Nipping domestic violence in the bud starts with understanding how domestic violence offenders tick, according to Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS)

On 13 June it was announced that ANROWS received $2 million from the Australian government to fund research on domestic and family violence perpetrators.  

The move to fund prevention and early intervention research has been welcomed by local agencies working with victims of violence.

“If we are going to eliminate violence against women in this country, we need to understand why people use violence. These are deep-seated problems, and it takes time to understand them fully so we can address them effectively,” ANROWS CEO Tessa Boyd-Caine said. 

“It’s imperative that we remember the human costs associated with the statistics,” Elise Philips, acting CEO of Domestic Violence NSW said prior to the announcement of the budget.

“This really isn’t just a crisis, this is an escalating crisis.” 

Findings from the NSW Bureau of Crime show a 15.4 percent increase in the number of domestic assault reports over the past five years. 

“The bottom line is every extra dollar to fight against family and domestic violence is certainly needed,” said Kellie Maxwell, Program Manager for Staying Home Leaving Violence in a number of towns across the western plains. 

The funding will go towards eight projects focussing on different areas of domestic violence, such as investigating demographic profiles, response tactics, agency processes and data collection practices, enhancing practitioner skills, and developing better responses.  

The research will then provide more comprehensive training approaches for support organisations. 

“Any form of training that is rolled out whether that is for perpetrators or victims of family violence is good for staff working in organisations that deal with domestic and family violence,” Ms Maxwell said. 

Ms Maxwell said that although domestic and family violence perpetrators come from all walks of life, one common factor is the need to control their victim. 

“It does not have to be an anger management issue. It’s the need to control somebody else’s behaviour, or actions,” Ms Maxwell said. 

Community-based programs, such as Mannin’ Up from Mission Australia, focus on changing the behaviour of domestic violence perpetrators.

The focus is on identifying abuse and belief systems associated with abuse, managing beliefs and emotions, offence mapping, victim impact and sexual respect. 

Further research into domestic violence perpetrators could provide insights as to how to provide training for programs such as Mannin’ Up. 

“Nobody ever has enough knowledge. Everybody can always benefits from further training in those areas,” Ms Maxwell said. 

“We need to do a lot of early intervention programs through schools and teaching children very early about respectful relationships.” 

“Children are growing up without an understanding of what respectful relationships are.”