THE CAUSES OF FAMILY VIOLENCE: AN OVERVIEW

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THE CAUSES OF FAMILY VIOLENCEAN OVERVIEW
Presented at AIJA Family Violence Conference,
23-24 February 2006, Adelaide

• Toni Makkai
• Director

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Disclaimer

• This research presentation does not necessarily
  reflect the policy position of the Australian
  Government.

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Setting the scene

• Violence among adult partners and significant
  others
• Abuse/neglect of children by an adult
• Violence perpetrated by a child against their
  parents
• Violence among siblings
• Encompasses a mix of harmful, violent and
  aggressive behaviours

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Where have we been?

• The focus
• has been fragmented on specific types of violence
  that occur within families usually considered
  independent of each other
• In 1980s strong feminist focus on patriarchal
  cultural norms that condone violence and
  gender-based power inequities
• Consequences
• single explanatory theory that could not account
  for the diversity of family violence
• responses independent with either a criminal
  justice response or a health response
• research was overwhelmingly on domestic violence
  focused on women as victims
• historical separation of domestic violence and
  child protection issues

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Why do we need to know about risk factors?

• assessing dangerous in order to control
  behaviour and prevent future occurrences
• programs that target offenders, support victims
  or work with families
• focus on individual risk factors and situational
  factors that can be assessed and/or addressed
• much of the risk factor research comes from the
  domestic violence and sexual assault literature

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What do we know?Prevalence and associated
individual risk factors

• General review of the literature
• Data sources
• No national data on family violence
• AIC IVAWS survey (women only)
• AIC NHMP (all homicides)
• AIC Police detainees survey (all detainees)
• Data limitations
• Dependent on reporting to police or
  self-disclosure
• Surveys are estimates/probabilities only
• Differences in methodologies
• Differences in focus

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Victims -- AIC IVAWS (2004)

• General community survey of 6,677 Australian
  women aged between 18 and 69
• Telephone interviews conducted between December
  2002 and June 2003
• Asked questions about 3 distinctive types of
  violence against women
• physical (including threats of physical violence)
• sexual (including unwanted sexual touching)
• Psychological (controlling behaviours, such as
  put downs, keeping track of whereabouts)

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Current intimate partner violence - IVAWS

• 5,074 women reported they were in a current
  relationship (spouse, de facto partner, or
  boyfriend) at the time of participation in the
  IVAWS
• About 3 reported they had experienced violence
  from their current partner during the past 12
  months

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Current intimate partner violence - IVAWS
Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
IVAWS 2002/03 weighted data computer file.
n5,074
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Risk factors for current intimate physical
violence - IVAWS

• Significant risk factors identified
• Prior childhood victimisation (odds increase by
  1.6)
• Factors associated with the males behaviour
• controlling behaviour (odds increase by 6)
• violent outside the family (odds increase by 4)
• married and male heavy drinker (odds increase by
  3)

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Womens experiences of adult victimisation by
victimisation in childhood -- IVAWS
Physical violence
Any violence
Sexual violence
Yes No
Yes No
Yes No
Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
IVAWS 2002/03 weighted data computer file.
n6,667
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Womens experiences of adult victimisation by
males controlling behaviour - IVAWS
Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
IVAWS 2002/03 weighted data computer file.
n5,074
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Womens experiences of adult victimisation by
male attitudes towards others - IVAWS
Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
IVAWS 2002/03 weighted data computer file.
n5,073
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Womens experiences of adult victimisation by
male alcohol use - IVAWS
Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
IVAWS 2002/03 weighted data computer file.
n5,073
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Risk factors for physical child abuse (Milner,
1995)

• Personal characteristics
• Low self-esteem
• External locus of control
• Assertiveness skills
• Authoritarianism
• Frustration/aggression
• Anxiety
• Mental health/pathology
• Family environment
• History of child abuse
• Problems in family functioning
• Parenting styles
• Social isolation/lack of social support
• Life stress

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Risk factors for physical child abuse (Milner,
1995)

• Relationship with the child
• Physiological reactivity to child
• Anger associated with child interactions
• Knowledge of child development
• Evaluation and attribution regarding childs
  behaviour
• Not clear which or combination of
  characteristics are the best predictors
• One factor alone is not enough
• Some factors are mediated
• Some factors are elevated by others

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Risk factors repeat victimisation, pregnancy

• Most intimate partner violence is repeated
  about two thirds of assaulters repeating their
  violence in 1 year, averaging about 6 times
  (Straus et al 1980)
• In a study of police reports, 20 of the couples
  accounted for nearly 50 of all incidents
  (Sherman 1992)
• Pregnancy has also been cited as a strong
  predictor of intimate partner violence (Goodman
  et al 2000)
• ABS CSS found 42 experienced violence in a prior
  relationship with pregnant
• 20 experienced violence for the first time
  during pregnancy
• 1000 Qld women 9 reported abuse during the
  pregnancy

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Risk factors Time and day

• NSW study found high rates of domestic violence
  outside of Sydney SD (People, 2005)
• Peak risk of domestic violence is 6-9pm and
  Saturday/Sunday (People, 2005)

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Risk factorWitness violence as a child

• Meta analysis of 52 studies found witnessing
  violence between partners was a consistent risk
  marker for spouse abuse among both males and
  females
• 36 of IVAWS women who experienced violence said
  their children had been a witness
• 5000 12-20 year Australians (Indermaur, 2001)
• 23 of young women reported they had witnessed at
  least one act violence against mothers or
  stepmothers
• The best predictor of experiencing violence in
  young peoples relationships was having witnessed
  a certain type of male to female violence in the
  home
• Canada men who witnessed mothers being abuse were
  3 times as likely to be violent towards their
  wives women exposed to violence against mothers
  were twice as likely to be later family violence
  victims

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Risk factors for wife assault (Saunders 1995)
A Prominent risk bprobable risk cpossible risk
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Risk factors for wife assault (Saunders 1995)
A Prominent risk bprobable risk cpossible risk
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Intimate partner physical violence amongst a
sample of police detainees

• 1621 adult detainees 2003 2005 answered
  questions in relation to violence in the home in
  the last twelve months and over their life time
• 86 completion rate for the partner violence
  addendum
• Locations Sydney, Brisbane, Southport,
  Adelaide, Elizabeth Perth
• 85 male, 15 female
• 55 male and 50 females had been arrested in the
  past 12 months

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Prevalence of partner violence victimisation
Source AIC DUMA Computer File
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Risk factors for recent partner violence
victimisation
Percent reporting partner violence in past 12
months by risk factor
Source AIC DUMA Computer File
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Risk factors for recent partner violence
victimisation
Percent reporting recent partner violence by
prior arrest in past 12 months
Source AIC DUMA Computer File
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Prevalence of recent partner violence perpetration
Source AIC DUMA Computer File
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Risk factors for recent partner violence
perpetration
Percent reporting partner violence perpetration
in past 12 months by risk factor
Source AIC DUMA Computer File
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Risk factors for recent partner violence
perpetration
Percent reporting partner violence perpetration
in past 12 months by prior arrest history (past
12 months)
Source AIC DUMA Computer File
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Significant findings

• The risk factors for recent victimisation and
  perpetration were the same
• Having dependent children
• Experience of violence between parents in the
  home as a child
• Being drug dependent
• Having recent contact with the criminal justice
  system, particularly for violent offences
• What is this likely to indicate?
• Need to be cautious does not measure the
  seriousness of the offending

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Co-existence of victim and offending behaviour
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Risk factors for increased likelihood of severity
of violence

• 2 out 5 IVAWS women who reported violence were
  injured in the most recent incidence
• Rates are higher for prior partners than current
  partners
• Experienced violence before marriage/common-law
  union
• Partners alcohol use
• Children witness the violence
• Prior episode of violence from the same partner
• Fear that life is in danger
• Experienced high levels of emotional abuse

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Definition of domestic homicide

• Intimates current and former intimate partners
• Filicide custodial and non-custodial parents
  killing their children
• Parricide children killing their parents
• Siblicide homicide between siblings and
• Other Family cousins, in-laws, etc.

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Homicides 1989/19902002/2003

• Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
  National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP),
  1989/90 2002/03 computer file

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Distribution of domestic homicides
Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP),
1989/90 2002/03 computer file
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Intimate partner homicide by gender of offender
Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP),
1989/90 2002/03 computer file
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Prior history of domestic violence
Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP),
1989/90 2002/03 computer file, n501
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• Differences in Risk in Cohabiting and Marital
  relationships
• Married men were killed by their partners at a
  rate of 1.3 men per million married men per
  annum
• Cohabiting men were killed at a much higher rate
  of 21.1 men per million cohabiting men
• Married women were killed by their partners at a
  rate of 4.7 women per million married women per
  annum
• Cohabiting women were killed at a much higher
  rate of 44.9 per million cohabiting women per
  annum.

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Trends in Filicide
Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP),
1989/90 2002/03 computer file
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Filicide 1989/19902002/2003

• 323 victims of filicide
• Average 23 filicides per year
• Little variation in gender of victims
• Majority (62) involve a male offender
• 68 of filicides involve one victim
• Higher of filicides committed by fathers
  compared to mothers involve multiple victims (35
  versus 28)

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Filicide age of victim gender of offender
Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP),
1989/90 2002/03 computer file
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Filicide weapon gender of offender
Other includes fire, poison, drugs, ligature,
etc. Source Australian Institute of
Criminology, National Homicide Monitoring Program
(NHMP), 1989/90 2002/03 computer file
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Presence of a mental disorder
Source Australian Institute of Criminology,
National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP),
1989/90 2002/03 computer file
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Violence perpetrated by a child against their
parents

• Violence in the family against older people,
  often referred to as elder abuse, emerged as an
  issue of social importance in the 1990s (McCallum
  et al 1990 Office of the Ageing 1994).
• Elder abuse covers any behaviour or pattern of
  behaviour by a person or persons which results in
  harm to an older person (Office of the Ageing
  1994).
• Definitional categories are often diverse,
  including combinations of physical abuse,
  psychological abuse, medical abuse, economic
  abuse, violations of rights, sexual abuse,
  neglect and self-neglect (Kinnear and Graycar
  1999).

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Risk factors associated with elder abuse

• Research is underdeveloped and partial
• Level of dependency upon the carer
• Carers dementia, substance abuse or psychiatric
  illness
• Long-term family conflict between parent and
  child or between spouses
• Domestic violence accounts for a significant of
  cases identified as elder abuse

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Indigenous status

• Reported high levels of violence in communities
• Indigenous women have higher rates of family
  violence and sustain more injuries than
  non-Indigenous women
• Indigenous women in rural/remote experience
  domestic violence at 1.5 times
• IVAW data last 12 months
• Physical 20 Indigenous 7 other
• Sexual 12 Indigenous 6 other

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Is the evidence base important?

• Wont deal with the underlying causes
• Targeting will be misplaced
• Waste money and resources
• Waste time
• Put families at greater risk
• Undermine support for the CJS by families
• Undermine community support for the CJS
• Facilitate an environment for radical
  intervention in order to fix the problem

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The costs of family violence

• No study of the costs of family violence
• Cost studies of domestic violence
• Queensland Domestic Violence Taskforce direct
  108 million (Roberts 1988)
• NSW total 1.5 billion (Distaff Associate, 1991)
• Queensland study (direct and indirect) total
  annual costs at over 556 million (Blumel et al
  1993).
• Northern Territory 32 women 2.7 million direct
  and indirect 1.2 million (KPMG 1996)
• Tasmania total direct and indirect costs 40
  women in at nearly 4 million (KPMG 1994)
• Australia, Henderson (2000) 1.6 billion costs to
  employers
• Australia, Access Economics (2004) total annual
  cost of domestic violence in Australia is 8.1
  billion

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ANY QUESTIONS?