Violence prevention efforts ‘failing’ to connect with men: PM’s expert
A psychologist appointed to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s advisory panel says efforts to end violence against women and children must connect with the emotional experiences of men.
Dr Zac Seidler, the Global Director of Men’s Health Research at Movember, said prevention messaging too often neglected the complex drivers of male violence.
“If you disregard the perpetrator’s history, if you disregard all of the risk factors that are impelling him towards perpetrating violence, then we just put him in the ‘evil man’ box,” he told The Canberra Times.
“In order to stop perpetration, we need to respect the complexity of men’s lives, which is a tough pill to swallow for many.”
Dr Seidler said men could be part of the solution but warned prevention messaging focused on male entitlement and using “caricatures that don’t align with their worldview” would not be effective.
“We can’t just be preaching to the choir, and that’s what many of these campaigns have done,” he said.
“We are not going to be able to turn around this epidemic of violence without getting men and boys on board … We need to get into the complex lives of men, what it is that is driving their behaviour.”
According to Australian Femicide Watch, at least 43 women and six children were murdered in the first six months of this year.
In previous years, a woman was killed on average every week, but the rate has almost doubled in an escalation of violence this year.
Dr Sadler said the crisis of domestic and family violence situation “is a men’s health crisis, is a public health crisis”.
“It’s something that will only be solved by viewing all of the different contextual factors that men are dealing with from pornography to alcohol and drugs, to childhood trauma and finding ways to get out there ahead of it,” he said.
“I think we’ve failed with that piece of the puzzle thus far.”
Dr Sadler said it was important to ask men what they need when designing prevention and behaviour change approaches.
He said there was “a really clear distinction” between condoning or excusing violent behaviour and seeking to understand men’s underlying issues.
“Men who perpetrate violence are not happy men,” he said.
“They have so many cascading risk factors that are causing extreme distress and leading them into a place where they don’t want to be. No boy grows up wanting to hurt those closest to them.”
Dr Sadler, a clinical psychologist and senior research fellow with Orygen at the University of Melbourne, was appointed to the expert panel advising the Albanese government last month.
The panel, co-convened by Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence commissioner Micaela Cronin, Commonwealth Office for Women executive director Padma Raman and Social Services Department secretary Ray Griggs, is conducting a rapid review into best-practice prevention approaches.
Mr Albanese told the Parliament last month that preventing violence against women and children “is a priority of this government”.
“We need to focus on prevention, but we also need to focus on perpetrators,” he said.
“Men in particular have to take responsibility for changing attitudes, changing culture, because it demeans everyone, it demeans women … It also harms men. It harms all of us when we don’t have good relationships that are respectful.”
RICHARD WILSON 