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Health Awareness Week

White Ribbon Day
18 November 2022

Because men’s violence against women continues to be a prevalent issue across Australia, White Ribbon believe men have a role in preventing violence against women and children, and that engaging them in prevention is critical. Prevention programs that engage men at the individual, community and population level around the prevention of violence against women and children. This leads to men understanding their role in the prevention strategies and changing their attitudes and behaviours accordingly, resulting in materially decreased rates of men’s violence against women and children. White Ribbon Australia

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Young women’s report 2022 (Australian women against violence alliance)
This report's findings emphasise the prevalence of violence and abuse in young people’s lives, along with the inadequacy of institutional responses to violence against young women and non-binary people.

  • 89.4% of young women and non-binary people experience violence and abuse.
  • Most young people do not use formal reporting mechanisms to report violence or abuse.
  • The main reasons for not reporting were being embarrassed or ashamed (74.4%); fearful of not being believed (69.2%) or of being judged (51.3%); or due to a lack of trust in the system (61.5%).
  • Over two thirds of respondents who reported said that nothing happened and nothing changed.
  • While just over half of those who had experienced violence sought support (54%), almost half did not.
  • A large majority of study participants said that their perpetrator was not held to account.

The report makes clear that much more needs to be done to help young people. While an ultimate policy objective is to stop violence before it happens, there are pressing and significant barriers to healing and to justice that must be addressed. The report examines ways to improve reporting and support mechanisms, embed primary prevention, and secure justice for young victim-survivors.

Family, domestic and sexual violence data in Australia (AIHW)
Family, domestic and sexual violence is a major health, welfare and social issue. It affects people of all ages and from all backgrounds, but mainly women and children. This release brings together a range of sources to report a core set of data in an interactive format, and summarise changes in measures of family, domestic and sexual violence over time. It complements the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare‘s Family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia report series. 

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UpToDate

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Articles

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Articles

Violence against women - A global perspective Obstetrics and gynecology clinics 1 November 2022
Gender-based violence (GBV) affects more than 700 million women and girls, worldwide, manifesting systemically (eg, human trafficking) and at the interpersonal level (eg, rape, intimate partner violence) and conveying significant negative economic, social, mental, and physical health impacts. It is important for the clinician to be prepared for providing emergency, urgent, and longer-term care to women who are survivors of GBV. Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo provides an example of person-centered, holistic care for survivors of GBV, including conflict-related and nonconflict-related sexual violence.

Oral and maxillofacial trauma in women assaulted by men: Systematic review and meta-analysis Journal of stomatology, oral and maxillofacial surgery 5 November 2022
The results of this study highlight the need for political and ethical reflection to prevent oral-maxillofacial trauma and ensure women's health and human rights.

A research on violence against women: Are the trends growing? Iranian rehabilitation journal 9 November 2022
Examining the articles showed that the vast majority of women have experienced verbal, sexual, intimate partner violence, cyber harassment, etc.

The drop in female homicide victimisation in Australia Journal of criminology 9 October 2022
Despite widespread community concern about the incidence of lethal violence against women in Australia, the numbers and rates of women murdered each year have been falling for almost 30 years. The risk of homicide victimisation among Australian women is now the lowest it has ever been since federation. Few studies have explored these patterns or sought to explain their development. One plausible explanation, anticipated by feminist theories of violence, is that homicide has declined as the status of women and gender equality have increased. In this paper, I analyse changes in the annual female homicide victimisation rate in Australia from 1962 to 2016. Using unobserved components models, I investigate the extent to which increases in either the status of women or gender equality can account for the decline in female homicide victimisation since the late 1980s. Despite absolute and relative advances in women's educational access and achievement, labour force participation, and earnings, those changes had little discernible impact on the aggregate-level risk of lethal violence against women. Instead, other social and economic conditions, such as falling unemployment, the shrinking of the young male population and ongoing urbanisation, seem better able to explain recent improvements in women's safety

Australia’s divergent legal responses to women who kill their abusive partners Violence against women 15 August 2022
Concerns over the legal treatment of women who kill in response to domestic abuse have driven several jurisdictions to reform their homicide laws in recent years. This article examines how abused women are currently treated within the Australian legal system by analysing homicide cases involving women prosecuted for killing an abusive partner in Australia from 2010 to 2020. The findings reveal the limitations of legal reforms to improve access to justice for abused women. Instead, there needs to be an increased focus towards pre-trial stages of criminal proceedings and to address persistent misconceptions and stereotypes associated with domestic abuse

The normative evolution of gender-based crimes against humanity Journal of international affairs 31 October 2022
This article traces the history of gender-based crimes against humanity, examining the process by which the International Criminal Court came to recognize crimes exploiting gender-specific roles as differentiating from existing sexual offences.

Using a theatre-based programme to prevent gender-based violence: evidence from Australia Health promotion journal 31 March 2022
This article examines the short-term impacts from attending You the Man events on a different audience, i.e. Australian adults. Anonymous online surveys conducted prior and 4 weeks after events were completed by 41 participants of whom 29 were female and 12 were male, three-quarters of whom were aged between 18 and 49, and who attended events at university campuses (46.3%), in workplaces (34.1%), at sporting clubs (12.2%) and community centres (7.3%). At follow up, participants regarded the severity of abusive and coercive behaviours as being higher than at baseline, their capacity to intervene as a bystander had increased, as had the number of sources of support they would recommend to someone experiencing gender-based violence. Hence, theatre-based programmes can positively affect attitudes in relation to gender-based violence, increase bystander knowledge about safe ways to intervene and positively affect intended bystander intervention.

Attitudes and beliefs about family and domestic violence in faith-based communities: An exploratory qualitative study Australian journal on social issues 17 March 2022
This study examines the influence of religious beliefs and values on attitudes and beliefs of FDV among culturally diverse faith communities in Australia. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with 64 participants from a range of cultural and religious backgrounds and included faith leaders, community members and FDV sector workers. Overall, findings indicate that tensions exist between expressions of faith and attitudes to women and FDV. Whilst there is general agreement among participants that their faiths did not condone violence, they also identified cultural structures related to their faiths that enabled and ignored abuse against women. Further exploration of these issues within specific faith communities, as well as how to support and engage with these communities in increasing understandings of FDV and developing effective responses, is needed in the Australian context.

Men's role in violence against women in disasters: Studies in Iran and Australia Australian journal of emergency management 1 January 2022
Sexual violence is largely absent from studies on violence against women in disasters. The role of men in perpetrating violence against women is overlooked or excused and women are usually blamed in both countries. A review of 2 studies of men’s violence against women after floods and earthquakes in Iran and bushfires in Australia show remarkable similarities. Although cultural contexts and the way gender inequality is established and demonstrated are different, these studies reveal unexpected parallels. The context of disaster lays it bare. Participants of both studies were disaster-affected people in Iran and Australia who revealed the taboos that prevent women speaking of violence that is exacerbated in a disaster context. Men play important roles in preventing and responding to violence against women as the result of their responsibilities and positions at the household and community levels. The objective of this paper was to compare the findings from these studies and consider the difficulties faced in conducting studies related to the roles of men and women roles during and after disaster events.

Effects of violence against women on health during menopause: a systematic review and metanalysis Clinical and experimental obstetrics and gynaecology 15 December 2021
A history of VAW increases the symptoms of menopause and worsens the physical conditions and sexual and psychological health after the age of 40. Thus, it is essential to investigate these antecedents in routine clinical practice when treating menopausal women with additional symptoms and to warn of the long-term general health risks for any woman who has experienced an episode of violence.

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E-books

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Journals

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Previous Awareness Weeks

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