The Victorian Health Promotion Foundation has released the 80 page Changing Cultures, Changing Attitudes report [PDF] of the National Survey on Community Attitudes to Violence against Women.
The report was commissioned by the Commonwealth Government in February last year. The Foundation's research partners included the Australian Institute of Criminology and The Social Research Centre. The expectation was that the survey would provide a benchmark for identifying changing attitudes and guide the development of "interventions that can build cultures of non-violence and value equal and respectful relationships between men and women".
The Survey drew on telephone interviews with over 10,000 people across Australia about their attitudes towards violence against women, with a minimum of 1,000 interviews conducted in each state/territory; telephone interviews with an additional 2,500 first and second generation members of the Italian, Greek, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian communities; and face-to-face interviews with 400 Indigenous Australians in nine metropolitan and regional locations across Australia. The results were compared with an equivalent 1995 national survey.
The report's major findings are that most people have "a broad understanding of domestic and sexual violence, and its impacts, and do not condone it", with community perceptions of what constitutes domestic violence broadening significantly since 1995. People are now more likely to understand that domestic violence can take various forms, including physical and sexual assault, threats of harm to family members, and psychological, verbal and economic abuse. Overall non-physical behaviours (such as emotional, psychological, verbal and economic abuse) were less likely to be considered domestic violence than physical types of abuse. 25% of respondents thus did not believe that 'controlling a partner by denying them money' was a form of domestic violence.
The majority of respondents considered violence against women to be a serious issue. Stalking was considered by 69% of respondents to be 'very serious' violent behaviour. However there was a decline in the proportion of people who recognise 'slapping or pushing a partner to cause harm or fear' as 'very serious' (53% in 2009 compared with 64% in 1995).
Most respondents across all samples believed that domestic violence and forced sex by an intimate partner are unlawful acts. Men in the general community were less likely than their female counterparts to view domestic violence as a crime.
Community understanding of violence against women with disabilities was very poor.
22% of respondents believe that domestic violence is perpetrated equally by both men and women.
The report notes that "the vast majority of people surveyed did not believe that any physical force against a current or former wife, partner or girlfriend could be justified under any circumstances", although 4% of the general community agree that physical force is justifiable when a partner "admits to having sex with another man". Some respondents in the general community were prepared to excuse physical and sexual violence against women if it results from people 'getting so angry that they temporarily lose control' (18%) and/or if the violent person 'truly regrets' what was done (22%). A similar diminishing of perpetrator responsibility for sexual violence was evident, with 34% of respondents agreeing that rape occurs because of men 'not being able to control their need for sex'.
The report comments that since 1995 there has been a decrease in the number of respondents apportioning blame to a victim of sexual assault, with 13% supporting the notion that 'women often say no when they mean yes' and 5% stating that 'women who are raped often ask for it' (down from 15% in 1995). 5% of respondents do not believe that women can be raped by someone with whom they have been sexually intimate.
49% indicated that'women going through custody battles often make up or exaggerate claims of domestic violence in order to improve their case' (only 28% disagreed). 26% disagree that 'women rarely make false claims of being raped', contrary to evidence documenting that rates of false allegations of sexual and physical assault remain low.
The majority of respondents were in support of domestic violence being addressed as a matter of public concern rather than dealt with privately. Increased police powers to remove a violent offender from the home appeared to receive wide endorsement. The report comments that "community understandings of some of the dynamics that characterise domestic violence appear to have worsened", with the general community in 2009 being significantly less likely to understand why women stay in violent relationships than they were in 1995. "Just on half also believed that a woman could leave a violent relationship if she really wanted to. Men in the general community and younger respondents in particular were more likely to hold this view."
The strongest predictors for "holding violence-supportive attitudes were being male and having low levels of support for gender equity or equality", consistent for a range of measures across the national survey and even when other demographic factors were statistically controlled. Age was also predictive for some attitudinal measures, with younger respondents being less likely to rate some physical forms of violence as 'very serious'.
