Fresh data from the Crime Statistics Agency suggests that family violence incidents in Greater Shepparton are on the rise after dipping in 2020 during the pandemic. But FV experts say incidents actually increased during isolation and reported data is just the tip of the iceberg.
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While other crimes were on the decline in 2021, family violence was on the rise in Greater Shepparton, with police called to 1677 FV incidents, with a resulting 523 recorded offences.
This rise in FV incidents reported to, and by, police in 2021 occurred after a nine per cent dip in 2020 incidents (1560) followed a 2019 high (1721).
But Primary Care Connect executive manager family violence Chris McInnes says fewer reports last year does not mean domestic violence decreased, it actually represents victim-survivors who couldn’t come forward.
“Women had nowhere to go to, to escape it, or to even call anyone. So they would have been concerned for their safety,” she said.
When incidents in 2021 were broken down by gender, 1349 women were affected by FV in Greater Shepparton, compared to 1324 in 2019. There was a dip in 2020, with affected women presenting at 1204.
“The dilemma is that when the perpetrator is there all the time, they've got no safe place to [come forward],” Ms McInnes said.
The rise in reported FV offences was also likely to be directly linked to victim-survivors no longer being constantly under the thumb of their abuser now that restrictions had eased, Ms McInnes said.
“I think that the family violence has been going on all along, but the women are freer once things start to open up to be able to go in and ask for help,” she said.
“As people become more aware of it, more cases are reported. As we have more understanding, people will come out more.”
That’s the problem with data like this, according to Dr Leesa Hooker, a lead researcher into reducing violence against women at La Trobe Rural Health School. These reported cases are only the ones that get police attention.
“And that's really the tip of the iceberg ... these are extreme cases, and there are many other cases out there that don't get attention,” she said.
“While these statistics are alarming, the underlying iceberg is even more so.”
Half of all family violence offences in 2021 across Victoria were breaches of intervention orders.
And if the police aren’t called, then a family violence incident isn’t recorded, which Dr Hooker says leads to the actual amount of family violence being “grossly underestimated”.
“And that also doesn't take into account administrative errors or under-reporting by police as well,” she said.
The majority of incidents that occurred in 2021 were in the 25 to 34 age bracket (446), followed by the 35 to 44 bracket (436).
“Most of this family violence is intimate partner violence — not always, of course, but often it’s in heterosexual relationships, and women are victims, and children,” Dr Hooker said.
The age range of 45 to 54 saw 253 incidents and the 18 to 24 range saw 232. The age groups with the least incidents were the 55+ years (157), and the 0 to 17 years (157).
These figures didn’t deviate markedly from last year; however, the 2021 age group numbers compared to the pre-pandemic 2019 figures showed increases in the 25 to 34 group by 45 incidents and the 44 to 55 group by 25 incidents.
Ms McInnes expects with more awareness of family violence across the community, more cases will be reported, especially through initiatives such as the Orange Door.
The Orange Door Goulburn in Shepparton unites family support, victim-survivor and perpetrator services to offer a collaborative response to family violence.
But as awareness and education of family and gendered violence increases, Ms McInnes foresees a proportionate resistance from perpetrators of abuse who see this change in community attitude as a direct challenge to their masculinity.
“So in a sense, women will put their foot down more and say ‘I don’t want to put up with this anymore’, but that increases men’s controlling behaviour,” she said.
“There's this overarching social construct that men are the ones that have the right to make decisions, to be the leaders. And when that’s challenged, of course, they'll rise up.”
Primary prevention
According to Dr Hooker, the majority of family violence goes unreported, but is reflected in consequential poor health for women and children in particular, who present to health services more often.
“And so as a health care professional ... we know that we need to improve the way healthcare providers identify and support women who may have been in violent, abusive situations before extreme things happen, like children are murdered or women are murdered,” she said.
Dr Hooker has been looking into primary prevention, “stopping violence before it starts”, and her team has recently completed a large piece of research for the Federal Government around primary prevention of sexual violence.
“There's hardly any research at all,” she said.
“The thing is, it's a long-term investment in interventions that might address things like gender inequality, changing cultural norms, and society's views and attitudes about violence, acceptable ways to treat women,” she said.
“So you can imagine that intervention like that takes a long time to change a whole generations of attitudes, and then actual behaviour.”
Ms McInnes says the way forward is to respectfully engage with men on the issue of gendered and family violence, and hold them to account when they do use violence.
Help is available
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, you can call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au for free support, 24 hours a day. To speak to an interpreter call 13 14 50.
The Orange Door Goulburn is also a free service. To get in touch call 1800 634 245 from Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm (excluding public holidays), or email goulburn@orangedoor.vic.gov.au
More information is available at orangedoor.vic.gov.au
In an emergency, call 000.