Say You're Sorry and It's OK

From: theage.com.au


PM hails attitude shift on violence

DAN HARRISON

November 26, 2009


ALMOST all Australians now acknowledge that domestic violence is a crime, but a quarter of the nation believe women make false claims about being raped, and one in five think violence is OK if the perpetrator later regrets their actions.

The findings come from a survey of more than 10,000 Australians commissioned by the Federal Government and released yesterday by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to mark White Ribbon Day.

The proportion of respondents that acknowledged domestic violence was a crime was 98 per cent, up 5 percentage points from when such a survey was last taken, in 1995. The proportion of people who believe that victims of sexual assault ''ask for it'' dropped from one in seven in 1995 to one in 20 today.

Mr Rudd said he was pleased to see ''a significant shift in the attitudes and beliefs Australians hold'' about domestic violence.

But he added: ''Disappointingly, the survey shows that some Australians still hold attitudes which excuse or trivialise violence against women.''

One quarter of respondents disagreed with the statement that women rarely make false claims of being raped, while one in five believed that violence could be excused if the perpetrator later genuinely regretted what they had done.

The proportion of people who think that women are as likely as men to commit domestic violence has more than doubled. But Mr Rudd said the statistics did not bear this out.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, almost a third of women who experienced physical assault were attacked by a current or former male partner. Only 4 per cent of men who had been physically assaulted in the same period were attacked by a current or former female partner. Almost two-thirds were attacked by male strangers.

Mr Rudd said the survey findings would inform a $17 million social marketing campaign to reduce violence that would be launched early next year.

Over their lifetimes, one in five Australian women will be sexually assaulted, and one in three will be physically assaulted. One in four Australian children will witness violence against their mother or stepmother. Less than a third of victims will report the crime.

Mr Rudd, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull and other MPs yesterday swore an oath to never commit, excuse or remain silent about violence against women.