A bright orange splodge over Berkeley, two joined up over most of Warrawong, a big one on the coast covering Bellambi, one each in Mangerton, Dapto, Koonawarra, Unanderra, Balgownie and a massive one covering most of inner city Wollongong.
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Contained in Wollongong City Council’s new draft community safety plan, these are the local government area’s most dangerous streets when it comes to domestic violence incidents.
The areas where assaults are considered “high density” based on police figures are bright orange, while areas with medium and low density occurrences of the crime are light orange and yellow.
''One guess as to why, is that poorer people have fewer resources, and fewer alternatives to involving police”
Sadly, the locations of most high-density splodges will come as no surprise: domestic violence is concentrated over suburbs which have a lower socioeconomic status, and the areas within those suburbs dominated by public housing.
It’s worst in Warrawong, which has twice been ranked in the top five per cent of NSW’s worst suburbs in a longitudinal report on entrenched disadvantage, last year and in 2007.
There, Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures show the rate of domestic violence is more than double that of NSW. Malicious damage to property rates are three times more prevalent, harassment rates are more than double, and non-domestic assaults are three and a half times more likely.
University of Wollongong sociology researcher Dr Michael Flood said data showed much higher rates of police-recorded domestic assaults in poorer areas.
“People often say domestic violence crosses all classes and communities, and that’s true but it doesn’t cross them evenly,” he said. “Rates of domestic violence clearly do vary according to socioeconomic status and other social variables.”
Dr Flood said people from poorer backgrounds were more likely to report to the police than those from middle or high socioeconomic backgrounds.
“One guess as to why, is that poorer people have fewer resources, and fewer alternatives to involving police,” he said.
“Police also do more patrolling in poorer areas, so there’s more police scrutiny and they’re more likely to notice.”
He said these factors may mean police data is not a completely accurate representation of domestic incidents.
“But I think, even if we were to have absolutely perfect data, there are genuine differences in the level of domestic violence in different communities,” he said.
“When you’re poor, you tend to live in an area where there’s more crowding, stress, hopelessness and conflict and all those things can feed into domestic violence.”
‘Hot spots’ don’t define suburbs
After living in a quiet cul-de-sac in Balgownie for the past two years, Adam and Emma Smith are surprised by Wollongong City Council mapping that show their area has a high density of domestic violence incidents.
The council’s map of “central suburb hot spots” in its community safety report shows a dark orange mark over part of the leafy suburb, at the north of its boundary with the escarpment.
''Home for everyone is where you make it, and this doesn’t change my opinion on any area. ''
“It’s never something we’ve experienced in our time living here, and I guess it’s probably not something most people would think about when you think of Balgownie,” Ms Smith said.
“There’s still a mix of public housing and private housing in this part of Balgownie, but this isn’t something we would worry about. We have such a nice mix of people here.”
She said the mapping did not make her think differently about the suburb, as she did not believe an areas should be judged on rates of domestic violence.
“There’s been such a spotlight on domestic violence recently, and I think it’s clear that this is an issue that can affect anyone,” she said.
“It’s sadly something you wouldn’t know about if it was going on in your street. Home for everyone is where you make it, and this doesn’t change my opinion on any area.
‘’This is widespread, and it’s something we need to talk about as a whole society.”
Women victims in most DV cases
As well as mapping out the geographic hot spots for domestic violence, assault, property damage and harassment, Wollongong City Council’s figures confirm a stark gender imbalance when it comes to these crimes.
Over three years, from October 2012 to September 2015, 87 per cent of all domestic violence offences in the local government area were committed by men, while women committed just 13 per cent of offences.
In contrast, there were 1576 women domestic assault victims – making up 72.7 per cent of victims. The number of adult male victims totalled 586 (27.3 per cent).
UOW’s Dr Michael Flood said these figures, while stark, likely concealed an even stronger asymmetry in women’s and men’s involvement as victims and perpetrators.
“This doesn’t tell you the proportion of women arrested for domestic assault who were using violence in self-defence, so in the context of their male partner’s violence,” he said.
“We know from other data that a far greater proportion of women’s domestic violence is defensive or reactive, in response to violence by male partners.”
Men are also more likely, according to the council’s safety plan data, to commit non-domestic assault crimes. In the three year period, men committed 79.8 per cent of these offences.
However, men were also more likely to be victims, with the number of male victims of non-domestic violent assault totalling 1825 – or 70 per cent.
Assault higher in poorer suburbs
Some factors shaping links between low socioeconomic status and higher levels of domestic violence:
- Links between low socioeconomic status and crowding, hopelessness, stress
- Exposure to higher levels of other forms of violence and violent crime
- Men may face greater challenges in meeting masculine role expectations
- Higher levels of normative support for use of violence
- Deprivation at neighbourhood level, associated with increased social isolation and reduced collective efficacy.
- Less exposure to tertiary education, which has a liberalising influence
Source: University of Wollongong sociology researcher Dr Michael Flood.
Assault helplines
If you are a victim of domestic and family violence, there is help available.
- For information, support and help, call the 24 hour Domestic Violence Line on 1800 65 64 63.
- Anyone in immediate danger should call Triple Zero (000).
- Lifeline: 13 11 14 (24 hours), www.lifeline.org.au
- Mensline Australia:1300 789 978, www.mensline.org.au