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

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
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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.
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www.adfvc.unsw.edu.au