Intimate Partner Violence in the Australian-Muslim Community: Exploring Attitudes/Beliefs, Perpetration, and Victimisation

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant social problem that is found in all societies and cultures, including Muslims in Australia. However, Muslims in Australia are currently under-researched on IPV related issues. Some ways of addressing this issue is by examining Australian-Muslims’ understandings of IPV, documenting prevalence rates, and applying theories that explain IPV. This thesis explores how Australian-Muslims understand the complexity of IPV, and the challenges they encounter in identifying and classifying IPV. It is the first study to explore the attitudes/beliefs of Australian-Muslims towards IPV and examine significant risk factors. It is the first study to document prevalence rates for the perpetration and victimisation of four types of IPV. It is also the first study to explore the significant risk factors of three different forms of IPV-perpetration among Australian-Muslims. The study applies a range of criminological theories to the issue of IPV among Australian-Muslims. The study employs a multi-method approach using focus groups with community-leaders, and a cross-sectional survey with a stratified random sample of respondents drawn from South-East-Queensland. Findings from the qualitative phase of the study illustrates that there are a number of challenges encountered by Australian-Muslims in identifying IPV. Challenges include the difficulty in identifying the parameters of IPV, the restriction of IPV to physical-violence while not recognising verbal-abuse and psychological-abuse as IPV by some cultures, and the taboo of discussing marital sexual-abuse. Results also reveal some unique characteristics of IPV relevant to Australian-Muslims such as the misuse of religion to perpetuate IPV, the dominating influence of culture on IPV-beliefs and IPV-behaviours, and men’s financial responsibility vs. women’s work choices among others. Results also illustrate the diversity in definitions within the Muslim community despite their shared faith and worldviews.