Domestic Violence advocates want to shift focus from victims to abusers

When a person’s partner turns violent our first reaction is usually ‘why don’t they leave?’. But we’re asking the wrong question.

When we think about domestic violence Australians are “not asking the right question”, argues a leading advocate.

Instead of focusing on why a victim does not leave, we should be asking why an abuser chooses to hurt them, says No To Violence chief executive officer Jacqui Watt.

“The wider community, we’re still not asking the right question. The ‘why doesn’t she leave’ question is looking at it from the wrong angle,” she said.

“Too often the burden of dealing with the impact of violence in families means that the women have to take responsibility for ... fleeing the violence.

“We want to shift the burden to say ‘What’s he doing and what can we do differently?’”

No To Violence hosted a national conference in Adelaide this week on the theme of Shifting the Burden, where experts and frontline workers discussed how to better respond to men who commit domestic violence.

There are calls to make more housing available for perpetrators so victims can remain in their homes, and to offer more counselling and behaviour change programs for abusers.

Addressing the conference, federal Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said there was “no doubt we need to focus on engaging perpetrators to address their behaviour, rather than asking victim-survivors to do the heavy lifting themselves”.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth on a tour of the new Salvos facility with Lorrinda Hamilton, general manager of the Family Violence Social Mission Department of the Salvation Army, and Rebecca Grundy, senior development manager of the Salvos’ Property Group. Picture Dean Martin/Advertiser

Ms Rishworth yesterday opened a new Salvation Army refuge in Adelaide offering eight units which are expected to house up to 200 women and children a year.

Ms Watt said crisis centres were necessary but fleeing was “hugely disruptive to her and the kids and the pets”.

“Accommodating men, the person using violence, could be a more effective way of looking at this problem,” she said.

Police can remove an abuser from their home but most return, or end up on public housing waiting lists or homeless as there are very few options for perpetrator housing in SA.

Community Transitions offers accommodation and counselling for up to 22 men at time.

Since September 2020, 48 men have gone through seven properties funded by a state government trial and 39 men have stayed in a five-bed hostel which Community Transitions opened in August 2021.

The organisation also runs 10 beds for domestic violence offenders leaving prison.

Chief executive Leigh Garrett said abusive men “both need to be held accountable for those harms and to be given opportunities to reform their behaviour”.

Community Transitions previously operated the Don’t Become That Man counselling hotline, which fielded calls from 460 men in its first year. However, funding was discontinued in July, 2021.

The previous Liberal government then awarded a $1.1m tender to No To Violence to launch the Statewide Perpetrator Response Service in September, 2021.

It has since received 212 calls.