The researcher who's spent three decades refusing to look away from domestic violence
Up until fairly recently, no one wanted to know about domestic violence. This silence around one of Australia's biggest social problems was something Professor Cathy Humphreys was determined to change
Published 27 January 2016
My main area of research is in domestic and family violence. I’ve been researching that area in Australia and the UK since 1994. Prior to that my research area was child sexual abuse.
Stories about children’s sexual abuse are very toxic and I believe you need a lot of support to continue to work in that space. I shifted my research to be more engaged in family and domestic violence when I moved to the University of Warwick. I found there was greater support from close colleagues in this area of work.
As a social work student, my first placement was at Women’s House, which was the first women’s refuge in Brisbane. Domestic and family violence used to be led from the women’s services sector and was a strongly feminist issue right back from the opening of the first refuges. No one else was interested: the police weren’t interested, the courts weren’t interested.
A powerful spokesperson, like survivor Rosie Batty, can make a real difference in terms of public perception of domestic and family violence. Her appointment as Australian of the Year in 2015 happened at the right time and was really important in opening up the policy discussion.
I think we’ve underestimate how important the survivor voice can be and it wasn’t as though her voice came out of nowhere. Since she shared her story, there was a more receptive environment and an increase in resourcing.
I don’t think you can be a good father and a domestic violence abuser, that’s an oxymoron. There’s still a notion that a man could be a great father even if he’s a rotten partner. You can’t be beating up the child’s mother, undermining her, creating trauma and mental health problems for her and think you’re being a good father.
Abusers are very poor fathers. They need intervention and they need to change values and behaviours to become good fathers. To think that they are not impacting on their children when they are violent towards the child’s mother is profoundly wrong and we don’t pay enough attention to this issue.
Just because a couple separates doesn’t mean the violence stops. There is a huge amount of post-separation violence, stalking and control that continues even after a couple seperate. Women need to continue to be supported post-separation so their protection isn't undermined.
Domestic violence is a major social problem in Australia, but we need to understand more to prevent it from occurring. It’s really helpful to have a public health model where you’re thinking how do we stop it before it starts? What are the prevention strategies? Where are the points where there is the greatest potential for change?
I think of myself as part of a social movement trying to create progressive change. Violence in intimate partner relationships is unacceptable and there needs to be a consequence for that behaviour.
We need a better balance between the prevention agenda and the healing agenda. Respectful relationships must be built in at every stage of the school curriculum at an early age because sometimes they have to counteract what children are experiencing at home.
We have to start counteracting any sense of entitlement and disrespect in primary school. It needs to be built into relationships between children at a very early age.
Parents are most open to positive change in relationships when they are expecting their first child. Parents in transition are a strong group to engage with to prevent violence and abuse.
Pregnancy and the first year of life are critical times. There is a group of men who respond to vulnerability with violence rather than protection, so thinking about how we turn that around is important.
I worked on a three-year ARC grant called Fathering Challenges exploring resourcing the interventions that work with men who use violence. This might be in Aboriginal healing spaces, men’s behaviour change programs or parenting courses. Most of these men have a lot of contact with children and a lot of that is quite disruptive. The fathering challenge is how do we make that a constructive space. .
Health & Medicine
Domestic violence linked to alcohol use is a national emergency
When Professor Kelsey Hegarty and I established MAEVe (Melbourne research Alliance to End Violence against women and their children) we hoped to establish a hub for new ideas where senior academics, younger researchers and students work together. We want to make the most of interdisciplinary relationships that impact on the evidence base and policy development. Things like the technology forum which supports women and children’s safety in the technology space.
I'm most proud of my work looking at how domestic violence is an attack on the mother-child relationship. It isn’t just an adult issue. Children are often impacted – sometimes by someone actively undermining the mother-child relationship. My work has explored what needs to be done in the healing space to strengthen that relationship.
– As told to Lisa Mamone
