Violence against women: community attitudes survey
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon launches VicHealth's report, "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Community Attitudes to Violence Against Women"
Violence against women is a prevalent phenomenon with serious impacts on women’s physical and mental health. Research commissioned by VicHealth indicates that intimate partner violence alone affects 1 in 5 women at some time in their adult lives and is responsible for 9% of the total burden of disease in Victorian women aged 15-44. Mental health consequences associated with violence account for 60% of this burden.
To enhance community understanding of issues surrounding violence perpetrated against women it is important to be informed about changing attitudes and the factors that help shape and form these attitudes.
Changing community attitudes can help to create an environment in which there are strong social norms prohibiting violence against women and in which individuals, communities, organisations and governments are more likely to act to prevent violence and to take decisive action when it occurs.
Violence against women community attitudes project
This project is being undertaken in the context of VicHealth’s mental health promotion plan A Plan for Action 2005-2007.
The project, guided by a multi-disciplinary committee with representatives from a range of sectors, provides information to support VicHealth and other government and non-government organisations to plan future strategies to support positive change in attitudes relating to violence against women. It involves:
- A survey of community attitudes on violence against women and the factors influencing their development. By comparing the results with two previous surveys commissioned by the Office for the Status of Women in 1985 and 1995, it will also be possible to assess shifts in attitudes over time.
- An environmental scan of factors which may have influenced community attitudes in the last decade.
- Documenting what is known about factors that can influence the development of attitudes toward violence against women, ranging from broader social and economic trends through to personal experience of violence.
- Documenting campaigns that have been conducted to address community attitudes on violence against women so that future activity can build on the lessons learned from past work.
Project publications
