where did white ribbon day come from? I have had several beaten woman on my door step escaping violent men. In all cases they had been beaten before and went back to their drunken 'man'. The kids of these families would of been taken away long ago if white. They will no doubt follow in their fathers and mothers footsteps. I have found that their is such a hatred for authority among those involved in this barbaric behaviour that as soon as things settle it is the Police who become the enemies until the next call. A little leadership from the cultural leaders might help although that might be considered doing things white men's way. Tragic for those involved and neighbours who have found the Police are very slow in coming because they are sick of the 'game '.

579 "The police say 99 % of family violence comes from men."

Care to back that with a credible reference.

Over a long period when both genders have been asked similar questions about violence in the home the results show that men and women initiate violence in the home at similar rates. Women get hurt more at the extreme end of the scale (that's the strength factor cutting in).

In 40% or more of relationships where there is violence it's mutual without a clear distinction between perpetrator and victim.

You start with http://www.fact.on.ca/Info/dom/heady99.htm (Australian example)

or https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/170018.pdf (NZ research)

or a range of material at
http://www.mediaradar.org/

Now find me some serious work that examines violence against both genders in a domestic situation that's not starting with the premise that it's only DV when men do it which also back's up the 99% claim?

R0bert

perigren:"I have no doubt that the author would not support violence against a person of any gender or age"

As I would certainly hope to be the case. However, the article is specifically about violence directed at women within the Aboriginal community and the attitudes of police to that violence until it extrapolates to the general case and the plot is hopelessly lost.

You've divined my point however, which is that violence is done by people to people. Whether the person on either end of the transaction is male or female matters not a jot except insofar as it can be used as a gender-political tool.

perigren:"most violence against men is happening in the streets and is inflicted by other men and I don't hear men talking about that"

And just as in the case of domestic violence, that street violence is strongly correlated with substance abuse and poverty, as well as the inevitable fights over and at the behest of women. "Let's you and him fight" is an old game. Generally, even in those circumstances men don't hit women: they hit other men, or walls...

However, you're wrong that it isn't talked about. Early closing has just been introduced to address the issue of street violence fuelled by alcohol consumption. There are cameras everywhere there are drinkers or revellers of any kind, monitoring behaviour so a quick response may occur to any incidents.

By using a targetted approach resources can be properly directed with the least inconvenience to those doing the right thing. I'm afraid that in DV matters that means focussing on the Aboriginal community, lower-tier socio-economic groupings generally and substance abusers more specifically. Gender is far less important than any of those factors, other than as an indicator of likely outcomes once violence has been initiated. Men hit harder, but women often hit first and they hit far more frequently, as well as being much more likely to be verbally abusive.

These are realities, which the WRD campaign simply ignores. It has no credibility.

I was both moved and anxious when reading this article.

Moved because I am pleased with how a young police officer went back in and helped the mum and children, and anxious because it reminded me of many, many instances of domestic violence I was called to clean up after.

Dane, this author was a policeman, and as such would know more about domestic violence than all the other posters here put together I would imagine.

Medical staff know the disgusting business of domestic violence too, and I am pleased to see an article dealing with Aboriginal people and how they have the most obvious problems with domestic violence in our community.

As a younger nurse, I was involved in Aboriginal health, and I remember going to an Aboriginal community at the hospital's request to attend to wounds on a woman's knuckles on both hands.

Her loving husband had bent all the fingers back and broken the fingers, and she had wires inserted in them. He had no obvious injuries.

The finger wounds were all oozing pus around the wires when I arrived, so I told her she needed to go back to the hospital for treatment.
Her husband refused to 'let the b##ch out of my sight', so I had to agree to take him to the hospital with us in the car.

I dared to ask why they had fought.
The answer: "The fat cow won't get pregnant, so what use is she?"

And that is just one clear recollection of way too many domestic violence situations to discuss here.

It would seem clear that the main driving force here is poverty, but not *just* being short of money.
The situations described relate to aboriginals, not just poor in our economic system, desperately poor in western cultural capital. There are "white" and "immigrant" people who are also so lacking and similar instances of viciousness and violent.

The violence would appear not to have developed as a first option, but been descended to by means of these people feeling they have no other option to influence their lives. Suseonline describes the "fat cow" that "won't get pregnant". Why was this so important? is having children the *only way* to increase household welfare income?

The questions may not revolve around telling people not to be violent but to look at the dismissive manner "welfare" is concieved and delivered. The trap becomes so deep that the perversion of making kids merely to get more becomes normalised, as does beating the barren cow.

How can we *really* help rather than just saying "don't thrash, just sit quietly in the shite".

Rusty

One thing about DV that is not talked about often, is the violence to men, by women.
I do not condone violence of any kind, but 'two way' DV is not always talked about, mainly because most abused males will not talk about it.
No matter what, regarding "equality of the sexes", women are complex critters, whereby the males, are more simple regarding their domestic needs and wants. A man will want to come home after a day's work, play with the kids for a while, have dinner, and relax with his wife. But when marital separation/divorce rears its' ugly head, the male is the loser every time, in my view at least. He pays for the kids upkeep, the mortgage etc. etc. has not got a hope in hell of ever finding another partner, because he cannot afford to keep her and another woman and kids.
His frustration runs deeply, often not even knowing why the marriage ends abruptly.What hope has he got of getting another house and starting over again?
Observing Aboriginies in Kalgoorlie for many years, alcohol is the major problem of abuse, and trust me, the women can be as (if not more) violent than the males. The behavior trickles down as learned behavior after witnessing violent brawls between adults. Violence is a way of life for some of them. Consumption of alcohol is a big driver, and the violence commited by youth has trickled down by this situation. The problems are almost unsolvable, someone or something has to be done about it before future generations think that abuse is the norm.
NSB