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A violence-free Victoria.

It all starts with respect.

Introduction to preventing violence

How to get involved in violence prevention
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Primary prevention of violence

Primary prevention of violence is about changing the underlying social conditions that produce and drive this violence, that excuse, justify or even promote it – that is, challenging the gendered drivers of men’s violence.  

Violence against women, family and gendered violence are preventable if we change the conditions that allow them to happen.

And when we address the conditions that drive this violence, we all benefit – right across our society. Stronger and healthier relationships. Safer communities. More equal organisations and systems. Freedom from the attitudes and stereotypes that hurt us and the people around us. 

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Talking about respect

Helping your community or audience understand the link between respect and preventing violence – and recognising how “seemingly harmless” attitudes can escalate or excuse and justify harmful behaviour – is a vital step in supporting them to take action against violence. Use values-based messaging to position your messages.

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Gender-based violence

 'Gendered violence' or ‘gender-based violence’ is any form of physical or non-physical violence or abuse against a person or group of people because of biased or harmful beliefs about gender. It includes all forms of violence against people based on their gender, or violence that affects people of a particular gender disproportionately.  

It is commonly used to describe men’s violence against women and girls.  

Violence against LGBTIQA+ communities based on gender or gender norms is also a form of gender-based violence.  

Men and boys can also be targeted by violence due to their gender, or because they do not conform to gender norms.

The United Nations global 16 Days of Activism campaign focuses on men’s violence against women, and this is what we predominantly refer to in this toolkit. 

Men’s use of violence

The vast majority of family and gendered violence is perpetrated by men – as is most violence against men and gender diverse people. 95% of victims of all violence, whatever their gender, experience violence from a male perpetrator. The ideas that men should be aggressive, tough, not allowed to show fear or sadness, to always be dominant and in control are a major contributor here: men who personally endorse this rigid idea of masculinity are more likely to use violence.

While not all men are violent, all men can do something to change those harmful ideas and messages. This toolkit is an opportunity to involve the men in your workplace or community about changing these harmful ideas and embracing healthy masculinities, to create safer families and communities. 

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Drivers of men’s violence against women

There are four factors that evidence has shown can drive men’s violence against women. These are referred to as the gendered drivers of men’s violence against women:  

  1. Condoning of violence against women. For example, blaming a woman for not leaving a violent partner.
  2. Men’s control of decision-making and limits to women’s independence in public and private life. For example, the belief that men should be ‘in charge’ in their relationships and the bosses at work.
  3. Rigid gender stereotyping and dominant forms of masculinity. For example, the idea that men must be tough and in charge, and that women should be submissive to men.
  4. Male peer relations and culture of masculinity that emphasise aggression, dominance and control. For example, men using sexist or homophobic jokes to bond with each other.  

There are also reinforcing factors that can interact with the gendered drivers to increase the prevalence, frequency, or severity of violence against women.

  1. Condoning of violence in general. Including victim blaming, treating family violence as a family’s private matter, and telling sexist jokes or jokes about rape.  
  2. Experience of, and exposure to, violence. Including abuse and maltreatment as a child, or being exposed to violence against their mother or other female caregivers.
  3. Factors that weaken prosocial behaviour. Including natural disasters and crises, alcohol, gambling, environments dominated by male peer relations, and disadvantage and isolation.  
  4. Resistance and backlash to prevention and gender equality efforts, at both individual, community, institutional and structural levels.  

On their own, these factors may not necessarily drive or create violence, but when they are combined with the gendered drivers, violence against women becomes much more likely.  

Actively challenging gendered drivers and addressing reinforcing factors is key in preventing men’s violence against women.

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Forms of violence

There are many different forms of family and gendered violence, both physical and non-physical, inlcuding:

  • physical violence and murder
  • intimate partner violence, including dating violence
  • sexual violence (perpetrated by someone known or by a stranger)
  • sexual harassment (in workplaces, public spaces or online)
  • sexual objectification and fetishisation, particularly of trans women and trans feminine people, women of colour, and lesbian, bisexual and queer women
  • dowry-related abuse, sexual and reproductive coercion, sex trafficking and other slavery-like practices, female genital mutilation/cutting, forced marriage
  • coercive control, including financial abuse, technological abuse, control over immigration status  
  • violence that occurs in institutional settings; for example, violence in prisons, in aged care facilities, disability or residential care settings, health facilities or educational institutions.

Coercive control

Coercive control is a pattern of continuous abuse used to control, dominate and intimidate another person, usually an intimate partner. It is a precursor in almost all physically violent relationships, and it is not less serious than physical harm.

Community understanding of coercive control remains limited. It often involves subtle and cumulative behaviours that may be:  

  • difficult to recognise (for example, love bombing)
  • normalised or misunderstood (for example, control mislabelled as care)
  • invisible to people outside of the relationship (for example, someone using coercive control may be charismatic in all their relationships, carefully controlling their image).

Victim survivors have consistently identified this lack of public understanding as an important gap in Victoria’s approach to preventing family violence and gendered violence more broadly.

Since being established in 2016, the Victorian Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council (VSAC) has advocated for greater awareness of the often-hidden patterns of abuse that can precede and accompany family violence. Their lived experience has highlighted how coercive control can go unrecognised until abuse has significantly escalated, delaying opportunities for earlier recognition, support and prevention. 

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Who experiences gender-based violence?

People from all cultures and backgrounds can experience gendered violence. There is no part of society that is “immune” from men’s violence against women, partners or family members.  

Intersecting forms of oppression, discrimination, power and privilege can further limit someone's access to resources, independence and perceived value, and increase the probability of violence against them. Broadly, these include ableism, ageism, class discrimination, heteronormativity, cisnormativity, and racism and colonialism. That’s why efforts to prevent violence against women must include all women.

The drivers of violence against women and against LGBTIQA+ people overlap. This means that prevention of men’s against women programs and activities that address these drivers should consider how to include LGBTIQA+ people (of all genders) in their design and delivery. It’s also why it’s important to take care not to send the message that gendered violence only affects women.

For example, education programs that talk about rigid gender stereotypes or sports campaigns that challenge masculine social norms that encourage misogyny, homophobia and transphobia should be designed in close consultation with the LGBTIQA+ community. In instances where their experiences are at the centre of the work, this should be led in partnership.

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Collaborative approach to end gender-based violence

To effectively drive down rates of violence against women – and to keep them down – we need a well-supported system that connects prevention, early intervention, response and recovery services.

We also need to recognise that everyone has a role to play in changing attitudes and behaviours, as well as the systems, policies and processes that allow violence to thrive.  

How to get involved in violence prevention