Theoretical Framework For Domestic Violence

The Government Policy and its Affects

Discuss about the Theoretical Framework for Domestic Violence.

The violence that takes place among people who are, or were, in a personal or intimate relationship is known as domestic violence. When referring to family violence then the term becomes broader as it is the violence that takes place between family members and also between intimate partners. This violence includes physical, sexual, psychological, and emotional abuse. Once considered as a taboo to discuss, now violence of any type is considered as both human right’s abuse and a social problem (Australian Government, 2015). Violence against women is a serious issue in Australia. This needs to be dealt by the government and communities urgently. According to the statistics, one of the three women has gone through physical and real violence. The other survey conveys that around one out of five women has suffered sexual violence. ACT is a policy that is designed for prevention of violence against women and children. It takes up the responsibility of ending violence against women and children. In more than 80% of the incidents of domestic violence, the victim is an adult female. This policy aims to simplify the application process for civil protection orders. It also aims to connect the victim with the criminal justice system for justice. Under ACT the degree of violence is determined to decide the strategy of controlling the act of violence. The ACT takes up four primary objectives to design a policy for a person who needs help regarding support and justice. The alternative policy has also been discussed to show the pros and cons of the ACT policy. (Mitchell, 2011).

The ACT is a government policy that prevents against violence. All the communities and the Governments are using their full strength to remove this violation of human rights act from the society. ACT says that not only the victims but there are many other factors that get affected by such abuse. When such thing happens, then the reputation of not just the local authorities, but many other authorities comes at stake. The stakeholders of incidence of domestic or family violence are the Government which includes the health department, finance, treasury, education, etc. (Alexander, 2015). The non-government organization and non-profit organizations, community groups, civil societies, political parties, health care funders, business and the private sector, local government, health insurance groups, donors, UN agencies, health worker’s organizations and patients and health service users also get affected by it (Australian Government, 2015). The other factor is the existing policies that get affected by the ACT strategy of preventing violence against women and children. There are some existing policies that are running to take action against all type of violence. Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse, Women’s Services Network, The Domestic Violence & Incest Resource Centre, Domestic Violence Initiative, ACT Office for Women, Women’s Information and Referral Service Domestic Violence Support Group and Domestic violence information are some examples of existing policies that get affected by the ACT strategy for preventing women and children against domestic violence (Beel, 2013).

The Political Context of Domestic Violence Prevention under ACT

The political context of the domestic violence prevention under Act refers to the address of the government in the working of the policy. The national plan is the initiative taken by the Council of Australian Government which is designed to address the issue of domestic violence against women and children (Broadley & Goddard, 2014). Most of the commentators and stakeholders have taken The National Plan positively, but some arguments have also surfaced about the integrated resourcing and funding for The National Plan across all the jurisdictions is critical to effect in the changes in long-term. Mostly it is agreed that the issue of domestic violence and the policies designed to decrease it under The National Plan requires complex and coordinated responses, not just the commitments of funds and sporadic initiatives. But the main argument is regarding the uses of the funds for gender equity rather than fighting and decreasing this form of violence. As the ACT clarifies that it is their responsibility to end violence happening in Australia against women and children which increase the argument within the political context in between the government policy designing and the stakeholders and commentators (Capon, Smith, & Gillespie, 2012).

The strategies of ACT are developed and implemented by the Governments National Plan. The Australian National Council has formed The National Plan to decrease the violence happening against women and children and ACT works as per the norms of the National Plan. After consulting over 2000 women who has been the victim of violence, men who has committed violence, and other 350 written submissions, strategies of the ACT are designed. These strategies have involved all the stakeholders and the community sector (Crow & Baysha, 2013). After consulting all the three important factors, the prime objectives are decided. The four primary steps are described here. The first primary objective says that a specific focus area need to be formed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and their problems should be enclosed in it. The second objective is to provide the response to a domestic violence call flexible and holistic throughout the case. The third objective says to recognize the perpetrator continuum and support the person to improve his behavior. The fourth objective of the policy is to provide the victimized women and children support so their needs are met, and this will be done with the help of services and system (DiRosa, 2009).

Significant and sustained activities have taken place under the ACT to improve the system of response to family violence and sexual assault. Programs like Family Violence Intervention Program and the Sexual Assault Reform Program are included in the ACT. Crisis support and accommodation are the prime focus of the ACT’s homelessness sector for those who become homeless due to domestic or family violence. The FVIP and SARP focus on the correlation of violence victims with justice services and system and providing a response subsequent to violence occurrence. Key strategies are the influential part while planning the activities and objectives. All the actions are developed for short-term or medium-term. For first three years, these implemented strategies will be evaluated, and accordingly future strategies will be planned. This process or approach will ensure a long-term systematic engagement to prevent violence against women and children (Fisher, 2013).

The Strategies of ACT and their Implementation

For measuring the success of the implementation of the ACT and the analysis of its progress the key indicators are used. To prove the current success, it is necessary to specify that all the strategies planned are by the National Plan and Commonwealth has also given its commitment to develop a National Centre for Excellence. This centre will combine the past research with the current research undertaken. Commonwealth has also committed to provide funds for the People Safety Survey and Community Attitudes Survey (Ghonghadze, 2015). Though measuring achievements so early cannot provide a result for a long-term implementation, but the belief of stakeholders and Commonwealth in the policy shows the positive approach towards it. There are some key indicators that indicate the success of the policy and they are as follows: the first objective attained success because a survey taken under the National Plan that shows the increase of intolerance of violence against women in the community (Krug, Lozano, Zwi, Mercy, & Dahlberg, 2015). Another objective saw success because there is a reduction of family violence, attack, and assault in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and this news is informed and collected by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey. Another key indicator of the success is in the increment of logged case, which shows women are moving ahead and had the power to fight them all. The fourth indicator is the decrement of the repeated partner victimization. These success indicators help in knowing the success of the policy which will help in determining the future decision of the policy designer and its success in the long term (Selgelid, 2009).

 It is true that the ACT is working for the benefit of the society by helping in reducing the violence against women and children, but most of its strategies are to focus on given justice and help after the crime has taken place, this is not going to reduce the domestic or family violence because many cases are not even reached for justice as it is considered as the family matter. According to an author Nathan Beel, many strategies are gender biased as they initially take the men accountable for any violence in a relationship (Beel, 2013). Another author emphasizes the importance of victimization surveys because according to him they are important as a source of information regarding the nature and extent of domestic violence because so many violence cases go unreported (Morgan & Chadwick, 2009).

Key Indicators for Measuring Success

In place of the ACT policy, another policy that can be considered more influential and result oriented is the Public Health Approach. Stakeholders prefer to stake their money in a place where there is a chance of getting reverted. Many stakeholders are not very much happy with the Act policy and another policy to take hype in place of it. The Public Health Approach is a policy focus on the public health and well-being and safety of the population. This policy aims at providing maximum benefits to the large number of people (Krug, Lozano, Zwi, Mercy, & Dahlberg, 2015). It deals in sectors like health education, justice, and social services, which make stakeholder collectively asking to make this policy as the dedicated policy for domestic and family violence. Stakeholders like the Public Health approach as it deals with two important aspects at the same time. This policy can be applied to violence and health issues at the same time (Mitchell, 2011).

The Public Health Approach completes its process in four steps. The first step defines and monitors the problem due to which the occurrence of violence has taken place; the second step is to identify the risk and the protective factors this will help in deciding the prevention measures (Selgelid, 2009). Step three is the development and testing of prevention strategies to assess the efficiency of the strategy. If the prevention program turns out to be a success, then the fourth step is to be adopted as the strategy worldwide. A tried and tested technique will be a better-implementing strategy rather than experiment with the new strategy (Morgan & Chadwick, 2009).

 Stake holders prefer using the Public Health Approach because the expenditure covers a lot of area of improvement in comparison to the Act. The process of identifying the problem emphasize on a proper handling of the situation which provides equity to all the members associated with the case. This also brings the social justice to the case (Krug, Lozano, Zwi, Mercy, & Dahlberg, 2015)

The ACT policy is an approach toward the solution of the problem without making it a difficult situation. The prime objectives of the policy is to provide benefits to the person suffering from domestic or family violence. The ACT is a perfect choice for the purpose of reducing the domestic violence against women and children as its approach is easy and simple for people to understand and follow it (Murray & Powell, 2007). The maximum problem of domestic violence is found in the Aboriginal Tribe of Australia, and the policy emphasizes on helping them with a specific program which can make a difference in their life. The shortcomings of the ACT are the short circle of approach. The policy limits itself within a circle and does not step out. This is the main shortcoming of the ACT. The ACT emphasizes on taking everything one by one; there are many people who need help and helping hands are very less. Thus, whatever hands are available, use them. The ACT comes into action once the violence act has taken place. It cannot save the person who is at home and taking such victimization because he or she has not yet registered a complaint (Ricart Casadevall, 2016).

Conclusion

Domestic and family violence is a curse which is majorly faced by the women and children. The Australian Government is trying hard to fight against the violence. There are various policies being designed by the Australian government to help in reducing the domestic and family violence against women and children. One such policy is discussed here which is the ACT strategy that aims to reduce the violence against women and children 2011-2017. This policy helps the people who have suffered from domestic and family violence as it is the Government’s responsibility to help its citizens. Starting from providing support to providing justice to the victim this whole process comes in the designing of the ACT policy. Stakeholders are a bit against the policy as it takes things one by one and does not cover the area as much they wanted to cover. But the result it is showing with its short-term and medium-term projects and objectives are proving successful. This emphasizes on the use of this policy. Though an alternative policy is also discussed this is better at one point that, it covers a lot of ground as compared to the ACT policy. But other-wise the ACT is proving to be a good policy to be followed under Australia jurisdiction. Hence, it is concluded that the policy of the ACT is a policy framed under the National Plan is a good choice for the issue arising in Australia.

References

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