Domestic Violence: Australia's Red-Ribbon Campaign

Domestic violence occurs in epidemic proportions, impacting an estimated 6.2 million American women every year, and causing more

A recent news article cited statistics that suggest domestic violence is increasing dramatically from year to year in West Australia (Pownall, 2012). In 2011, the police in West Australia responded to 39,297 domestic violence calls. This represents a 12.2% increase from the previous year and a 27.0% increase from 2009. Some of the factors blamed for this year to year increase were population growth, creation of domestic violence awareness campaigns, the economic downturn, and drug and alcohol abuse.

Once the 1980’s came, a lot of different changes took place. If the police were called for help with domestic violence, they no longer ignored it. They would arrest and convict those who were guilty of domestic violence. If we look in today’s society although, some changes has been made on this topic; there are still a lot of work to do to prevent domestic violence and to raise awareness of this inconceivable social problem as we can see in the statistics of the state of South Caroline that makes this state No 1 for deadly violence against woman as was announced by the Washington Times in September 15, 2015.

In the most recent data available from 2015, it was disclosed that nearly 92,000 Canadians had report to the police an incident related to domestic violence; of this number, 80% of them were women (Burczycka, 2017). It is then no surprise that intimate partnership violence has been found to be one of the major causes of violence against women in Canada (Ministry of the Status of Women, 2015). Many agencies focus on supporting directly the female victims and providing them with secured shelters and safe spaces to rebuild themselves after leaving their abusive relationship (Shelter Safe, 2017). However, a need to address domestic violence from the roots arose in Ontario1982, when the community identified a gap in the offer of programs

Domestic Violence has drastically increased over the years. Violence in the home is a concern for most. The most affected victims rather it’s emotionally or physically are women. They fall into different categories: single, married, separated, or divorced. For years, people try to avoid this conversation. Women of all ages, all ethnicity, and all social level are affected by domestic violence in their homes. There are

Many women are experiencing violence against them, whether it be physical, mental, or verbal. According to Kirk, Terry, Lokuge, and Watterson, “Violence against women (VAW) is a major issue worldwide, with an estimated 35% of women, or roughly 1 in 3, experiencing either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime” (p. 2). There have been many groups that have been created to combat violence against women. The group I will be focusing on is White Ribbon group. The White Ribbon are the defenders of women.

Stuart F. Delery, Former Acting Associate Attorney General, (2015) states "The month of October is observed as Domestic Violence Awareness Month around the country by advocates, law enforcement, prosecutors, survivors and many others to raise public awareness about domestic violence." According to the United States Department of Justice (2016) domestic violence is defined as "a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner." Domestic violence is one criminal justice issue frequently faced by law enforcement, attorneys, and especially victims of the crime. The United States Department of Justice (2016) asserts domestic violence can be any type of action or threat of action, such as physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological that influences another person; this includes behaviors in a way that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone. Regardless of age, sexual orientation, race, religion, socioeconomic background, education level, or gender, domestic violence can happen to any individual despite being in a opposite-sex or same-sex relationship and whether the intimate partners are married, cohabiting, or simply dating. Since domestic violence can occur at any time and place to anyone, initiatives taken

It has been recorded that approximately “2,000,000 injuries, and 1,300 deaths are caused each year as a result of domestic violence” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This harm to and loss of life is due to the negligence of all Americans, in regards to the monitoring and managing of domestic violence in the United States. In order to combat the blatant disregard for domestic violence victims, Americans must support, aid, and assist those who fall victim to this crime, as well as educate those who are oblivious to the matter at hand. These actions will be essential in the eradication of domestic violence, as well as the preservation of the health and overall safety of all American people.

Domestic violence is an issue that is impacting the indigenous Australian population (Korff, J. 2015).This should be concerning to Australians so that they may help reduce fatal deaths by domestic violence (Korff, J. 2015).

Domestic Violence is a major issue in Australia right now and many believe that there are not enough resources to help domestic violence victims. 25% of women report being affected by domestic violence in their lifetimes and yet there is still not much being done. One of the main reasons women stays in the home where they are experiencing domestic abuse is because they do not feel safe leaving their home. Domestic violence victims are being turned away from refuges and being sent to motels and caravan parks, the refuges instead take in homeless people.

Everyone seems to worry when it comes to alcohol or drugs but not when it comes to domestic abuse. Domestic violence refers to the acts of violence that occur within intimate relationships or between family members, this includes physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse. On average at least one woman a week is killed by a partner or former partner in Australia. this fact alone is enough to alarm most people. you might think that this fact was made up but it is very real, this statistic is pretty bad but at least one in three women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15.

The Domestic Violence Intervention and Education Project (DOVE) Hawkes Bay was established on 19 August 1993 (Maxwell, Anderson, & Olsen, 2001). According to M. Byford (personal communication, July 27, 2016), the organisation was developed from a community initiative by Men Against Violence, counsellors, police, Women’s Refuge, Community Corrections and the Family Court. During this time, many laws and support services were being created to stop domestic violence incidences, however, it was observed that organisations were not collaborating and victims as well as perpetrators were falling through the gaps. Therefore, Dove was established to work alongside other agencies to combat domestic violence. The first ten week women’s programme started in 1995, and from there on they expanded their programs and services to cater for families, children and men (Maxwell, Anderson, & Olsen, 2001).

Domestic violence is skyrocketing in our society. In the U.S., as many as 1.5 million women and 850,000 men were physically assaulted by their intimate partner last year, and numerous children abused by their parents. These sad criminal acts will continue to grow in our society, unless our community takes action to stop these crimes.

Domestic Violence is a critical issue negatively impacting women in the world today. There has to be something done to prevent this type of abuse from happening. The results of my research revealed that there are many victims that do not know the type of help that is available and there needs to be major improvement in the way domestic violence cases are handled. Based on my findings, awareness and prevention programs should be implemented in every state in order prevent this type of abuse from happening over and over. Also, each program must be monitored to ensure they are following the proper guidelines in order to better serve the victims and their families.

There are so many universal subjects in this world, but there is one that everybody can relate to: the prospect of finding love with someone. With the media being a great influence on what society believes to be true, many of the popular gender-based media are choosing sensationalism over accuracy to get the attention of potential readers. Almost all of these magazines have articles about dating and marriage, spouting out inaccurate information and non-professional advice to impressionable readers. This not only creates various problems for those who are seeking a mate, but in the long run the damage can prevent people from finding true and loving relationships. However, if people