National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children

National plan to reduce violence against women and their children
NATIONAL PLAN TO REDUCE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND THEIR
CHILDREN 2010-2022.
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National plan to reduce violence against women and their children
INTRODUCTION
Reason for National Plan policy.
Reducing all violence in our community is a priority. All forms of violence against women are
unacceptable, in any community and in any culture. It is everyone’s responsibility to reject and
prevent violence. Any form of violence should be prevented at all costs by taking personal
responsibility (Baird et al., 2018).
In an effort to end violence towards women and children, the National Plan policy has been
formulated. This aims at two major forms of violence: the sexual assault violence and, domestic
and family violence directed to women and their children in Australia (Bartels et al.,2018).
Australian Bureau of statistics in 2005 indicates that the prevalence of violence against women
and children has been recognized by 98% of the total population and indigenous females are
prone victims than other women. Perpetrators of these crimes range from known to unknown
individuals. Due to the difference in the forms of violence, different approaches are to be
employed in addressing them. This violence has both high financial costs and negative emotional
effects. Commonwealth reports in 2009 indicate that over $13.6 billion are spent on treating
violence victims (Beutler and Fenech, 2018).
The National Plan has come into the knowledge of the diversity in the needs of women and thus
has established different approaches to be used in addressing them (Childress et al.,2018).
Definitions
Violence against women: an action that is gender-based that results to harm in women either
physically, sexually or psychologically in a private or public environment (Childress et al.,2018).
Domestic violence: are harmful actions between the closely related persons. Example, husband
and wife.
These crimes include physical, sexual and psychological. Physical violence can be in a form of
stabbing, slapping, beatings and others. Sexual violence can be in form of rape, playing of
pornography and others. Psychological violence is emotional abuse such as continual
humiliations (Childress et al.,2018).
Family violence: is the violence among the family members informs of physical, sexual and
emotional violence.
The main element of violence entails controlling the victims against their consent by instilling
fear or harm to them that makes them submissive and defenseless (Chowdhury et al.,2018).
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National plan to reduce violence against women and their children
BACKGROUND
In May 2008, the National Council was formed by Commonwealth with the aim of reducing
violence against women and their children by giving advice on the suitable and appropriate
measures to be taken (Colombini et al.,2018).
The National Council was tasked with the responsibility of coming up with an evidence and
community consultation-based program for minimizing such crimes. Also, to assess other
research that has been conducted, scrutinize the performance of the legal system and the effects
of violence on the economy (Eisenbruch, 2018).
Over 2000 Australians from every state were consulted through discussions, interviews, and
review of their work on violence against women and children. After intensive consultation, the
council made its recommendations on the plans of reducing these crimes in the Time for Action
report called The National Council’s Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence Against Women and
their Children, 2009
‐2021. It was recommended that all governments should consent to a long-
term program of reducing women and child-based violence led by the Commonwealth. The
agreement was made and the Australian government pledged $42 million to fund the
recommendations such as setting up of online counseling services of victims, a creation of
respect programs in learning institutions, promotion of youth social marketing campaigns
telephones for reporting women-based violence. This initiative taken by the government and
commonwealth towards supporting efforts made on reducing violence against women and
children forms a foundation for this National plan (Denborough, 2018).
POLICY ANALYSIS
The policy has been analyzed using the WPR approach. This aims at interpreting the policy
conventionally. The policy analysis has been subjected to different questions below in order to
establish the proposals to be changed (Jahan, 2018).
1. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM REPRESENTED TO BE?
The main problem represented in this policy proposal is the violence against women and their
children.
Various sources have given reports on the problem of violence against women and children.
Among them is the Australian Bureau of Statistics which states that 98 % of the Australians are
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National plan to reduce violence against women and their children
aware of the high magnitude of violence against women and children in various forms which
majorly include the physical and sexual assaults. The reports also indicate that the indigenous
women and children are the main targets. (Larsson, 2018).
This violence has led the government into spending a lot of resources against these activities.
(Nistotskaya and Stensöta, 2018). To support women and their children in fighting violence against
them, the community awareness on the law reforms regarding incriminating domestic actions
have been established to inform victims of their rights as well as warn the common perpetrators.
The reforms that have been made regarding gender respect and relationship, especially on the
respect of children and women, are to be implemented in all areas despite the residences whether
being refugees or legal residents
2. WHAT PRESUPPOSITIONS OR ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLIE THE VIOLENCE
AGAINST WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN?
The problem presented has the various underlying factors which are the potential causes (Tiwari et
al., 2018). Among the causes are:
Ineffective criminal justice system.
It is reported that the victims of physical and sexual violence prefer to seek help from elsewhere
such as friends rather than the criminal justice system. This is on the claim by the several victims
that their issues are not being exclusively addressed by the law since the system since the system
treats indifferently the perpetrators of physical and sexual violence with other types of criminals.
(Powell and Webster, 2018).
Social-economic causes.
The gender inequality brings the concept of social acceptance, masculinity and traditional gender
responsibilities in the Australian community. The status of women in the community is very low
to the extent that they cannot report any cases of abuse done on them. These socio-cultural
factors give men more authority than women and children and therefore making them become
the victims of violence. (Signorelli et al., 2018).
Poor infrastructure and facilities for responding to the violence.
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