Domestic Violence Working Group/Development

Assertions
Please place all of your policy assertions here. An assertion is a simple statement that you believe to be fact. Subpoints may reinforce or refute the accuracy of the assertion.

Each working group meeting will review each assertion based on the evidence provided, and vote to either agree or disagree with the assertion. This is an iterative process, meaning it will repeat as many times as necessary for creating the policy.

Assertions that are agreed to will become the basis of the policy direction as our understanding of the problem space evolves. Ensure your assertions fit within the boundaries of the Terms of Reference.

'''Note: do not waste time trying to refute a subpoint that someone has provided. Each will be considered on their merit during the next working group meeting.'''

Prevalence of domestic violence

 * 17.8% of people will experience domestic violence in a relationship (physical and/or emotionally abusive relationships); 22.9% of victims are female, 12.1% of victims are male.
 * Eleanor Dal Grande et al, 'Domestic violence in South Australia: a population survey of males and females' (2003) 27(5) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 543, 545. --Mozart (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2015 (AEST)


 * 75.9% of victims will experience domestic violence as a non-isolated incident.
 * Eleanor Dal Grande et al, 'Domestic violence in South Australia: a population survey of males and females' (2003) 27(5) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 543, 545. --Mozart (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2015 (AEST)


 * Prevalence of domestic child abuse is highest amongst single parent families. Combined with the numbers of household types from ABS data, the rates of "substantiated child protection notifications" per household type are about 3 times higher for single-father households and 7 times higher for single-mother households.
 * Child protection Australia report by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Canberra, 2010-2011 --AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 31 May 2015 (AEST)
 * Refer to the table on Page 56 "Table A1.9: Substantiations of notifications received during 2010–11, by type of family in which the child was residing, states and territories"
 * 3236.0 - Household and Family Projections, Australia, 2011 to 2036 -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 31 May 2015 (AEST)
 * Disagree with interpretation of statistics. According to ABS 83% of single parent families women acted as the responsible parent. According to the statistics provided in the original assertion, there were 1,602 cases of notifications of child abuse where the woman was the primary care-giver and 313 cases where men played the same role. The total number of reports from single parent families was 1,915. Proportionally, women were reported in 83.65% of all cases, a mere 0.65% above the rate of men, well within statistical variation. Whilst single parent families are more likely to report incidence of violence against children, there are no differences between a single mother and single father in the rates of reported abuse. --Frew (talk) 08:09, 2 June 2015 (AEST)
 * Disagree with your disagreement: I do like the improved source for counts of the various households, but the numbers you picked up from the DOCS PDF (1,602 and 313 cases) were only from the Victoria column. The country totals were 5,660 (single Mother) and 752 (single Father). With 173,600 single father households, that's 0.43% were reported in 2011. With 818,800 single mother households, that's 0.69% reported, or about 1.7 times higher. If we consider ("Two parent—intact" + "Two parent—step or blended") as collectively matching the ABS category of "Couple families with children", then by comparison, they had (5,449 + 2507) = 7956 substantiated reports over 2,712,300 households or 0.29% were reporting in 2011. Using that as a base, single fathers were 0.43/0.29 = 1.48 times higher and single mothers 0.69/0.29 = 2.38 times higher. -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 31 May 2015 (AEST)
 * A further note from the source DOCS document: "Female single parent families may be over-represented because they are more likely to have low incomes, be financially stressed (Saunders & Adelman 2006) and suffer from social isolation (Loman 2006; Saunders & Adelman 2006). These factors have all been associated with child abuse and neglect (Black et al. 2001; Coohey 1996). However, the data reported here describes the composition of the family within which the child was residing at the time of notification and does not necessarily reflect that the notification related to the residing parent." -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 31 May 2015 (AEST)
 * It would be very interesting to know why the Victoria numbers were so much better and why the Queensland numbers in particular were so much worse. Are they running different policies or services?


 * Rates of "Domestic Assault" as recorded by the NSW police, show strong concentrations in poorer urban regions and even stronger in remote rural regions.
 * NSW Crime Tool. -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 31 May 2015 (AEST)
 * Interactive charting on web page. Select "Domestic Violence" category on left. Pan around Sydney area. Zoom out to view wider state regions.
 * Worst rates around Sydney Metro area are 300-600 per 100,000 people, while areas like the Hills District are down around 147 per 100,000 people.
 * Inner country regions are stable but much higher. e.g. Bourke region at 4096 per 100,000 people. Walgett region at 2456 per 100,000 people.

Changes to Prevalence of Domestic Violence

 * Incidents of "Domestic Assault" as recorded by the NSW police peaked in 2002 and have been relatively flat ever since.
 * NSW Crime Tool. -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 31 May 2015 (AEST)
 * Interactive charting on web page. Select "Domestic Violence" category on left, "Number of years" as 20 on top/left and Choose the "Graphs" tab, top right.
 * Chart shows a stable annual variation of between 26 and 37 per 100,000 continuously since 2002, with peaks in December every year.
 * This suggests that no NSW government policy has had any effect in either reducing or increasing serious domestic violence in NSW.
 * Ancillary: Possible increases to prevalence of DV may not be reflected by these statistics due to under-reporting. "Many crimes which occur are not reported to Police and will therefore not be recorded" From the NSW Dept. Justice, BOCSR, "Cautionary notes about crime data" . This is supported by the ABS's Personal Safety Survey, 2012 where (for victims of current partners) 80% of women and 95% of men had "never contacted the police" from "Actions Taken in Response to Partner Violence"  EmRob (talk) 01:04, 1 June 2015 (AEST)
 * My notes on statistics coding (not in the programming sense) and methodology will have some bearing on fluctuations in numbers. As far as most statisticians are concerned, ten years isn't long enough to say the numbers mean X.  Maybe in fifty or a hundred years, so current use of these numbers is often left to the PR departments, which is generally what will concern a minister ...  -- BenM (talk) 13:07, 1 June 2015 (AEST)
 * Based on: NSW-DV-Trends.jpg,
 * I think it's valid to assume there has been no substantive improvement in the past 12 years. The state polices may have shifted the problems around, but there is no recent overall trend or inflection point to suggest any marked intentional improvement. I suppose that in theory, reporting rates could have increased in direct relation to an equivalent reduction in actual rates, but it seems incredibly unlikely. -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 31 May 2015 (AEST)

Victim attributes (including injuries)

 * Victims are significantly more likely to be from low-income households, be unemployed, experience fair to poor health, and suffer from substance abuses and mental health issues.
 * Eleanor Dal Grande et al, 'Domestic violence in South Australia: a population survey of males and females' (2003) 27(5) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 543, 545. --Mozart (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2015 (AEST)


 * Women are almost twice as likely to experience physical hurt in the context of domestic violence than men (44.9% compared to 23.8%).
 * Eleanor Dal Grande et al, 'Domestic violence in South Australia: a population survey of males and females' (2003) 27(5) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 543, 545. --Mozart (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2015 (AEST)


 * Female victims are only slightly, but not insignificantly, more likely to experience physical injury (91.1% compared to 84.8%).
 * Eleanor Dal Grande et al, 'Domestic violence in South Australia: a population survey of males and females' (2003) 27(5) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 543, 547. --Mozart (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2015 (AEST)


 * Rates of low-level injury (bruising) and medium-level injury (cuts, scratches and burns) are approximately the same for men and women (89.6% for men compared to 91.1% for women and 36.1% for men compared to 36.8% for women respectively), but more severe injuries (broken bones and fractures) are experienced significantly more by female victims (19.9% compared to 0.8%).
 * Eleanor Dal Grande et al, 'Domestic violence in South Australia: a population survey of males and females' (2003) 27(5) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 543, 547. --Mozart (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2015 (AEST)


 * Approximately one in five victims (19.9%) use prescribed medication to cope with domestic violence, but women are significantly more likely to do so than men (25.4% compared to 7.1%), while 15.1% of victims use alcohol or non-prescribed drugs to cope, with men being more likely to do so than women (19.2% compared to 13.3%).
 * Eleanor Dal Grande et al, 'Domestic violence in South Australia: a population survey of males and females' (2003) 27(5) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 543, 547. --Mozart (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2015 (AEST)


 * A significant majority of victims will not contact the police (82%), with men being less likely to do so than women (91.9% compared to 77.4%).
 * Eleanor Dal Grande et al, 'Domestic violence in South Australia: a population survey of males and females' (2003) 27(5) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 543, 547. --Mozart (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2015 (AEST)


 * A significant majority of victims will not contact non-health services (72.4%), with men being less likely to do so than women (81.6% compared to 68.5%).
 * Eleanor Dal Grande et al, 'Domestic violence in South Australia: a population survey of males and females' (2003) 27(5) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 543, 547. --Mozart (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2015 (AEST)


 * A significant majority of victims will not contact health services (72.1%), with men and women being equally unlikely to do so (73.9% compared to 71.3%).
 * Eleanor Dal Grande et al, 'Domestic violence in South Australia: a population survey of males and females' (2003) 27(5) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 543, 547. --Mozart (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2015 (AEST)


 * The main reasons for not contacting police, non-health or health services are that the victims feel they do not want or need help, the incident was too minor, too much time had elapsed, or lack of awareness of health services.
 * Eleanor Dal Grande et al, 'Domestic violence in South Australia: a population survey of males and females' (2003) 27(5) Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 543, 547. --Mozart (talk) 11:32, 23 May 2015 (AEST)


 * The Male/Female DV victim ratio of around 1 in 3 (shown in ABS data and Mozart's South Australian reference above), persists up to the severity level of homicide.
 * Australian Bureau of Statistics; 4906.0 - Personal Safety, Australia, 2012 - EXPERIENCE OF PARTNER VIOLENCE
 * Statistics from the PSS: 16.9% of women and 5.3% of men, since the age of 15, have experienced at least one act of partner violence. That is, for every one man, at least three women have experienced partner violence, or a ratio of 1:3 (men:women) or that 1 in 4 victims are men. Additionally, this means that roughly 1 in 20 men and 1 in 6 women experienced partner violence at least once since turning 15. This statistic does not confer number of incidents nor sex of perpetrator. Persons who recorded both a current and a previous partner are not counted doubly in the totals used in these points. "Prevalence of Partner Violence", Table C, ABS, EmRob (talk) 23:22, 1 June 2015 (AEST)
 * The 1/4 men, 3/4 women ratios you cite, are based on the averaged current+previous partner data. If you look at previous partner violence alone, there would be 1/5 men, 4/5 women ratios, but based on current partners, it's 1/3 men (@ 1.4%), 2/3 women (@ 2.7%). I'm assuming that current activity is both more relevant (for services considerations) and more likely to be accurately recorded, since this is a survey based report. -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 05 June 2015 (AEST)
 * I also note that the PSS survey was conducted exclusively by female interviewers, after having been extended from a previous 2005 study exclusively about violence against women, and that the majority of "high relative standard error" warnings in the statistics are on data collected from men, and that they had "unexpectedly high" non-response sampling problems. They also ignored remote aboriginal communities. Explanatory Notes -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 05 June 2015 (AEST)
 * The PSS defines partner violence as "Refers to any incident of sexual assault, sexual threat, physical assault or physical threat by a current and/or previous partner. Partner violence does not include violence by a "boyfriend/girlfriend or date""
 * The numbers for "Whether experienced partner violence during the last 12 months" are also similar, with 0.6% of men and 1.5% of women. Again, a 3 to 1 ratio, with 3/4 of the victims being female.
 * New Assertion: The PSS indicates that, Nationally, for every male who has experienced partner violence three women have also experienced it. This raises issues as women do not outnumber men 3:1 in the general population. It also means that services are aimed at female victims. EmRob (talk) 00:04, 2 June 2015 (AEST)
 * Challenging the "New Assertion": I wasn't talking about "services" when I raised this assertion, but since you've raised it, we should probably be looking to see if government services are allocated in anything like the ratio of victims as measured. Without quibbling about the ratios too much, aiming to exclude 25% to 33% of the victims seems like a mistake. -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 05 June 2015 (AEST)
 * Australian Government, Australian Institute of Criminology: Homicide in Australia, 2008–10 report -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 31 May 2015 (AEST)
 * Refer to: "Table 10 Type of homicide by sex of victims, 2008–10". Line for "Intimate Partner" - 23% male vs. 73% female.


 * Between 1989–1991, Easteal found that women were responsible for 19.3% of intimate partner killings: Patricia Easteal, Killing the Beloved (Australian Institute of Criminology, 1993) 50. --Mozart (talk) 13:59, 1 June 2015 (AEST)
 * In the same source, at 69–70, victim precipitation ('A history of severe physical violence or a physical altercation immediately preceding the death') was much higher where the offender was female — 77.3% of domestic homicides committed by women involved precipitation by the victim, whereas victim precipitation with male offenders was 8.5%. --Mozart (talk) 13:59, 1 June 2015 (AEST)


 * Statistics of "Table 10:Type of homicide by sex of victims, 2008–10" from "Homicide in Australia, 2008–10" by the Australian Institute o Criminology . EmRob (talk) 00:04, 2 June 2015 (AEST)
 * Of those murdered by intimate partners 27% were male and 73% were female. This can be represented as 3/4 of victims of murder by intimate partners were women or that women outnumber men as victims of homicide by an intimate partner three to one. This is while women do not outnumber men in general population (roughly 1 to 1).
 * When one discerns the percentage of partner homicides per all homicides for each sex (females: 89/175, males 33/366) things are alarming for women. 51% of murders of women are by an intimate partner. This is possibly why it is seen as a women's issue, for if you were to be murdered, it's a 50/50 chance it will be your partner killing you. Conversely, only 9% of male homicides were committed by intimate partners. Women are thus five times more likely to be killed by a partner than men (10% times 5 is 50%).
 * New Assertion: Intimate partner homicide is the most prevalent type of homicide concurring to women (in 2008-10) EmRob (talk) 00:04, 2 June 2015 (AEST)
 * The Male/Female DV victim ratio of around 1 in 3 also applies to Domestic Emotional Abuse (2.8% of 8,226,300 males vs. 4.7% of 8,326,700 females)
 * 4906.0 - Personal Safety, Australia, 2012
 * Refer to Table 32. You will need something to read .XLS spreadsheets.


 * Police Reporting rates are very low, but nearly 4 times higher for women.
 * 4906.0 - Personal Safety, Australia, 2012
 * Refer to Tables 25,26. You will need something to read .XLS spreadsheets.
 * Men are significantly less likely than women to report Domestic Violence against themselves. 5.3% of 119,600 Men vs. 19.8% of 237,100 Women.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Victims

 * Assertion: Of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims of physical assault, women are more likely to be victims of DV.
 * Evidence: 15% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experienced at least one physical assault of the last year, 32% of the most recent incidents were by a current or previous partner. 17% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men experienced at least one physical assault of the last year, 2%* of of the most recent incidents were by a current or previous partner. (* Estimate has a relative standard error of between 25% and 50% and should be used with caution)
 * Source: 4714.0 - National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, 2008 "Feature Article: Experiences of Physical Violence, 2008" ABS, and  EmRob (talk) 22:51, 1 June 2015 (AEST)


 * Assertion: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women more likely to report to police their most recent physical assault than men.
 * Evidence: 65% of women reported their most recent physical assault by a current or ex partners. 30% of men reported their most recent assault (all types of offender) to police (compared to 60% of women for all types of offender).
 * Source: 4714.0 - National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, 2008 "Feature Article: Experiences of Physical Violence, 2008" ABS, & EmRob (talk) 00:19, 1 June 2015 (AEST) EmRob (talk) 00:28, 2 June 2015 (AEST)

Effect on children

 * Children who are exposed to domestic violence experience short-term and long-term adverse effects (including serious physical, psychological, cognitive, behavioural, developmental, emotional and relational problems) that impact their life satisfaction, self-esteem and future relationships and immediate childhood tasks; these resemble the adverse effects experienced by children who have been directly abused by parents or witnessed other traumatic events.
 * Amanda Shea Hart and Dale Bagshaw, 'The idealised post-separation family in Australian family law: A dangerous paradigm in cases of domestic violence' (2008) 14 Journal of Family Studies 291, 292–293. --Mozart (talk) 13:40, 23 May 2015 (AEST)

Sexually Discriminatory Government Processes and Services

 * Some government services explicitly assume DV is entirely Male on Female.
 * Western Australia Domestic Violence Helpline. -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 31 May 2015 (AEST)
 * This official government site has a number for women as victims and another number for men as perpetrators, and that's it.
 * Hospital Intervention Policies assume only females can be victims of DV.
 * NSW Emergency Care Procedures -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 31 May 2015 (AEST)
 * Has a section "DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - IDENTIFYING AND RESPONDING (PD2006_084)", that is entirely about detecting DV against women and women only.
 * See Page 25: "The Policy and Procedures for Identifying and Responding to Domestic Violence (2003) http://internal.health.nsw.gov.au/pubs/p/pdf/procedures_dom_violence.pdf provides a framework for informing domestic violence responses for staff in hospitals and community health services. This document’s child protection focus has been improved by amendments as detailed below." Thus the following list is additional child protection amendments. You cannot say that the policy is only about women when the link does not appear to work for the internal document. EmRob (talk) 00:23, 2 June 2015 (AEST)
 * Page 26: Without being able to read the referred to document, it appears that routine screening is applied to these certain women. As the PSS indicates, the majority of victims (75%) are female and thus they are screening to save as many victims as possible. This does not mean that they apply NO procedures for identifying male victims of DV. EmRob (talk) 00:23, 2 June 2015 (AEST)
 * Has a section "DOMESTIC VIOLENCE – MEN’S BEHAVIOUR CHANGE PROGRAMS (IB2014_003)", that is entirely about addressing men as perpetrators of DV.
 * There are no sections at all for the reverse. There is no hospital policy to investigate DV against men.
 * Pages 26-29 are again, a list of amendments. "This information should be read in conjunction with the Policy and Procedures for Identifying and Responding to Domestic Violence PD2006_084. Where the information differs, the information in this bulletin applies". One cannot construe from this document linked that only male behavioural programs exist, but that the Dept of Health NSW, have to follow the standards set out in this section of the document as "'The Policy and Procedures for Identifying and Responding to Domestic Violence are being reviewed in 2013 and the advice in this Information Bulletin will be incorporated into any new Policy Directive." EmRob (talk) 00:23, 2 June 2015 (AEST)
 * NSW Domestic Violence Screening program ongoing since 2003
 * Here's another source: 100% of the screening program mandated across NSW hospitals is carried out only for women.
 * My objection to this, is in the way that their bias is built-in to their collection method and so is self-confirming. It is unscientific in its method.

Racially Discriminatory Government Processes and Services

 * A primarily Aboriginal/Torres Straight Islander DV issue, is that in cases where the children are considered to be in danger, DOCS does try to place the children with other family or relatives, mostly grandmothers or similar. This is a good thing, but the issue is that as compared to placing them in a foster home, the foster home would get paid to take a child on, but the in-culture preferred alternative would not. Basically, the funding model still supports ripping aboriginal kids out of their own culture because they won't pay to support in-culture care.
 * CARING FOR ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER CHILDREN (ATSI) -- AndrewD (talk) 20:45, 31 May 2015 (AEST)
 * Sadly, I can't find a reference for the funding issue. I heard about it from an ABC RN interview with a DOCS representative. Will keep looking.

Policy implementation

 * As a result of Australia's federal structure, domestic violence initiatives in one or two states or territories tends to cascade, with other states following their lead: state and territory initiatives are transferred horizontally to other states and territories, and to a degree vertically between the Commonwealth and states and territories.
 * Louise Chappell and Jennifer Curtin, 'Does Federalism Matter? Evaluating State Architecture and Family and Domestic Violence Policy in Australia and New Zealand' (2012) 43(1) Publius: The Journal of Federalism 24, 36. --Mozart (talk) 14:24, 1 June 2015 (AEST)


 * The downside to a federal system is the need for high levels of coordination, both horizontally and vertically. In Australia, both a lack of constitutional recognition for indigenous peoples and the difficulties in collaboration between governments regarding indigenous issues have produced poorly coordinated legal and policy responses for indigenous women.
 * Louise Chappell and Jennifer Curtin, 'Does Federalism Matter? Evaluating State Architecture and Family and Domestic Violence Policy in Australia and New Zealand' (2012) 43(1) Publius: The Journal of Federalism 24, 37. --Mozart (talk) 14:24, 1 June 2015 (AEST)