Transcript WEBINARS - University of New South Wales

A critical look at primary prevention
of violence against women
Dr Sue Dyson
La Trobe University
Objectives
• To discuss
– how preventing violence against women has
become a public health issue.
– The strengths and weaknesses of primary
prevention
• To identify some potentially promising
approaches
Some definitions
• Critique: to question, evaluate, and consider
the validity of ideas and information
• Problematise: to question taken-for-granted
truths by asking: who says, who for, why, and
who benefits or excluded.
Violence Against Women: the scope
• Globally 30% of women have experienced
physical and or sexual intimate partner
violence
• 7% have been sexually assaulted by someone
other than a partner (García-Moreno et al., 2013).
Women’s Rights: international
• 1979: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
• 1993: VAW a human rights violation:
– Any act of gender based violence that results in, or is
likely to result in physical, sexual, or psychological
harm or suffering to women, including threats of such
acts, coercion, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty,
whether occurring in public or private life.
Violence against women: Australia
• 1995: first OSW Community attitude survey
about violence against women
• 1996: Women’s Safety Survey (ABS) 7% of
women had experienced physical or sexual
violence within the previous 12 months
Human Rights & Health
• “Violence represents a crucial violation of
women’s rights as human beings. The
experience … violate rights to liberty, and
security of person and freedom from fear. The
presence of violence is incompatible with the
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard
of physical and mental health” (WHO 2002).
Why public health?
• WHO (2002) recommend a public health
approach which:
– Identifies the causes
– Formulates and tests ways of dealing with the
problem
– Applies the measures found to work widely
Gender based violence: causes?
• No single cause adequately explains violence
against women (UN General Assembly 2006).
• Cannot be attributed to individual factors which
overlook power and gender.
– cultural norms and practices that entrench women’s
unequal status;
– structures and processes that legitimize and
institutionalize gender inequalities
– systemic sexism that perpetuates inequity and
validates violence
Australian response to WHO report
• Has shaped Australian responses to
preventing violence against women
• Findings supported by Australian research on
the scope, cost and impact of VAW.
• Public health approach dominates state and
national prevention plans
Public health & disease prevention
• Three levels
– Tertiary interventions (treating illness and
infection)
– Secondary interventions (early identification to
facilitate management)
– Primary prevention (to decrease the risk of
disease occurring in the first place.
Preventing violence against women
• Tertiary interventions: safety and support for
victims
• Secondary interventions: taking action at the
first signs of violence
• Primary prevention: preventing violence from
occurring in the first place.
Critiques of Public Health
• Practitioners must have an understanding about
concepts such as knowledge and power relations
(Lupton, 1995).
• The suggestion that GBV is ‘caused by an interaction
between biological, economic, cultural, social and
political factors overlooks the central fact that it is
caused by male privilege and violence (Pease 2012, 13) .
• A feminist structural analysis of power must be
central.
Health Promotion
• Most primary prevention shaped by health
promotion theory and practice.
• Often implemented in ‘settings’ where people
live work and play
• Practitioners may not have health promotion
training or a critical understanding about the
approach.
Good practice
• Practitioners must have a sound
understanding about the approach being
implemented and it ramifications.
• Risk of a one-size-fits-all approach across
settings (Whitelaw, 2001).
Wither feminism?
• Feminism should act as a lens through which
multiple theories and interventions are held
together rather than being one component of
an ecological model (Heise, 1998)
Intersectionality
• An integrated feminist approach
• Looks for the intersection of gender and other
sources of oppression
• Uses a ‘diversity’ lens to understand how
gender and intersecting factors interlink
• Should inform all practice
Measuring effectiveness
• How to evaluate primary prevention
programs?
• How can we know if a culture change program
in a setting such as a sports club, workplace or
school is working?
Promising practices
• Culture change in community football clubs
• Education programs
• Other settings
The way forward
• Changes in police and legal systems have
increased reporting
• Effective prevention should show a decrease in
reporting, but when?
• Prevention is a long term, challenging project
• It cannot be solved by short term responses, but
must be multi and cross disciplinary and sectoral
Challenges
• Gap between funding body and program
expectations
• Clash of cultures
• Capacity and flexibility
• Communication