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Aboriginal Family Violence

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This essay will examine family violence in Indigenous Australian communities as a social issue using the SI and will focus on its development into the issue it is today through structural, historical and cultural context. Domestic violence is defined as ‘a pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviours that an adult or adolescent uses to gain and maintain power and control over an intimate partner.’ (Samsel, 2013). Family Violence is the preferred term over ‘domestic violence’ in most Indigenous Australian communities, usually as it includes all forms of violence that occurs in family, intimate or other relationships that consist of support or mutual obligation (NSW Department of Health, 2011).
A survey conducted in 2012 by the ABS Personal …show more content…

Generally, communities that have a stable economy, positive social norms, abundant resources, high levels of social cohesion and rewards for prosocial community involvement will have a much lower risk of family violence and violence as a whole (Hawkins, Van Horn, and Arthur, 2004). Unfortunately during and after the colonisation of Australia, opportunities to develop these factors were not and did not become available, which is a leading theory on why family violence is much higher in Indigenous communities than non-Indigenous (Oberin, …show more content…

A 2011 survey showed that Indigenous Australians aged 15-64 were less likely to be participating in the labour force than non-Indigenous Australians aged 15-64 (55.9% versus 76.4%). The same survey showed that Indigenous Australians aged 15-64 were three times as likely to be unemployed when compared to non-Indigenous Australians (17.2% compared to 5.5%) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). When comparing these rates to the occurrence rates of family violence in Indigenous Australians versus non-Indigenous Australians mentioned previously, we can see that they support the statement that a stable economy and abundant resources greatly decreases the risk of family violence.
Studies in the United States have also shown that when controlling for socio-economic factors, domestic violence levels will be mostly equal among African American communities versus white communities, corroborating the idea that higher levels of poverty are associated with higher levels of family violence (Sokoloff, 2004). While the studies mentioned are related to the United States and African Americans, their results can be compared to and are relevant to understanding family violence in Indigenous Australian

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