[inSight+ extract]
No single strategy will stop domestic violence. We must urgently invest in a sustainable health system response with an understanding of different patterns of abuse and coercive control.
The need for broader views about prevention of violence against women in Australia has been advocated for recently in the media.
I have listened to thousands of women survivors in my career as a researcher and a GP. What they have taught me is that domestic violence is not a single phenomenon with a simple solution. Domestic violence is not physical violence alone, it is a pattern of behaviours of emotional, physical and sexual abuse from their male partner that controls and instils fear. It causes major ill health for women and children in Australia. To stop domestic violence deaths requires understanding and responding to different patterns of abuse and coercive control.
If we look at patterns of deaths from domestic violence, we can see in the analyses of 199 incidents of male-perpetrated homicide by Hayley Boxall and colleagues that:
- 33% were fixated threat offenders (typically high functioning, controlling, middle-class men, with low levels of past criminal justice contact);
- 40% were persistent and disorderly offenders (of these, half were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples; had complex histories of trauma and abuse, concurrent mental and physical health problems and heavy alcohol use, frequent criminal justice contact); and
- 11% were deterioration/acute stressor offenders (usually older men with chronic physical and mental health concerns, rarely had previous violence histories).
Each of these perpetrator types have different risk factors, life histories and trajectories over time, and are likely to need different evidence-based interventions. Three-quarters of these intimate partner homicide offenders had at least one emotional, mental or physical health condition during their lifetime. In addition, a deep cultural understanding of the systemic factors underlying homicides in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples is necessary for prevention in this population.
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by KELSEY HEGARTY
20 May2024
(Credits: Article/ Image – inSight+ & Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock)
Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
