Family violence package ignores men and their children
The national advocacy organisation for male victims of family violence, One in Three Campaign, has welcomed the Federal Government’s $100M Women’s Safety Package, but has expressed disappointment that no funding has been made available to support male victims or children abused by women.
Government figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Institute of Criminology, Attorney General’s Department and WA Department for Child Protection show that:
mothers are the most common perpetrators of child homicide, with women accounting for 52% of child homicide offenders between 2002 and 2012
natural parents were responsible for 37% of total cases of substantiated child maltreatment in WA in 2007-08: of these, mothers were the perpetrator in 73% of cases
young people are just as likely to have seen their mothers hitting their fathers as their fathers hitting their mothers
males made up 38.5% of domestic homicide victims in 2010-12
males made up 33.3% of victims of current partner violence during the last 12 months
males made up 37.1% of victims of emotional abuse during the last 12 months
94% of partner violence against men was perpetrated by women
Male victims were 2 to 3 times more likely than women to have never told anybody about experiencing partner violence
Only 5.3% of male victims of current partner violence had contacted police.
Greg Andresen, Senior Researcher with the volunteer-run Campaign said, “The government’s new support measures for women are long overdue and warmly welcomed. We hope this is the first in a series of packages aimed at reducing family violence. Many people affected by family violence have been left out of this announcement: the one-third of victims that are male, female perpetrators of family violence, children who are abused and/or killed by their mothers, not to mention broader violence and abuse between family members and in same-sex relationships.”
“We acknowledge that services for women escaping violence from their male partners are the most critical. However except for the Mensline Australia support line 1300 78 99 78, there are hardly any dedicated services for male victims or female perpetrators. Our human rights obligations dictate that services be made available to everyone affected by family violence regardless of gender, sexual preference, age, race or religion,” Mr Andresen said.
* Source: Australian Institute of Criminology National Homicide Monitoring Program database 2010-2012
MEDIA CONTACT
Greg Andresen, Senior Researcher, One in Three Campaign, 0403 813 925 or info@oneinthree.com.au