOR TO ILL HEALTH & EARLY DEATH FOR VICTORIA WOMEN 15-45
May
20, 2014 - What is the leading contributor to early death and ill health for
Victorian women in the prime of their life? Car accidents, perhaps? Breast
cancer? Melanoma? No. Here is something that might shock you out of suburban
complacency. That leading contributor to death and long-term poor health among
women aged 15 to 45 is violence in the home or within an intimate relationship.
Women are bashed and
murdered by men whom they trusted and loved. In every suburb in every city.
They are abused and intimidated and fear for their lives if they dare to report
the crime. Many people fail even to recognise it as a crime. Generation after
generation has suffered, but only recently has our community grasped the
appalling cost in lives lost or dreadfully damaged.
Here are the facts. The
overwhelming number of perpetrators of domestic violence are men. The
overwhelming number of victims are women. Tragically, children are often direct
targets of rage and frustration in the family environment and too many suffer
long-term psychological damage by witnessing parental violence. The contexts of
domestic violence differ from one instance to another, but perpetrators take
their cues from skewed attitudes they have observed personally or perhaps seen
elsewhere in our community about the respective roles of men and women. Their
actions stem from wrong-headed presumptions that men are entitled to control,
and that women and children are subordinates.
We know the causes and
societal contexts of domestic violence but we tend to adopt a defeatist
attitude. We must stop casting our eyes down and pretending it is not
happening.
There is an element in
all this that politicians too readily ignore. Funding. Community Services
Minister Mary Wooldridge has promised that an extra $4.5 million will be spent
to protect women at high risk of domestic violence, but those who assist
victims say another $16 million is needed just in this sub-sector alone.
Much more is needed to
expand the capacity and geographical reach of programs aimed at changing the
behaviour of men. And much more again is needed to fund Victoria's police, who
are called to respond to hundreds of domestic violence incidents each week, and
to fund the justice system, which is struggling to deal with tens of thousands
of applications for family violence intervention orders each year. About
one-third of such orders are breached.
Opposition Leader Daniel
Andrews has promised that, if Labor wins government in November, he will set up
a royal commission on family violence. That is a step forward and is welcomed
by The Age, but millions of dollars should not be wasted raking over
old ground. Instead, an inquiry should examine the deficiencies in the existing
system and how it can be improved to world's best practice.
We need to understand how
the best violence-prevention and behavioural-change programs work, and we need
governments to fund them properly. We need better co-ordination between the
disparate agencies that already deal with domestic violence issues, and we must
ensure such services are readily available in Victoria's regional areas as well
as in Melbourne.
Attitudes towards women
are slowly changing, thanks in part to enlightened men who publicly denounce
violence and champion equality in all forms. But as a community we do not do
anywhere near enough to prevent family violence and we are not entirely competent
dealing with its aftermath. Each of us needs to wake up to the dark secret that
is destroying families in Australia. We need to become informed about what can
and must be done. We need to be brave and to report violent and threatening
behaviour so that we can try to protect the most vulnerable among us.
Governments boast about
billions of dollars they might spend on new roads, railways or ports. If they
could peel off $1 billion to repair broken families, it would surely make a
mountain of difference to our world.
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