We are proud to continue speaking up against domestic violence and in particular, violence against women. From today you can buy a white ribbon or a 'not violent - not silent' wrist band at The Body Shop. Please show your support and add your voice to this important human rights movement.
You can make a difference by referring men who use violence in their relationships to get help. The Men's Referral Service website is an excellent starting place. As you read yourself from the article below, the problem has not gone away.
ONE in every three boys believes it is acceptable to hit girls and many children are routinely exposed to domestic violence, according to a disturbing survey.
The unprecedented survey of violence and attitudes shows one third of boys believe "it's not a big deal to hit a girl". One in seven thought "it's OK to make a girl have sex with you if she was flirting".
The survey also shows one in four teenagers lives with violence at home, prompting calls for domestic violence education programs in schools. The study, which reviewed data from the past seven years, including a survey of 5000 12 to 20-year-olds, found up to 350,000 girls aged between 12 and 20 – one in seven – had experienced sexual assault or rape.
Almost one third of girls in Year 10 had experienced unwanted sex.
The survey, An Assault on Our Future: The impact of violence on young people and their relationships is released today by the White Ribbon Foundation, which campaigns to end violence against women.
Report co-author and sociologist Dr Michael Flood said research revealed watching a violent parent could be just as damaging as a physical assault.
"We used to distinguish between children witnessing violence and children experiencing violence but that implies that seeing your dad or mum being violent is more trivial," he said. "In fact, the evidence is that it can be just as harmful, powerful and traumatic as the physical impact."
Living in a violent home was linked to depression, increased aggression, delayed social and emotional development and poorer education and employment prospects, he said. In South Australia, 22 per cent of young people surveyed reported witnessing an act of physical violence against their mother or stepmother. This included throwing objects or hitting or threatening them with a weapon such as a knife or gun.
More than half (58 per cent) of those had witnessed their father/stepfather yell loudly at their mother/stepmother, while 28 per cent witnessed acts of humiliation and 8 per cent had seen their father/stepfather stop their mother/stepmother seeing her family or friends.
Just over 6 per cent of SA women interviewed had experienced some form of physical or sexual violence in the previous 12 months – which is above the 5.8 per cent national average.
Figures for 2005/6 found 11 women in SA were killed for motives classified as domestic. Exposure to violence was increasingly recognised as a form of child abuse, estimated by Dr Flood to cost the country about $4.9 billion each year.
White Ribbon Foundation chairman Andrew O'Keefe said violence would not end without challenging the views that tolerated it. "If we are going to succeed we must start by challenging these attitudes while kids are still young," he said.
"We know that adults who hold these attitudes are more likely to use violence."
The Premier's Council for Women chair Pat Mickan said more than 90 per cent of acts of violence were committed by an intimate partner and most were occurring in the home.
"Adults are modelling it for children because you are seeing this emerging among our younger people," she said.
"I suspect it's not different in our state, compared with any other. "It happens within the home and (the statistics) suggest it's occurring in front of children, so children become victims of it and let themselves become perpetrators of it."
She said organisations such as the White Ribbon Foundation were addressing domestic violence, so she was optimistic future studies would record improved results.
Well-known male role models who spoke publicly against violence was one campaign she believed would work.
"It's not just women pushing the issue as women as victims, but men challenging society that it's damaging and it's destructive, not just for the family and those who are exposed to it," she said.
White Ribbon Day, November 25, is the United Nation's Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Visit whiteribbonday.org.au for more information
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