Uni police lecturer ‘cancelled’ over DV claim

A university lecturer has been stood down from her role teaching police recruits after claiming “just as many women as men” commit domestic violence.

A university lecturer who was stood down from her role teaching police recruits for claiming “just as many women as men” commit domestic violence says she is “heartbroken” at being “cancelled”.

Dr Fiona Girkin, an associate lecturer in policing and emergency management at the University of Tasmania, previously taught police recruits about domestic and family violence issues and says she was “much loved” by the police academy.

But Dr Girkin came under fire this week over comments she made in a YouTube interview with anti-feminist commentator and author Bettina Arndt.

The interview, published on May 15, was titled “Tasmanian police resist feminist weaponisation of DV laws”.

“The University of Tasmania is aware of the interview and is reviewing the issue,” a university spokesman said. “We will not comment on matters concerning an individual staff member while this process is underway.”

Dr Girkin told Arndt that she urged police, when they get called to a home, to “not look at gender but look at behaviour”.

“Of course in most circumstances they’re going to find that if it’s a physical violence situation often it is the male, but I want them to go in and look at behaviour not at gender because I think that can bias how they view the situation,” she said.

“And given that’s such a strong narrative out there in the world I’m really particular about not being biased. The other thing I do in my slides is I always make sure I put both lots of stats, you know, male victims, female victims, female perpetrators, male perpetrators.”

Dr Fiona Girkin, right, speaking to Bettina Arndt. Picture: YouTube

Dr Girkin said she often put a “question mark” on some numbers “because there’s actually no stats that I can locate around male victims of domestic violence, certainly in Tasmania, because no one’s interested in gathering those statistics”.

In response, Arndt claimed international research showed that in “most violent homes males and females are violent, women often instigate violence … I mean the data is well and truly out there”.

Dr Girkin said getting that message to police “hasn’t been as big of a task as I expected because what I’m hearing from police that have been around for a long time and police that are out there at the moment is that they’re seeing just as many women as they are men in domestic violence situations as the perpetrator”.

“It’s not males that are the offenders, it’s equally both men and women and that’s something that’s certainly coming back from all levels of policing that they’re telling me,” she said.

Official numbers do not back up her comments.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 81 per cent of the 1582 family or domestic violence-related offenders processed in Tasmania last financial year were male. The rate of offending was around four times higher for males than females at 505 per 100,000 versus 117 per 100,000.

Nationally, 79 per cent (71,336) of family or domestic violence offenders were male last year. In 2023 there were 157 victims of family and domestic violence-related homicides, 60 per cent of whom were female.

Alina Thomas from family violence support service Engender Equality told the ABC that Dr Girkin’s comments were a “misrepresentation of what we know from evidence, from data and research about the causes and the impacts of family and sexual violence in the community”.

“When people are entering into that conversation who have a very alternative perspective to what the evidence is demonstrating, it detracts from the severity of the reality and the impacts of that,” she said.

Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Thursday, Dr Girkin defended her position despite the talkback host pointing out “the statistics don’t back you up”.

“They’re the stats, they’re the numbers, I guess I can’t argue with those,” she said.

“But it’s not taking into consideration what is happening between when they’re going into the home and when they’re being charged. I’ve had multiple emails from police saying exactly the same thing, ‘Yes we’re seeing a lot more women than we used to.’ I believe that’s to do with the power dynamics changing and men being very fearful of their own behaviour and a lot more conscious of their own behaviour.”

Dr Girkin said being “cancelled” was “not a very nice feeling at all”.

She said she simply taught police that “you should never make assumptions based on anything”.

Dr Girkin taught Tasmania Police recruits about domestic and family violence. Picture: Supplied

“I think there’s been a real shift in power dynamics in society with women but also in relationships,” she said.

“I’ve taken every opportunity since I’ve been working with police to have conversations about this and everybody I spoke to has said they’re seeing as many women [domestic violence offenders] as men when they go into the home initially.”

She said she was “much loved by the police academy, I’ve had praise for the work I do”

“I try to come from a humanistic approach rather than a feministic approach,” she said.

“I’m looking at human beings and who’s in danger and who’s not, rather than looking at it as a gender problem. That doesn’t mean that I don’t teach that women are more likely to be violently harmed because men are a lot stronger than women. That is to be expected. It’s a genetic thing, not so much a gender thing. I was simply directing my lectures in a way that matched what I was hearing from the police.”

Dr Girkin stressed that she was “not being disciplined, it’s an assessment” but she was “not sure” if she wanted her job back.

“I’m heartbroken,” she said.

“I really loved my job and it was extremely embarrassing for the ABC to print that I’d been stood down, because that’s how my friends and family found out.”

Tasmania Police told news.com.au it “did not have any input or awareness of the interview”.

“The content of Dr Girkin’s interview was not endorsed by Tasmania Police and does not align with our approach in dealing with family violence,” a spokeswoman said. “Tasmania Police is steadfastly committed with our key partners to a trauma-informed approach in dealing with victim survivors of family and sexual violence.”

Arndt has sparked controversy over the years for comments on consent and rape, and for sympathetically interviewing convicted pedophile and former Australian of the Year Grace Tame’s schoolteacher abuser, Nicolaas Bester.

In 2020 she drew fire for comments defending a Queensland detective’s statement about the murders of Hannah Clarke and her children that mentioned a “husband being driven too far”.

Originally published as Uni police lecturer ‘cancelled’ over DV claim