Whittlesea CALD Communities Family Violence Research Report 2012 | Page 25

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As a preliminary question the women were asked about their understanding of the term ‘family
violence.’
The majority of women demonstrated an understanding that ‘family violence’ encompasses a range
of behaviours and is not confined to physical abuse. However, despite this, four of the women did
not identify what they had experienced as ‘family violence’, particularly if they had experienced
verbal, financial and emotional abuse.
One woman said that whilst she would consider verbal and emotional abuse to be ‘damaging and
hurtful’ she would not consider it to be ‘family violence.’ Another woman who had been subjected to
violence over a number of years, including one incident in which she sustained a broken bone, did
not think that she had experienced ‘family violence’ because the violence was mainly confined to
verbal and emotional abuse and the incidences of physical violence were isolated.

Perpetrators of family violence
The women were not asked directly who had perpetrated the violence but this was generally
disclosed over the course of the interview.
Family violence was most often perpetrated by a partner or ex-partner although it was not
necessarily confined to intimate partner relationships. Two of the women who experienced family
violence at the hands of their husbands also experienced family violence at the hands of their
husband’s extended family and this was not confined to male relatives but also included mothers
and sisters in law. Two women also experienced family violence at the hands of their own family, in
these instances perpetrated by their brothers.

First Point of Disclosure
The women were asked who they first spoke to about the family violence they were experiencing.
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Half of the women first disclosed their experience of family violence to relatives either in
Australia or overseas;
One woman made a disclosure of family violence to a dietician who she had been referred to by
her GP when she presented for weakness and exhaustion;
One woman first disclosed family violence to the Arabic speaking settlement support worker at
WCC;
One woman first disclosed family violence to Victoria Police
Two women made disclosures to religious leaders (one woman after first confiding in her sister);

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