What Are the Perceptions of Domestic Violence Amongst Individuals Who Live in Western Sydney?

Prior to the 1800’s, the majority of legal systems regarded ‘wife beating’ as a way in which a husband could assert his dominance and authority over his wife. Within the 1970’s, attention to domestic violence began with the woman’s movement, principally through the introduction of feminism and women’s rights. In recent years however, the way domestic violence is viewed has changed. Previously, domestic violence only occurred within marriage, predominantly against wives and therefore formalised through the use of a marriage contract. Within modern society, domestic violence can now refer to

For the purposes of this paper, the definition of family violence provided in the Queensland Family Violence Protection Act 2012 is utilised. According to the Act, family violence is behaviour that controls or dominates a family member in any way, and causes them to feel fear for their own, or another family member’s, safety or wellbeing. It can include physical, sexual, psychological,

Out of the shadows and into the limelight, the once hidden crime of domestic violence has recently emerged within the Australian community as a widespread criminal issue. This abuse of power occurs in a relationship when one partner attempts to physically or psychologically dominate and control the other. Inflicting physical harm upon another human being is undoubtedly a breach of the criminal law, yet the Australian legal system takes little measures to protect the wider community from this type of violence. According to Family Lawyer Richard Ingleby, domestic violence has often been condoned by the legal system due to the fact that assaults occur in the ‘private’ realm of the home where legal measures are regarded as inappropriate, and interventionist. However, by overlooking domestic violence as a criminal offence, does the Australian legal system fail to adequately protect the family unit from this form of violence? Recent studies from the Australian Bureau of Statics have revealed that 23% of women who have ever been married or engaged in a de facto relationship have experienced violence by a partner at some time during the relationship. Due to the secrecy that once surrounded this kind of abuse, victims often feel unable to speak out and seek help, therefore even large surveys cannot provide accurate estimates of the extend of domestic violence within the Australia community (Domestic Violence and Incest Resource Centre, 1998). Despite the high incidence rate of

Domestic Violence is a major issue in Australia right now and many believe that there are not enough resources to help domestic violence victims. 25% of women report being affected by domestic violence in their lifetimes and yet there is still not much being done. One of the main reasons women stays in the home where they are experiencing domestic abuse is because they do not feel safe leaving their home. Domestic violence victims are being turned away from refuges and being sent to motels and caravan parks, the refuges instead take in homeless people.

Domestic violence is a growing concern in Australia. Police handled more than 3,000 domestic violence matters in just one suburb of Brisbane in the past 12 months and for the whole of Queensland, handled another 25,000 matters.

Walter (1969) gave a comprehensive definition of violence as “destructive harm including not only physical assaults that damage the body, but also techniques of inflicting harm by mental or emotional means” (p. 24). However, in the context of intimate relationships, the definition of violence requires more aspects to be determined. The basic questions to be asked when defining domestic violence proposed by Hegarty, Sheehan, and Schonfeld (1999) in their article A Multidimensional Definition of Partner Abuse are 1) which relationships should be included as domestic? And 2) how should violence in domestic life be defined? To answer these questions, Hegarty et al. said that it is important to choose the appropriate definition that is most relevant to the purpose of the studies. Dutton (2006) defined domestic violence in his book Rethinking Domestic Violence as “any violence occurring between intimate partners (same sex or other sex, married or unmarried) and against children” (p. 3), but further said that he will only focus on intimate

Domestic Violence is a major issue in today's rapidly changing society. Domestic Violence falls under the banner of Family law, which controls acts to do with family and marriage. This presentation will help to develop a clearer understanding of Domestic Violence and make evaluations and recommendations in determining the changes in the law necessary in today's society.

Information regarding the prevalence of domestic violence in Australia prior to passage of the Queensland Domestic Violence (Family Protection) Act (DV Act) in 1989 was limited to phone surveys and selected populations (Mugford,

Domestic violence has in recent years emerged as a mainstream legal and social issue in Australia. Recent cases such as the death of Luke Batty, at the hands of his father have attracted media attention and put the issue on the forefront for many politicians and important public figures. In Australia, domestic violence is the most prevalent form of violence experienced by women, a woman is more likely to be assaulted in her home by a male partner than anywhere or anyone else (Dunkley & Phillips , 2015). Furthermore adolescents living with domestic violence are at great risk of experiencing emotional, physical and sexual abuse (Stephens, 2015). Domestic violence also

Domestic violence refers to the aggressive or the violent behaviors which happen within the intimate relationships and occur in domestic setting. Domestic violence entails sexual, physical, psychological and emotional abuse. According to the data from the Child Protection services, approximately fifteen percent of the children in New Zealand are born at risk of abuse and more than eighty thousand children witness domestic violence on a yearly basis (Shanahan, 2011). As

Domestic violence is a serious problem that can happen to anyone, anywhere. It takes a significant impact on an individual and their community. This type of violence is very common amongst households, just under half a million Australian women physical or sexual violence/assault in 12 months.

Domestic violence is one of the most common forms of violence against women in Australia. Stats taken from the victimisation crime survey suggest that over 240,000 Australian adult women have been and currently are being physically assaulted each year. Nearly one-third

1) What is Domestic violence? According to http://www.stopvaw.org/what_is_domestic_violence2 domestic violence is a pattern of abusive and threatening behaviours that may include physical, emotional, sexual violence. The purpose of domestic violence is to establish and apply power and control over another. Domestic violence is that it’s clearly an act of anger or frustration that someone has either physically or mentally used against someone or thing. From past knowledge I have identified that 80% of women (worldwide) are the victims to Domestic violence and the Men are predominantly the accusers. As in New Zealand we have a moderate amount of crimes committed and 25% of them are abuse. 84% of men are arrested for domestic violence 16% are women.

Domestic violence is an issue close to my heart. Being born and raised in country Victoria, I know too well the barriers those victims of violence face from rural areas when trying to access support services (Davis, Taylor, & Furniss, 2001). There exists a notion that domestic violence is only physical. This is wrong as there as several forms of domestic violence. Domestic violence is defined as coercive control by one partner against the other using emotional, sexual and physically abusive behaviors to ensure power control (Hart,

When thinking of domestic violence, majority of people believe that it means the most obvious kinds of abuse such as murder, rape, physical abuse and sexual abuse. However, the definition of domestic abuse is much broader than that. It also includes being controlled and threatened, unequal gene roles, sexist comments and jokes, sexualisation (of women particularly) and also the use of degrading languages. Unfortunately however, society tends to seem blind to the fact that all of these actions play a critically negative part in domestic abuse. This then considerably affects interpersonal relationships as the thought of supremacy can be seen as ‘normal’.