'; ?> Domestic violence | What The People Want
Domestic violence
Wednesday, 05 July 2006 08:09 | Written by Graham Young

This entry is posted for Paul from Mandurah. I'd be interested in some feedback on it as we're looking for more social issues to explore with the polling. If we looked at domestic violence, what questions should we be asking?
We need to dispel the myth that only women and children are the victims of domestic violence,and that women are good,and men bad.Too much media advertising is perpetuating this myth.Please look at scientifically arrived at statistics and you will be surprised at the total misinformation that is being spread on this topic backed by very vague figures and perceptions that only serve a small minority of our population. Divorce,separation, and the break up of families is increasing at an alarming rate,and the main victims are the children.Our Family Law is under review at this present time,but more pressure must be brought to bear on changing long-held entrenched gender bias in our legal system. Five males per day suicide Australia wide,mostly due to being forced out of their childrens` lives,drained financially by a carefully calculated adverserial legal system forced on them by the "No Fault Divorce" system. If we lost five soldiers per day in Iraq,would not the outcry force the Prime Minister to withdraw our troops from the conflict?why do we not even batt an eyelid at the loss of five good men per day back here at home?the loss to the economy by these losses,and the drain that the fatherless children and custodial mothers place on the economy is a serious subject that nobody seems to be interested in rectifying,or taking up with the government. Five whales a day washed up on Bondi Beach would make worldwide headline news,why does this more serious tradgedy not even warrant a mention? Thanks for allowing me to suggest this subject as one that should be seriously debated.
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Comments   

 
0 #11 Comment — Geoff 2006-08-31 02:30
Quote: Anne at August 1, 2006 05:30 PM
Oh come on, you can't blame mens suicide on marital breakups!!



Quote: Chris at July 13, 2006
So I don't think you can lay male suicides at the door of the Family Court. At the moment things like the drought would be having more of an impact, I think.



mcsp.org.au/.../deaths.lasso



The most frequently recorded precipitating stresses for males was a relationship breakdown with spouse or partner (56.0%)...


For females the most commonly reported stresses were psychiatric illness (51.9%), relationship breakdown with a spouse or partner (27.0%)....




Quote: Anne at August 1, 2006 05:30 PM
Why does a man shoot his ex-partner, then his own flesh and blood, before turning the gun on himself.



Why does a mother suffocate or drown her children?
Why does a wife shoot or stab her husband?
And before you IMMEDIATELY say domestic violence - think again.




Quote: kate lamb at July 13, 2006
What does it take to get these people to put things in perspective - fathers access to kids is simply not an issue of that order. The scale and persistency of mens violence against women makes it a global human rights issue.



OMG!!! How ignorant of the facts you are!
What if the case was reversed? Would you STILL be saying that it is not an issue? Have you ever considered that it may be part of the issue? Part of the reason for the DV?


But you are right in it being a human rights issue, considering that 127 independant surveys have pointed out that DV is mostly gender neutral. Some of these surveys point to either the male or the female being the more violent, with some pointing to gender neutrality.



Violence should NOT be tolerated in any form by any gender.
 
 
0 #12 Comment — Kerrie Testre 2006-11-02 11:10
Myself and my children were vitums of Domestic Violance for 11 years and also witnest my mother being abuse by her boyfriends most of my live so I know firsthand the damage domestic violance and family brakedown has on it's victums, but to surgest that only woman are victums is rediculous.For instance my abuser of eleven years was also a victum as a child but not a victum of his father but his mother.Mothers have a profound affect on there sons and in this case it was a violant.Also on the issue of men suiside I grow up with my father and to watch him after his defacto left him for another man was heart breaking. He tried to kill himself a number of times. Woman are natural communicaters so we can talk our way through it man suffer in silance and it can destroy them.At least my father still had his kids witch is more then most men.As for the Family court I think the first thing they should do is take lawyers aut of the system.Let the perant state there own cases. No child should lose a perant because the perant couldn't affort to pay a lawyer to fight for the child.
 
 
0 #13 Comment — Kerrie Testre 2006-11-02 11:21
Domestic Violance Australia says NO but the courts say go for it we will do nothing to you.You can breach your AVO as many times as you like we will understand you have a problem and are doing nothing to fix it. The issue is not about who is being abused male or female it is about what is the courts responce to it. My ex- Brother inlaw has breached nine times and because he has an alcahol problem it took the ninth breach for him to be make seak treatment in a secure place odercy house.He is yet to be sentanced.
 
 
0 #14 Comment — HR 2006-11-11 04:21
The following is form Sydney Morning Herald ,14 th May 2006
smh.com.au/.../...

Call for action as domestic killings soar
Email Print Normal font Large font By Ruth Pollard Health Reporter
May 27, 2006

Advertisement
AdvertisementNINE women have died since January in what experts are describing as an epidemic of domestic violence, fuelled by a lack of co-ordinated services and the continuing failure of the legal system to protect women.

The high rate of deaths in NSW - nine in five months compared with 11 for the whole of 2005 - has led to calls for a domestic violence homicide review body to investigate the murders.

The calls came as a 45-year-old man appeared in Penrith Local Court yesterday, charged with murdering his de facto, who died on May 15 after a violent attack two days before. Bail was refused and he was ordered to appear again on July 28. He has not entered a plea.

P.S

Domestic violence is a very real issue, do not confuse your priorities, innocent people lose their lives women are humans as well. If you went through domestic violence you would not be talking like this, you would really know what it is........

No violence is right...do not make it a political issue where you win votes, and power. That is abuse in itself. Please be true to your hearts who has more power in the world, physically as well as politically.

Being known as a victim of Domestic violence is shameful to a woman a wife. AVO process in court is a very stressful and shameful process for a wife to go through and specially when children are involved...the myth is that women take AVO's to win family law issues according to police reports since 1998 domestic violence has increased while AVO's have decreased. I work with victims day in day out. I would not wish that on anybody. WE ALL LOSE WHEN IN COMES TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SPECIALLY WHEN CHILDREN ARE VICTIMS don't think this is a feminist issue it is a human rights issue. KEEPING A FAMILY TOGETHER IS NOT THE ANSWER TO A HEALTHY SOCIETY. SAFETY OF INDIVIDUALS IN SOCIETY IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT. I see women with black eyes and broken noses, broken hearts and broken lives I see children being sexually assaulted, I see their fear, I see their shame, I feel their fear. Don't spread rumors YOU MAY UNWITTINGLY HURT SOMEONE THAT YOU REALLY LOVE IN THE PROCESS.

FYI :

The report released today, The Health Costs of Violence: Measuring the Burden of Disease Caused by Intimate Partner Violence, is the first of its kind in the world and shows nine per cent of all medical problems that beset women under 45 are caused by domestic violence.

After domestic violence, the top eight causes of disease and death in women between the age of 14 and 44 are: illicit drugs, alcohol, body weight, cholesterol, tobacco, blood pressure and physical inactivity.

Health consequences of domestic violence outlined in the report include physical injury, suicide attempts, chronic pain syndromes, depression, anxiety and phobias, gastrointestina l disorders, irritable bowel syndrome and reproductive complications.

Ms Pike said the report showed preventing domestic violence was not only important in terms of protecting victims but also saved the community tens of millions of dollars by reducing health costs down the track.

"The report estimates domestic violence costs Australian businesses half a billion dollars a year, including $30 million through sick leave and $6 million through staff turnover," Ms Pike said. (Alexander,B,20 04,p.1)


The above is an excerpt from a : Domestic violence figures a call to action - 16.6.04
Created By: Bram Alexander on 16/06/2004
Category: Bronwyn Pike, Department, John Thwaites, Miscellaneous, Premier Bracks, Victorian Government
 
 
0 #15 Comment — Geoff 2007-06-24 11:10
Quote:
The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research bulletin 'Trends and patterns in domestic violence assaults' from October 2005:
This is the same arguement that the NSW AG office uses. What isn't included in this report is the UNREPORTED incidents.

Males are far more likely NOT to report DV incidents - I am one of them.

After all, who'd believe that your 5'2" wife was capable of DV on someone that man-handles 200kg drums all day?

I was brought up NOT to be violent nor hit females, etc. This makes me an easy target for female DV and laugh for the police if i'd even consider reporting.
 
 
0 #16 Comment — Geoff 2007-06-24 11:13
By the way, my wife did falsely accuse me of DV and that did go in the annual report.

Which raises the question - how many of those incidents are false allegations?
 
 
0 #17 Comment — scott 2007-06-28 17:48
AVO's refuse to take into account the needs and wishes of children, the forgotten inocent bystanders. AVO's are enforcable immediately whilst contact orders take any where up to 12 months. AVO's are also issued on isolated incidents of disagreements and hear-say evidence leaving one party in disputes able to obtain court orders and criminal convictions on nothing more violent than verbal disagreement. This can and is constantly used in family law as subpena evidence of police records. The frustration of women denying children the rights to equal time with both perants for no more than financial gain increases their risk to violence and is an extremely violent act on both men and children. This is never considered by policy makers or courts. The bias of this topic is so evident in this google search I just did. This is the only site amonst hundreds i found that raises the issue of policy and police violence against men!