Domestic Violence in the City of Whittlesea

This article discusses the problem of domestic violence in Whittlesea City, Australia. It explores the social risk factors and potential causes of domestic violence, as well as the impact on the community. The article also provides resources and strategies to address this major safety and health concern.

Domestic Violence in the City
of Whittlesea
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Community Profile..........................................................................................................................2
Domestic Violence in Whittlesea....................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................4

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Introduction
The Whittlesea City is one of the rapidly developing municipalities in Australia. Domestic
violence is a major safety and health concern in Whittlesea with a rate of 1,316 each 100,000
people. The major social risk factors in domestic violence are a weak social connection, gender
inequality, housing, income distribution, unemployment and food and job insecurity. Some of the
potential causes of domestic violence are unequal control and power between women and men,
alcohol and drug abuse, controlling and obsessive behaviors and financial dependence of the
women. The paper will analyze the problem of domestic violence in Whittlesea.
Community Profile
The Whittlesea City is one of the rapidly developing municipalities in Australia. The population
of the community in the year 2018 was 223,322 with the density of 4.56 person each hectare
with the expected residents of more than 250,000 by the year 2030. The community is situated
20 km to the North of Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne. It is a large community
that covers 490 sq. km and includes established growth, rural and urban areas. The northern part
is a rural area, whereas the southern part has well-set up urban regions (Whittlesea City - Know
Your Council, 2019). It is a diverse community with most of the people are from the non-English
speaking background. The community is a part of Interface Council Group and are comparable
with the same type of councils.
The community is surrounded by the Murrindindi and Shires of Mitchell in the north-eastern and
northern side, City of Hume in the western side, Shire of Nillumbik in the eastern side and the
Cities of Banyule and Darebin in the south-eastern and southern side. The community was
known as Whittlesea after the city of Whittlesey in the UK and was formerly called Upper
Plenty. 38,122 of the non-English people were employed with 61.6% people have full time jobs
and 35.6% have part time jobs (Whittlesea Council - Home, 2019).
Domestic Violence in Whittlesea
The domestic violence is a major safety and well-being concern in Whittlesea, and it needs a
multi-faceted response as well as essential resourcing from every level of local and government
agencies for reducing the incidences and effects on children and women in particular and
community in whole (Tyson, Kirkwood & Mckenzie, 2017). 1,316 every 100,000 people is the

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reported rate of family violence in the community in comparison to 1,129 each 100,000 in the
city of Victoria and is the highest number of a recorded case of domestic violence (Parkinson,
2019). Most of the victims of domestic violence in Whittlesea are those women who are
vulnerable to health effects (City of Whittlesea, 2014).
The major social risk factors in domestic violence in the community are a weak social
connection, gender inequality, housing, income distribution, unemployment and food and job
insecurity (McGilvray, 2018). Domestic violence does not have one cause, and instead, it seems
to take place from complicated interaction between person’s approaches to women, cultural and
social values and practices in the community (Easteal, Holland, Breen, Vaughan & Sutherland,
2019). The potential causes of domestic violence are unequal control and power between the
women and the men, alcohol and drug abuse, controlling and obsessive behaviors and financial
dependence of the women (Broady & Gray, 2018).
Conclusion
The paper considered the profile of the community and analyzed the issue of domestic violence
in Whittlesea City. It also considered key social risks and possible causes of the selected concern
in the community. Domestic violence has been identified as major safety and health concern in
Whittlesea with several risk factors and causes of family violence in the community.

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References
Broady, T. R., & Gray, R. M. (2018). The intersection of domestic violence and child protection
in Australia: program participant accounts. Australian social work, 71(2), 189-201.
City of Whittlesea. (2014). Safe in our homes Safe in our communities City of Whittlesea Family
Violence Strategy 2014-2018. Retrieved
from https://www.whittlesea.vic.gov.au/media/1149/family-violence-strategy.pdf
Easteal, P., Holland, K., Breen, M. D., Vaughan, C., & Sutherland, G. (2019). Australian media
messages: a critical discourse analysis of two intimate homicides involving domestic
violence. Violence against women, 25(4), 441-462.
McGilvray, I. (2018). Domestic violence against women: An artist's response. Zadok
Perspectives, (138), 12-14.
Parkinson, D. (2019). Investigating the increase in domestic violence post-disaster: an Australian
case study. Journal of interpersonal violence, 34(11), 2333-2362.
Tyson, D., Kirkwood, D., & Mckenzie, M. (2017). Family violence in domestic homicides: A
case study of women who killed intimate partners’ post-legislative reform in Victoria,
Australia. Violence against women, 23(5), 559-583.
Whittlesea City - Know Your Council. (2019). Retrieved 4 September 2019, from
http://knowyourcouncil.vic.gov.au/councils/whittlesea
Whittlesea Council - Home. (2019). Retrieved 12 September 2019, from
https://www.whittlesea.vic.gov.au/