Launched in 2016 by the Wagga Women’s Health Centre, The DV Project: 2650 was aimed at preventing domestic violence in the city. More than 1000 Wagga residents took part in the survey.

Led by CSU research associate Andreia Schineanu and the health centre’s Lauren Darley-Bentley, the survey was to identify community attitudes towards domestic violence and gender roles; and to improve understanding of local factors that contribute to these attitudes.

The full findings of the study will be released on Thursday, but some information has been given out early.

Dr Schineanu said there were encouraging findings, but also areas of concern. 

“Our community’s knowledge of what is domestic violence and the law is pretty good, however, over a third of our population do not understand the barriers women face to leaving a violent relationship and one in 10 people minimise or excuse domestic violence in certain circumstances,” she said.

According to Dr Schineanu, this is concerning because it can lead to victim blaming and lack of support for women experiencing domestic violence.

Other findings indicate that up to one in five people “hold attitudes supportive of unequal gender roles and inequality in interpersonal relationships”, elements that are closely associated with domestic violence, she said.

“On an encouraging note, despite the fact that our attitudes towards domestic violence and gender roles are more conservative than national figures, the high levels of knowledge on the subject indicates to me that Wagga is progressing towards more equalitarian attitudes, and the project aims to build on this,” Dr Schineanu said.

Ms Darley-Bentley said the survey was an important first step to preventing domestic violence “because certain attitudes and beliefs drive domestic violence, and create an environment where it can grow”.

“Some attitudes are so embedded that we don’t challenge them. That was the purpose of the survey, to identify these attitudes so we can challenge them, change them,” she said.

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