Engaging men on their use of sexual violence as a power and ...

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clearinghouse update 2 newsletter .45 Have your say in our latest user survey To have your say about the delivery of Clearinghouse services, please go online and fill in our user survey. The survey takes ten to fifteen minutes to complete and helps us plan better services for you. The survey will be available until Sunday, 31 July 2011. www.surveymonkey.com/s/ClearinghouseSurveyJuly2011 ALRC submissions Over the past three months, the Clearinghouse has responded to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) inquiry into the treat<strong>men</strong>t of family/domestic violence in Commonwealth laws. All Clearinghouse submissions on the four Issues Papers released by the ALRC are available on our web site. www.adfvc.unsw.edu.au/submissions.htm Financial security project update Following the publication of our report, Seeking security: promoting wo<strong>men</strong>’s economic wellbeing following domestic violence in March this year, we have sought to follow up on a number of the research recom<strong>men</strong>dations. During the last four months, we have: à àwritten to Minister Tanya Plibersek and Minister Chris Bowen à àprovided input to the federal Depart<strong>men</strong>t of Human Services’ review on service delivery to clients affected by family violence à àmet with two major banks à àliaised with Financial Counselling Australia and the Association of Financial Advisers à àwritten to the Chair of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council in Australia à àcontributed to the ALRC inquiry into the treat<strong>men</strong>t of family/domestic violence in Commonwealth laws. We have also promoted the findings of the research at: ààa meeting of govern<strong>men</strong>t and non-govern<strong>men</strong>t representatives in Darwin, 4 May ààMeeting the Needs of Victims of Crime conference in Sydney, 18-19 May. We will be meeting with one of the Prime Minister’s advisors to discuss some of the project recom<strong>men</strong>dations. Updates on the project and copies of recent conference presentations are available on the Clearinghouse web site. www.adfvc.unsw.edu.au/projects.htm Workplace rights and entitle<strong>men</strong>ts project update This edition of the Newsletter is being mailed out together with a bulletin on our workplace rights and entitle<strong>men</strong>ts project. If you are reading the Newsletter online, you can access the bulletin on our web site. Updates on the project are also regularly posted on the web site. www.adfvc.unsw.edu.au/dv_workplace_rights_ entitle<strong>men</strong>ts_project.htm Domestic violence homicide forum and workshop On 20 May in Sydney, around 100 participants attended the Clearinghouse forum, Domestic Violence Deaths: Risk, Responsibility and Review. The three forum speakers gave diverse and stimulating presentations on the issue of domestic violence related deaths. Lyndal Bugeja, Team Leader of the Intentional Death Investigation Team at the Coroners Prevention Unit Victoria, gave an account of Victoria’s domestic violence death investigation process, set up in 2009. Dr Rochelle Braaf, Clearinghouse Senior Research Officer, presented evidence linking sexual violence by intimate partners with homicide risk. Rochelle discussed the difficulties of responding to this risk when there are strong tendencies for wo<strong>men</strong> not to disclose, <strong>men</strong> to deny their behaviour and workers not to ask. Associate Professor Jane Ursel, Director of Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse (RESOLVE) at the University of Manitoba, spoke about progress made in reducing the number of domestic violence-related homicides in Manitoba, Canada. Jane suggested that these reductions have been achieved through changes in the criminal justice system including: legislative and policy change; gathering, monitoring and responding to trends in data; better policing of breaches; the introduction of specialist domestic violence courts; and police monitoring of high risk offenders. Following the forum, researchers from the Centre for Gender Related Violence Studies at the University of New South Wales, in partnership with Relationships Australia South Australia (RASA), ran a workshop entitled Thinking About Homicide Risk – A Framework for Counsellors. Dr Kerrie James, Dr Jan Breckenridge and Claire Ralfs presented this framework to a group of experienced domestic violence workers from different agency contexts and sectors. Slides of the presentations are available on the Clearinghouse web site and podcasts of the event will be uploaded in the coming weeks. www.adfvc.unsw.edu.au/conference_proceedings.htm Clearinghouse staff presentations Clearinghouse staff have presented papers at a number of recent forums. See the back page of this Newsletter for details.
issues in good practice ENGAGING MEN ON THEIR USE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AS A POWER AND CONTROL TACTIC BY RODNEY VLAIS, ACTING EXECUTIVE OFFICER, NO TO VIOLENCE MALE FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION ASSOCIATION The nature of male family violence Intimate partner abuse by <strong>men</strong> is an expression of male power and control in the context of a male dominated society. No To Violence (NTV) believes that all work to engage <strong>men</strong> must be located within an awareness of the social context of male family violence. Men use family violence as a deliberate tactic to exert power and control and maintain gender-based privileges to which they feel entitled. In the process, they ignore the wishes of the other person. Although <strong>men</strong> need to be held responsible and accountable for their own violence, we must acknowledge that male violence is embedded in the structures and collective unconscious of Australia’s patriarchal society. Ending gender-based inequalities is, therefore, essential to the long-term prevention of male family violence. Violence is a choice for which each man is responsible. Although a man might have been socialised to believe he has a right to control wo<strong>men</strong> and children, he can still choose to take responsibility to learn and use non-violent ways of relating. In this context, <strong>men</strong>’s use of intimate partner sexual violence can serve at least two functions. First, sexual violence can be used as deliberate tactic to create fear and subordination and to enforce control. Second, sexual violence may serve as an expression of <strong>men</strong>’s unearned gender-based privilege, based on a belief that they are entitled to sexual gratification and are being ‘victimised’ when wo<strong>men</strong> ‘withhold’ sex from them. Funda<strong>men</strong>tal aim of engaging <strong>men</strong> The funda<strong>men</strong>tal aim of engaging male users of family violence is to support the safety needs of wo<strong>men</strong> and children. This might seem obvious but, in our experience, it is possible for <strong>men</strong>’s services to lose sight of this aim. This can occur where services operate primarily from a <strong>men</strong>’s health framework, rather than as part of an integrated family violence service system, and when they have weak accountability processes to wo<strong>men</strong> and wo<strong>men</strong>’s services. There has been very little research on the effectiveness of <strong>men</strong>’s behaviour change programs in Australia. The evidence for the long-term effectiveness of United States programs in stopping <strong>men</strong>’s use of family violence is not strong either. While most reviewers in this field acknowledge the major methodological problems and limitations associated with evaluating effectiveness, it is uncertain whether there is sufficient evidence to justify working with <strong>men</strong> for the sole purpose of long-term behaviour change. Importantly, however, creating behaviour change is not the only pathway through which <strong>men</strong>’s programs support the safety of wo<strong>men</strong> and children. A second key pathway is to provide partners of <strong>men</strong> who participate in programs with access to safety planning, referrals, direct support and other outcomes or processes that stem through partner contact work. Indeed, many wo<strong>men</strong> who engage in partner contact work have not previously accessed a family violence service. Sometimes work with <strong>men</strong> who do not or are not likely to make long-term changes can still support the work with wo<strong>men</strong>. Some of these <strong>men</strong> might make some temporary changes to some aspects of their behaviour through participation in the program, which might provide their partners with a degree of ‘breathing space’ through which to discover more of their own agency, find small but important opportunities to regain a sense of dignity, revise safety plans and make decisions. Furthermore, partners’ unsuccessful or partly successful participation in the program might help wo<strong>men</strong> to face the reality of the likely future trajectory of violence. Finally, male family violence services can report breaches of intervention orders and provide feedback to referrers such as police and courts, thereby supporting law enforce<strong>men</strong>t and judicial systems to impose appropriate sanctions. Addressing intimate partner sexual violence NTV acknowledges that, taken as a whole, the male family violence sector needs to do more to address intimate partner sexual violence. While <strong>men</strong> who abuse their partners are ordinarily very hesitant to take responsibility for their behaviour and use a variety of strategies to deny and minimise it, this problem is even more pronounced in relation to sexual violence. Often <strong>men</strong> in programs have a very narrow definition of sexual violence. They are unlikely to spontaneously talk about their sense of entitle<strong>men</strong>t to obtain sexual gratification or the effects of sexually objectifying wo<strong>men</strong>. Practitioners and facilitators in the <strong>men</strong>’s behaviour change field generally find addressing sexual violence difficult work. As a result, workers have searched for Key practice points àà àà àà Men are often very hesitant to discuss intimate partner sexual violence in <strong>men</strong>’s behaviour change programs addressing family violence. Program providers are trying innovative and creative ways to open up discussion and to encourage <strong>men</strong> to reflect on their and society’s sexual objectification of wo<strong>men</strong>. These approaches include deconstructing and exploring the notion of ‘make up’ sex after violence, the sexual objectification of wo<strong>men</strong> in the media and male peer cultures, healthy sexual relating and <strong>men</strong>’s use of pornography. 3 www.adfvc.unsw.edu.au
Page 1 and 2: financial costs family law engaging
Page 3: editorial Welcome to the 45th issue
Page 7 and 8: national update RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Page 9 and 10: Rally for Children’s Safety On 25
Page 11 and 12: fast facts THE FINANCIAL COST OF DO
Page 13 and 14: Bsafe program evaluation, Victoria
Page 15 and 16: INTERNATIONAL INTIATIVES Council of
Page 17 and 18: Using AVERT in the classroom From a
Page 19 and 20: practice notes LEARNING FROM EXPERI

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