People, especially the media, are happy to talk about problems. Bad news sells! But very few people, especially the media, are happy to talk about the answers to domestic violence.
Miranda Devine went to the heart of the problem in an article recently called Demonising Men Won’t Stop Domestic Violence:
It is a grim portent that Malcolm Turnbull’s first policy announcement as Prime Minister was a $100 million gimmick blaming domestic violence on gender inequality.
“Women must be respected,” thundered Turnbull. “Disrespecting women is unacceptable.”
He has drunk the feminist Kool-Aid. But, somehow, I don’t think Turnbull’s commanding the nation to respect women will stop endemic violence in dysfunctional remote indigenous communities and public housing estates…
Demonising men, and pouring taxpayer money into permanent meddling bureaucracies, will do nothing to alleviate domestic tragedy.
It just increases government’s role in our lives, and further disempowers vulnerable men…
Drug and alcohol abuse and mental illness are specific problems which properly targeted government policy might help alleviate. “Respecting women” is not…
Worse, the underlying narrative is about disrespecting men.
Turnbull claimed: “one in four young men think it’s OK to slap a girl when you’ve been drinking”…
“Our Watch” is chaired by feminist former Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, curiously appointed by Abbott as Australia’s Ambassador for Women and Girls. She claims: “Violence against women does not discriminate, regardless of ethnicity, social status and geography.”
But the actual statistics show a different reality.
Violence against women does discriminate, starkly. It is concentrated in communities with a high indigenous population, in the Northern Territory, in impoverished rural towns, in the urban fringes where the underclass lives, where welfare has emasculated men, where unemployment is high and education poor, and where drug and alcohol abuse is rife. These are the obvious preconditions for violence.
If you want to break the cycle of violence, end the welfare incentive for unsuitable women to keep having children to a string of feckless men.
Some facts, from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics: Domestic violence is worst in the small remote town of Bourke. With its high indigenous population, it has a rate of 4195.6 offences per 100,000 population (in fact, Bourke’s crime rate makes it more dangerous per capita than any country on earth).
Second place goes to Walgett with a rate of 2,692, then Moree Plains (1824), Glenn Innes (1103.5), Coonamble, Lachlan, Broken Hill, Cobar, Bogan, Dubbo.
When you get to the welfare-centred outer suburbs of Sydney, you find Campbelltown has a domestic violence crime rate of 628.4 per 100,000, followed by Blacktown at 610.2, Penrith (588.4) and so on. You get the picture.
Compare those rates to the affluent areas of Sydney; Kuringai has the lowest domestic violence in NSW with 66.1 crimes per 100,000, followed by Hunters Hill, Lane Cove, Hornsby, Manly, Willoughby, and so on.
It’s clear. Welfare traps create the conditions for domestic violence.
Miranda Devine is right, welfare traps create perfect conditions for domestic violence. To get to the root of the problem we have to ask the question, “What are the factors that creates a welfare dependency?” The answer to that is simple – Fatherlessness. Journalist Melanie Phillips, in an article about Welfare Traps writes:
Perhaps even more important, restoring the work ethic is only a partial remedy for welfare dependency.
For one of the key factors behind permanent poverty is the growth of lone parenthood and mass fatherlessness…
Properly addressing the scourge of mass fatherlessness means acknowledging that poverty is not the biggest problem lone-parent households face.
Far worse is the emotional harm done to children by the absence of their fathers; the abuse of women and children by transient boyfriends; and the fact that such endemic disadvantage is passed down through the generations because there is no awareness of any other way of life.
The National Fatherhood Initiative in the USA says that, “Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. In 2011, 12 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.”
Solving the problem of domestic violence has more to do with solving the problem of fatherlessness than it has to do with solving the problem of poverty. Interestingly the other statistical predictions for increased levels of violence against women which Miranda Devine correctly identifies as poor levels of education, increased levels of alcohol and drug use are all derivatives of increased levels of fatherlessness. If Malcolm Turnbull and his feminist friends are really serious about solving the domestic violence problem they first need to solve the problem of fatherlessness.
Lovework
Miranda Devine further points out in her subsequent article called Feminist Dogma Whips up the Domestic Violence Industry and her brilliantly argued Setting The Facts Straight Again article that those who are engaged in the war against men are not really interested in finding answers but obfuscating the facts and ignoring the truth. As the famous journalist was wont to say, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” The sad fact of the matter is that many women engage in domestic violence as well. As Bettina Arndt said, “No gender has a monopoly on vice.” Uma Challa, a female men’s advocate from India, has started Violence Against Men and Boys Awareness Month because of her concern about the problem of violence against men in India and the western world.
Australian men’s advocate and writer Jasmine Newman also argues that we should not demonise men but reject violence in the home whether it perpetrated by either men or women.
So what is the love work for this week? Together, let’s reject all forms of violence whether perpetrated by men or women and most of all, be good dads. The best way to turn the tide of violence in the home or otherwise is to turn the tide of fatherlessness. How do we do that? One father at a time. As Mahatma Gandi said, “We must become the change we seek.”
Yours for ‘becoming the change we seek’
Warwick Marsh
PS. Thanks to all the fathers who entered our Dads4Kids Instagram Photo Competition. The whole process has been totally inspiring. With over 1,000 fantastic entries it is going to take a bit of time to get it all sorted. Our goal is to announce the winners in next week’s Newsletter.
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