The grave impacts of family and domestic violence (FDV) have received much national attention this year, yet our understanding of perpetrators is alarmingly insufficient. The Victorian Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Committee aims to address the astounding gap of data on perpetrators of FDV through their Inquiry into capturing data on family violence perpetrators in Victoria.
On August 12, CSSV Executive Director, Josh Lourensz, joined Jesuit Social Services Executive Director, Community and Systems Impact, Matt Tyler, to address the Committee following submissions made in May this year. Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand also presented at a Committee hearing earlier in August, with other member organisations MacKillop Family Services and McAuley also making their own submissions.
CSSV’s submission to the Inquiry, which was formed after consultation with member organisations, supported efforts to gather information to improve understanding of perpetrators in order to address underlying causes of family and domestic violence. Speaking to the Committee, Josh and Matt highlighted that our society is aware that the number of people, mostly women and children, who have experienced FDV is too high. Their voices, stories and safety are vitally important, and will remain so. However violence, particularly FDV, cannot end if we do not know or understand the people using it. If we could better identify patterns of perpetration, we may better recognise early signs of violence, improve intervention responses, understand what effectively rehabilitates those who want help to stop using violence, and identify the damaging cultural factors that lead to the use of violence against women and children.
Lula Dembele, a survivor and advocate at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, says “there is resistance to framing domestic violence and sexual assault as a perpetrator’s problem as it challenges the social norms of patriarchy… It is easier, and plays into gender stereotypes, to talk about protecting and supporting women as victims than it is to challenge male power. It is easier to feel sorry for and empathy for victims, than it is to look at perpetrators because this requires action – political action.”
A handful of Catholic social service organisations work with perpetrators of violence through behaviour change programs. These people have often come through the criminal justice system or been referred by other services, and have layers of complex issues and disadvantages, from mental ill health to housing insecurity, financial insecurity, substance abuse and trauma. As Josh emphasised to the Committee, these are the people using violence who are known to and exist within the ‘system’. What is absent from conversation – partly due to a lack of data – is that these people who have come into contact with services are likely only a very small percentage of the Australians who use violence.
“The biggest challenge socially… is that perpetrators are often, indeed almost always, people we already know, people we like, and people we love”
Lula Dembele
Jesuit Social Services’ “The Man Box” research found that 28% of respondents surveyed in their anonymous, representative survey of Australian men, self-reported that they had committed at least one act of intimate partner violence. An even higher percentage acknowledged they felt social pressure to conform to aggressive and controlling behaviours towards women.
Shocking as these statistics may be, we must not shy away from setting our minds on the magnitude of violence in Australia. As Lula Dembele poignantly observes, “The biggest challenge socially… is that perpetrators are often, indeed almost always, people we already know, people we like, and people we love.” This stark reality underscores the need to address the long-embedded cultural norms that support dangerous and damaging attitudes towards women. It is, perhaps, the only way we might be able to build a society that not only utterly rejects violence against women, but considers women as equal in all respects in the long term.
Faith communities are not immune
To tackle FDV, we must understand how it exists in our own community. The Anglican Church of Australia’s ground-breaking and courageous research found that Anglican churchgoers have experienced FDV at a higher rate than the general population over a lifetime, and at the same rate within the last year. Their research also found that most people who had experienced FDV did not seek help from Anglican churches.
It is likely that these findings are applicable to other Christian faith denominations. The Royal Commission into Family Violence identified faith communities as “vital settings” for preventing and responding to FDV, but heard that some faith leaders were “uninformed and ill-equipped” to respond to FDV-related disclosures.
Over 1.3 million Victorians identify as Catholic. If we consider the statistics, family and domestic violence is bound to be among us to a significant extent. The Catholic community should be one of support – a place where people can find the information they need to get help and support. It is each of our responsibility to shine a light on the attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate violence against women, and, crucially, to equip our community with the knowledge required to properly address and counter violence.
You can find more information about family and domestic violence and resources for your community here.
The Legislative Legal and Social Issues Committee will release their report on the Inquiry into capturing data on family violence perpetrators in Victoria by 31 March 2025.
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