QUT C4J welcomed a leading panel of experts to discuss this question as part of Queensland Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month – 19 May 2021
In Australia today, domestic violence is a “national emergency”, an on-going crisis with no remedy in sight. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirms a steep increase in female victims of domestic violence over the last 5 years. Domestic homicides of women account for a third of all homicides in Australia. While rates for all other homicide types have been declining over the last three decades, the rate of domestic homicide has remained steady. Research also demonstrates that disasters such as the 2019 bushfires, the decade long drought, and the current pandemic have increased the intensity and prevalence of domestic violence in Australia. Domestic violence (DV) costs the Australian economy $22bn p.a.
You can watch the panel discussion below:
Expert panel
Professor Kerry Carrington, Research Professor, QUT Centre for Justice – Kerry is an expert on gender violence and her Australian Research Council Discovery Project team has undertaken a world first study on how police stations for women in Argentina prevent gender violence and how aspects of this model could be used to reimagine the policing of gender violence in Australia.
Hayley Foster, CEO, Women’s Safety NSW – Women’s Safety NSW is a peak representative body for women’s specialist domestic and family violence services advocating on behalf of members for systemic reform to increase women’s safety, justice and wellbeing in the context of domestic and family violence.
Michael Flood, Associate Professor, QUT Centre for Justice – Michael is a highly regarded researcher on men and masculinities, gender, and violence prevention, with a wide-ranging involvement in community and social change. Michael will argue for ‘putting perpetrators in the picture’. He will suggest that it is time to reframe the problems of domestic and sexual violence in Australia: to give greater visibility to the perpetrators of domestic and family violence and to focus more on preventing and reducing the perpetration of abusive behaviours.