1. Domestic Abuse
Claire Smith

2. The Context and the Reality
Rosie Batty 2015 Australian of the Year
2015 taskforce report Not Now, Not Ever: Putting an End to Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland
2016 seven women killed in six weeks

3. 2. What is domestic abuse?

4. NSW Domestic Violence website
Domestic and family violence is violent, abusive or intimidating behaviour in a relationship. This relationship can be a partner, carer or family member.
Abusive behaviour isn’t just physical violence. It can be any behaviour meant to control, dominate, humiliate and scare the other person.
Domestic and family violence can include lots of different types of abuse. A person does not need to experience all of these types of abuse for it to be domestic or family violence.
NSW Domestic Violence website

5. Domestic violence causes fear, physical and/or psychological harm.
NSW Domestic and Family
Violence Action Plan

6. Domestic abuse is about power and control, and the means of establishing and using that power and control

7. 2012 Personal Safety Survey (ABS)
Women were more likely than men to experience violence [physical and/or sexual] by a partner [current or previous]. In 2012 an estimated 17% of all women aged 18 years and over (1,479,900 women) and 5.3% of all men aged 18 years and over (448,000 men) had experienced violence by a partner since the age of 15.

8. 2012 Personal Safety Survey (ABS)
Women were more likely than men to have experienced violence [physical and/or sexual] by a partner [current or previous] in the 12 months prior to the survey. In the 12 months prior to the survey an estimated 132,500 women (1.5% of all women aged 18 years and over) had experienced violence by a partner compared to 51,800 men (0.6% of all men aged 18 years and over)

9. 2012 Personal Safety Survey (ABS)
Between 2005 and 2012 there was no statistically significant change in the incidence of partner violence in the 12 months prior to the survey.

10. 2012 Personal Safety Survey (ABS)
Men were less likely than women to have ever told anyone about violence by a current partner or previous partner. Both men and women were more likely to reveal their experience of violence by a previous partner compared to violence by a current partner.

11. 2012 Personal Safety Survey (ABS)
An estimated [54%] of men who had experienced current partner violence had never told anyone about this violence. An estimated [26%] of women who had experienced current partner violence had never told anyone about it.

12. 2012 Personal Safety Survey (ABS)
An estimated [95%] of men who had experienced current partner violence had never contacted police. An estimated [80%] of women who had experienced current partner violence had never contacted the police.

13. 2012 Personal Safety Survey (ABS)
An estimated [44%] of men who had experienced current partner violence had children in their care when the violence occurred. Of the estimated [54%] of women who had children in their care when the violence occurred, [31%] stated that children had seen or heard the violence.

14. 2012 Personal Safety Survey (ABS)
The 2012 PSS found that overall, women were more likely to have experienced emotional abuse by a partner than men, with one in four (25%) women and one in seven (14%) men having experienced emotional abuse by a partner since the age of 15 (2.1 million women and 1.2 million men).

15. Not a gender issue: not always by men against women

16. Occurs across all socioeconomic groups, cultures, races, and geographic regions. Churches and Christian communities are no exception

17. 3. God’s condemnation of violence and abuse

18. a) God condemns violence and abuse
Psalm 11:5-6 5 The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, he hates with a passion. 6 On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot.

19. a) God condemns violence and abuse
Psalm 10:2, 8–11 2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. […] 10 His victims are crushed, they collapse; they fall under his strength. 11 He says to himself, “God will never notice; he covers his face and never sees.”

20. a) God condemns violence and abuse
Jeremiah 22:3 3 This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

21. a) God condemns violence and abuse
Psalm 7:9 Bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure— you, the righteous God who probes minds and hearts.

22. a) God condemns violence and abuse
Psalm 41:1 Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble.

23. a) God condemns violence and abuse
Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

24. a) God condemns violence and abuse
Colossians 3:19 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Proverbs 11:29 (ESV) 29 Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind […]

25. b) God’s condemnation of inaction for the oppressed
Rape of Tamar by half-brother Amnon 2 Samuel 13 failed by father David and brother Absalom

26. b) God’s condemnation of inaction for the oppressed
Psalm 72:12–14 12 For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. 13 He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. 14 He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.

27. 4. Some Christian misunderstandings

28. 4. Some Christian misunderstandings
Ephesians 5:25–27 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

29. in situations of domestic abuse?
What does love look like
in situations of domestic abuse?

30. The question of divorce

31. FOUR R’s Recognise Respond Refer Record
From Ending Domestic Abuse: A Pack for Churches

32. Prevent abuse in the first place