Why comprehensive approaches are essential to ending family and gender-based violence

by Tania Farha, CEO, Safe and Equal

Before we discuss the effectiveness of different approaches to preventing and stopping violence, it’s important to note that the official statistics quoted are just the tip of the iceberg. For many years, the family violence-related deaths of women, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, have either not been recognised or counted consistently. The true numbers are much higher. There is also little recognition of injury and disability that is so often the result of this violence. These include acquired brain injury, early onset dementia, and substance abuse, some of which result from coercion or medication. Children are being subjected to years of suffering and trauma, affecting them for the rest of their lives and in some cases, perpetuating the cycle of violence as they become adults. The number of children killed and injured by perpetrators of family violence are also undercounted. The harm is endless, and often intergenerational.

So, what is the best way to stop this? As a peak body, Safe and Equal works across the continuum of family violence from primary prevention to early intervention, to response and recovery. We know these pillars do not operate in siloes and we must work across all areas at the same time. We work from the evidence base built over years of research from local and international experience and best practice. Unfortunately, there is no single best way to stop or prevent family violence. A comprehensive approach is the only way, starting at primary prevention, all the way through to recovery from violence. This comprehensive approach forms the basis of every United Nations resolution and outcome on violence against women and gender-based violence.

Primary prevention aims to stop this violence from happening in the first place. This means using the evidence base to address the drivers, including gendered drivers, that lead to individuals believing that the use of violence is okay. These attitudes and beliefs are reinforced by societal institutions and systems that support the perpetuation of violent behaviour against women and gender-diverse people. When it comes to gender-based violence, in almost every culture across the world, it is mainly men hurting women and children or those that don’t conform to the rigid gender stereotypes that define our societies. Gender remains a defining factor in this form of violence. This does not mean that there aren’t other things that influence these attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, agism and ablism amongst other forms of oppression, all impact and increase this experience of gender-based violence.

Violent behaviour is also exacerbated by other factors, including the excessive consumption of alcohol. We have also seen the rise of harmful online pornography and other factors. Whilst these other factors aren’t necessarily the key drivers behind violent behaviour, it is critical that we recognise and address them. In most cases, people don’t hurt or kill women, children or gender diverse people just because they’ve had too much to drink. The attitudes and beliefs that underlie gender-based violence are already entrenched in these people. The consequences of all these factors, however, can significantly impact the nature and severity of violence or perpetuate the attitudes and beliefs that underpin it, so it is important to look at ways to mitigate these impacts.

Just as there is more than one driver of violence against women and gender-based violence, there is more than one way to grapple with the drivers of that violence. The evidence base for primary prevention of violence against women, Change the Story, works across many of these issues and recognition of this is certainly embedded in community based and community led prevention programs. It recognises that we must work across government, organisations, and individuals. Working with workplaces, educational environments, and the places people socialise, is critical to changing social norms.

Primary prevention is vital if we are to build a society that is free of family and gender-based violence. But sadly, because we do not live in a violence free society, primary prevention alone is not enough. Social change of this magnitude takes a long time – and we know this because we have seen it happen with smoking and road safety. We know from these examples, however, that you must remain diligent and focused, or you can lose ground. These areas continue to receive heavy investment and yet we have seen the health impacts of vaping replace smoking, and road fatalities rise recently to the highest they have been for a while.

Primary prevention of gender-based violence does not receive the same amount of funding as these issues, particularly community led and grassroots based prevention programs. We need more investment to ensure we can continue our efforts to stop it from happening at all, but given we have to deal with the violence in the here and now, we also need more and better early intervention efforts. We need to identify the risks of violent behaviour as early as possible and prevent it from escalating. We need family and friends to recognise signs of family violence and know where their local services are. We need to give people the tools to have safe conversations with those they think are at risk and help them get the support they need. Many people are caught in a generational cycle of violence and do not know that they have the right to live free from this violence.

Universal services like health and education are accessed by almost everyone in Australia. Workers in these industries must be able to identify and refer people who appear to be at risk to appropriate support services. We need more extensive support for children experiencing family violence, not only to keep them safe, but to address the trauma of their experiences. This helps them to live healthy and fulfilling lives and plays a vital role in breaking the inter-generational cycle of violence, helping to ensure that they don’t become caught in this cycle. Supports for children and young people are not adequate and nor are they sustained. Often children receive short-term assistance with services which are not funded or resourced adequately to provide an ongoing response to any victim survivor.

We need more sustainable and holistic funding for the frontline specialist services that work with survivors of all ages. We need them to be funded for crisis, response and formal recovery support – this means support to rebuild survivors’ lives after violence with dignity, to reduce the risk of social isolation and poverty, and to ensure they are not at risk of future violence. Specialist family violence, sexual violence and legal frontline services, including those that are community led, are saving lives everyday – they can stop violence escalating and they can prevent death and further harm.

We need more effective perpetrator interventions. We need to better understand what is effective in engaging men and others using violence to change their behaviour. This work is both complex and nuanced – one approach does not suit all. We know that for many complex reasons, the justice system will not be the only solution for these individuals but where police and the justice system are appropriate, then they must be fair and trauma-informed for victim survivors. We need the family court to better understand the dynamics of family violence and place the safety of victim survivors and their children as the primary factor when making decisions in relation to separation – one of the most dangerous and high-risk times for victim survivors of family violence.

Which approach work best? All of them, everywhere and all the time. If we only focus on one thing, we will miss the opportunity to intervene at all points along the spectrum. This is not acceptable. We should stop trying to work out which is the more effective approach, because we know that they are all effective in different circumstances and contexts. We must work together to make sure all aspects are funded at a larger scale and supported by all levels of Government. This must be done in a consistent way across the country. Simultaneously, it should be done in a way that allows the opportunity for different community-led organisations to work within their communities to ensure the outcomes we are looking for are realised in a way that works for them. Everyone who works in this space – academics, practitioners, victim survivors, commentators and other experts, all have important things to say. Only through collective knowledge, collaboration and respectful discussions can we get where we need to, to stop this from happening. Nothing about this is simple or quick but it does require us to harness our collective knowledge, expertise and influence and to work together! At Safe and Equal, and we celebrate and invite collaboration.