Billions spent on men’s violence ‘after damage done’

Billions of dollars are being poured into domestic and family violence responses, but is little invested into services to stop men’s violence from happening in the first place.

This is according to new research based on expertise from 150 Australian practitioners which will be released on Monday.

“We are spending billions responding after the damage is done,” No to Violence chief executive Phillip Ripper said.

“By the time police, courts and prisons step in, women and children may already have endured years of escalating violence and control.

“Governments know we need to act earlier, and this report shows them how.”

No to Violence is the peak body for organisations committed to ending men’s use of domestic and family violence, and it said “next to nothing” was being invested in services capable of engaging men and stopping violence before it escalates.

Its report is the culmination of a 12-month national research project, which found while political attention to end violence at its source was growing, responses to men using violence outside the criminal system were limited in scope and scale.

Intimate partner violence is the leading preventable contributor to death, disability and illness for Australian women aged 18 to 44 and costs more than $28 billion each year, the report said.

But fewer than two per cent of men who use physical or sexual intimate partner violence receive behavioural change intervention.

Additionally, research on men who use behavioural change programs represented only 0.2 per cent of domestic and family violence studies.

“We need to know much more about what works, for whom and at what point in a man’s use of violence, but we cannot keep funding isolated programs and hoping they add up to a system,” Mr Ripper said.

The system was fragmented and had created a postcode lottery for men trying to access appropriate programs, the report found.

It called for expansion of all responses to men using violence, with key areas including all-of-family work, First Nations healing and change programs, long-term case management, individual counselling and post-program responses.

A shared principles-based national framework across Commonwealth, state and territory policy must be developed, supported by investment in connected services, practice guidance, workforce capability, evaluation and data.

Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek on Sunday said social media feed “opt-in” and strangulation in pornography bans would be considered in the development of digital duty of care laws.

Mr Ripper said the growth in online platforms spouting rigid ideas about masculinity highlighted the importance of early intervention.

“The manosphere can reach a 15-year-old in his bedroom. Our response to violence cannot wait until that same young man is standing in a courtroom years later,” he said.

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