Why do some people use violence and how can someone who uses violence change their behaviour?
[Jacqui Watt: Chief Executive Officer, No to Violence]
We believe, at No to Violence, that change is possible and we believe that if men get the right help at the right time that it’s possible to change the trajectory of abuse and violence. We also know that not all men are the same. Some men will be more able to participate in group programs and will find those extremely helpful for sustaining short and long term change and will be happier men as a result of it. The evidence on this is still mixed so, about a third of men will get the full benefit, we believe, of programs but there are many many more men out there who need either an earlier intervention or a different intervention. For some men, going to a parenting or fathering program might be the help they need. It might be that we’re able to connect with them on the fact they want to be better dads and they don’t want to be the kind of dad they may have experienced as a child so getting them to think about their role as a parent can be the first step. For other men it might be a longer term group-based program.
[Moo Baulch: Former Chief Executive Officer
Domestic Violence NSW (DVNSW)]
I guess some of the most sophisticated work that we’ve seen in the last couple of decades has been developed by no-government organisations working in the community sector particularly through things called men’s behaviour change programs. They’re usually group settings, although they often involve some one-on-one work as well with men and it’s tough, sophisticated work.
It’s not dissimilar to working with victim survivors of violence but it’s really about embedding accountability and an understanding of the impacts of men’s behaviour and it’s looking at those attitudes that underlie and support a man’s use of violence within the family context. It’s about challenging those behaviours, challenging those attitudes and seeking to shift the sorts of things that might look like entitlement. A man may feel that he is the breadwinner and the person who controls the direction of that family and those are the sorts of attitudes that say it’s okay to abuse your partner and your children as well. We certainly know that for many men who hold that attitude of ownership and entitlement within their family, that they may have had experiences of violence within their life or they may not have.
It’s a choice really and that’s part of what we try to do within men’s behaviour change programs and with that perpetrators accountability work is to think about where those attitudes come from to think about what the drivers might be to shift those sorts of attitudes and to work with them to see what the impacts of their violence are on their family. For example, often men in a heterosexual relationship, it might be about talking about the impacts on their children. That might be something that is able to sort of trigger an understanding of what their violence is doing within the family. But also thinking about how that impacts on their partner as well.
