Domestic Violence Media Journal

This essay analyzes media reports on domestic violence in Indigenous communities in Australia, highlighting the impact on health, imprisonment rates, and the need for effective preventive measures. The essay explores the complex factors contributing to domestic violence and its consequences, emphasizing the importance of addressing this critical public health issue.

MEDIA JOURNAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background.................................................................................................................................1
Analysis.......................................................................................................................................1
Personal reflection.......................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Domestic violence is also referred as domestic abuse which has been termed as one of the
leading causes for major complications. It can be against parents, spouse, other family members,
etc. There are various aspects of domestic violence that can be considered along with this and
these involve verbal, physical, emotional, reproductive, etc. The range of one suffering domestic
violence can be from extreme low to high as well.It is because it can involve marital rape,
beating etc. that can cause major complications (Campbell and Messing, 2017). Murders can
also be considered within this as domestic murders can be in form of honour killing, deaths
because of dowry etc. The report is all about discussing an indigenous health issue, that is,
domestic violence and with the help of some media items, key issues and preventive measures
can be covered within this.
Background
Domestic violence can be considered as a major indigenous health issue because as the
violence can consider various factors such as physical, mental etc. So, there are major
possibilities that can lead to various physical injuries, STDs (sexually transmitted diseases),
complications at the time of pregnancy such as miscarriage, etc. (Pain, 2014). If considered
mentally, it can lead to depression, mental stress, substance abuse, etc. So, the key issues can be
that these factors of domestic violence can actually throw a huge amount of impact on the health
of the person facing the violence. Thus, it can be termed as an indigenous health issue that can
throw a huge amount of physical as well as mental impact on the person.
Analysis
As per Sarah (2014), it has been analysed that for aboriginal women, significantly the rate
of violence has been increased. Also, it has been found that most of the aboriginal women have
been started using help of drugs and medications in order to exclude the stress level. It is
because; most of them live alone and feel homelessness. Also, a number of women are trapped in
the use of taking medications and drugs. It is because; this has been observed that these women
indulge in the substance abuse in order to remove their stress level and also to exclude
themselves from trauma, etc. Also, it has been observed that since the emergence of these issues,
imprisonment rate of females has increased as compared to men. While analysing it from the
overall population of Australia, the overall rate covering the aboriginal women is about 2%. So,
1

because of reasons like involving in substance abuse etc. have been a cause for the increase in
the imprisonment rate of the aboriginal women. Also, because of this only, they have to undergo
a higher rate of domestic abuse as well. This also makes a sort of relation in between the criminal
justice system and the overall rate of the aboriginal women.
In contradiction to the factors supporting rehabilitation programs, Sarah said that the
services that are being provided in these rehabilitation centres are for very short duration and this
does not make any sense. Because of the short durations only, there are equal chances of the
program getting failed. To this, Pat said that there are some education programs as well that are
being provided in the prisons for making the aboriginal women understand but they think that a
12 month duration or less than that is completely useless. Although there are some judicial
authorities that keeps focus on wider prejudices, whether it is associated with respect or race etc.
Also, from this, it has been analysed that the indigenous women are more likely to be
imprisoned as compared to the non-indigenous women. It is important as well because getting
involved in activities like getting used to substance abuse etc. because they think it as a means of
releasing the stress. So, these habits like smoking, consumption of alcohol, substance abuse etc.
throw a very negative impact on the health of the people. Although people think these sources as
a source for excluding out the stress levels but it is important to ensure that these actually have a
negative impact. Therefore, other processes can also be considered for managing the stress
levels. It is not necessary to involve in such habits because it somewhere can increase the
complications for the physical health of the person.
According to Elizabeth (2018), the whole population of the prison is significantly
increasing the involvement of aboriginal women. Also, as per the statistics, it has been observed
that from a few years, the range has been increased to about 60%. In many cases, the aboriginal
women have committed the offences they have made and also they termed the reason for doing is
poverty, not able to pay the fine amounts, alcohol etc. Majority of the cases were of robberies,
theft, stealing etc. It is because when the aboriginal women had to face poverty and they were
not able to bear the basic requirements, it encouraged them to get indulged in habits such as
robbery etc. Majority of the aboriginal women belongs to the economically affected backgrounds
and also it has been observed that a major portion of the prisoners have been a victim already. It
can be because of the fact that as they have faced domestic violence on a huge tenet, this tends
2

them to leave the home etc. and this as a result, they have to indulge in activities like robberies
etc. because they do not have an efficient amount of money to live and eat.
So, domestic violence can be considered as one of the major reasons for getting indulged
in activities like robbery etc. because of which they are imprisoned. Unemployment is
considered another source associated because many women who have been imprisoned had just
completed their secondary education and then they indulged in such activities which led to their
imprisonment. Some women centred approaches have been used as well in order to provide some
sort of support to the women in prisons. One of the factors involved was that the environment of
the prisons should be in a way that it can promote and encourage the women to take responsible
decisions so that their lives can get better enough. Also, a great focus was on analysing and
understanding the requirements of the women so that by some means they can be fulfilled and
also they do not have to bare the domestic violence by any person.
As per Adrian (2016), it has been observed that although there are various areas where
the female imprisonment can be observed but in Western Australia, it can be observed as the
second highest. So, for any women indulging in such activities, Western Australia is considered
as the area where the locking up rate of women is faster than any other country or area. Some
prisons including the Bandyup is one of the overcrowded prisons and this can also be termed as a
factor for a hard environment there even for the officers as well. It is because as the prisons are
overcrowded and the aboriginal women that are inside the prisons can make involvement of any
such activity to harm the other women inside. So, there are enormous number of risks associated
with it.
Also, there is a possibility that most of the prisoners there are victims of domestic
violence. It is because in cases where the person faced a huge amount of beating or sexual
violence in home, it leads them to leave the house and this can be considered as one of the major
factors that are caused by the domestic violence. After leaving the home in immediate
conditions, there is a possibility that the person facing domestic violence has no sort of
employment or sources to live and eat etc. Therefore, they get involved in such activities like
robbery, stealing etc.
Also, some may get addicted to sources like alcohol etc. in order to exclude the amount
of stress from their lives. This tends them to be arrested by the officers, so they are imprisoned
by the same as well. There is an urgent need of the preventive measures because the overall
3

content of the prisons have been increased that there is a sort of threat that the aboriginal women
inside may tend to harm each other as well inside the prison. Therefore, it can increase the
number of complications as well. Western Australia deals with the majority of the imprisonments
of the indigenous people. So, some measures can be chosen in order to control the factors leading
to domestic violence because this will help on an overall basis and also, related factors such as
robberies etc. will be decreased as well, thus making the environment better.
According to Andrew (2016), a case of death in the prison of an indigenous woman has
been observed. So, there might be various reasons involved in the same. Domestic violence
makes the person weak enough that it can throw a huge amount of impact, whether physically or
mentally. So, this can turn pathetic enough. Domestic violence involves various aspects such as
beating, marital rape etc. So, if in case the person has been beaten or raped badly, it can surely
affect the person to a huge extent. It is because even forced rape can cause major diseases and
increases the issue of sexually transmitted diseases. So, in case of beating as well, the person
may feel weak enough after the injuries etc. that they can also lead to death as well. So, it is
important to consider the fact that it should be controlled (Fish, Szabo and Turgoose, 2018).
Racism also plays a major role because any sort of discrimination actually throws a very
negative impact on the mental stability of the person. Whether it is in terms of race, gender etc.,
it is not allowed because this can actually throw an amount of demotivation to the person's
mental stability, which tends to get involved in activities to divert their mind. So, it is very
important that the people consider the fact that racism along with domestic violence can lead to
the decrease in the understanding capacity of person, making them physically as well as
emotionally weak. Also, beating can also be dangerous enough that it led to death of the women.
Further, the women died was suffering from blood poisoning and pneumonia. So, it might be
because of the fact that she had been a victim of domestic violence. So, there are various aspects
covered in this such as beating, marital rape, etc. Because of marital rape as well, there are
chances of the women getting used to various issues such as sexually transmitted diseases etc.
As one of the major factor that can be considered here is that because of the stress levels
etc. there might be the possibility that the women has taken poison etc. because suicides are very
common in terms of stress etc. Therefore, may be the blood poisoning is due to the poison she
took. Also, violence in such acts can make the situation more complex (Berns, 2017). Therefore,
it is very important to ensure the involvement of proper preventive measures so that such issues
4

can be resolved as soon as possible. Also, this will help in providing the women a sort of safety
and security towards the people who initiate domestic violence. As the police officers along with
the hospital authorities tends to fail in providing a proper amount of care to the women, so it
leads to death of the women. So, in this, the hospital authorities can also termed responsible
because due to their negligence, she died.
Personal reflection
While analysing the media item by Sarah (2014), I think that the rehabilitation programs
along with the education ones should be extended for a large amount of time. It is important to
consider because if the indigenous women are used to the habit of taking substance abuse for a
larger time, then it is obvious that they will be requiring more time to come out of that. So, a few
months cannot prove helpful because in this, there is a possibility that the person will again after
the time period, may get addicted to the same. So, I realised that actually the time period for the
same should be increased. From the analysis made by Elizabeth (2018), I realised that there are
enormous reasons and factors which leads to the domestic violence of these indigenous women
and due to the result of that, they get indulged in activities like robbery etc. The final output of
the same was their imprisonment.
Although various preventive measures were included as well as in order to change the
environment of the prison to make it more effective etc. I think the idea of understanding the
needs of the women was an efficient idea but it will take some time to analyse them properly so
that for each one, proper preventive measures can be taken so such as employment sources etc.
for women so that they may not have to face any further domestic violence and they must be
aware of the laws that can be applied in this case against the person initiating the domestic
violence.
From the analysis and observations made by Adrian (2016), I think that there is actually
the requirement of some preventive measures so that the domestic violence can be decreased
because of the beating and other forms of domestic violence, the probability of other factors
leading to complications etc. have been increased to a huge extent because often when women
tend to leave the home because of domestic violence, they leave with a limited number of
resources, because of which they have to get involved in robberies etc. to cope with their basic
requirements. Also, I noticed that some women indulged in alcohol consumption etc. so that they
can remove their stress levels. All these factors leads to their imprisonment. So, the actual root of
5

these complications is domestic violence. So, I actually think that there is a huge requirement of
involving measures that can stop domestic violence to an extent that no further issues can be
observed because of this.
From the analysis made by Andrew (2016), it was a case where the women die was
suffering from blood poisoning and pneumonia. Also, I think that the hospital authorities play an
important role in providing support and care to the patient but in this case, the negligence of the
police officers and the hospital authorities made the situation more complex. It is because if they
had provided her appropriate amount of treatment at the right time, there might have possibility
that she would not have been died. So, I think the Australian government should make proper
modification in the range of clinical practices so that the practitioners can be able to focus more
efficiently on providing care and support to the patients so that their condition can get better
enough. Also, this will help in making the whole environment efficient and appropriate enough.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the report that domestic violence involves different aspects such
as beating, marital rape, etc. that can harass the person to a huge extent as it can actually throw a
huge impact on an individual, whether physically or mentally. The violence causes many major
complications as the person gets involved in a variety of factors such as robbery which further
leads to imprisonment of the person. Usually, in most of the cases, it has been observed that the
indigenous women are more involved. By the means of various aspects of domestic violence, it
can lead to physical injuries along with an efficient rate of mental stress. Therefore, involvement
of various preventive measures for resolving the issue of domestic violence can help to a high
extent so that it may not lead to any further issues. Thus, these ways can be considered for
bringing effective changes in the factors that lead to domestic violence. It can surely help in
reducing the number of cases as well, thus leading to a happier and healthier environment.
6

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Berns, N. S. (2017). Framing the victim: Domestic violence, media, and social problems.
Routledge.
Campbell, J. C., & Messing, J. (Eds.). (2017). Assessing Dangerousness: Domestic Violence
Offenders and Child Abusers. Springer Publishing Company.
Cattaneo, L. B., & Goodman, L. A. (2015). What is empowerment anyway? A model for
domestic violence practice, research, and evaluation. Psychology of Violence. 5(1). 84.
Fish, J., Szabo, A., & Turgoose, D. (2018). Domestic & Sexual Violence Services and Service
User Involvement: An Exploration.
Pain, R. (2014). Everyday terrorism: Connecting domestic violence and global
terrorism. Progress in Human Geography. 38(4). 531-550.
Online
Sarah., D. 2014. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2014/s4066806.htm>
Elizabeth., 2018. [Online]. Available through: <http://rightnow.org.au/opinion-3/aboriginal-
women-in-the-australian-prison-system/>.
Adrian., B. 2016. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-
australia/wa-locking-up-women-faster-than-any-other-state-in-the-country-20160206-
gmnasp.html>.
7