Open letter to the Victorian Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence
The State of Victoria's submission to the Royal Commission into Family Violence contains the claim that "violence by women is often in self-defence," citing an American document that provides no such evidence to support this claim.
We have drafted an open letter to the Victorian Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, the Hon Fiona Richardson, asking her to look into the matter.
As our Fact Sheet indicates, self-defence is cited by women as the reason for their use of intimate partner violence (including severe violence such as homicide) in a small minority of cases (from 5 to 20 per cent).
In a study where self-defence was given as a reason for women’s use of intimate partner violence in a large number of cases (42%), it was cited as a reason for men’s intimate partner violence more often.
Rather than self-defence, reasons commonly given by women for their use of IPV include:
- disbelief that their male victims would be injured or retaliate
- they wished to engage their partner’s attention (particularly emotionally)
- their partner not being sensitive to their needs
- their partner being verbally abusive to them
- their partner not listening to them.
You can download a copy of our Open Letter here.