Domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) is a pervasive and growing issue in Australia. Despite government-led national plans to reduce this violence in Australia, there is evidence that rates are increasing and incidences are becoming more severe. DFSV support agencies offer a range of services to support victim-survivors including targeted support to assist clients to leave violent relationships, access housing, legal and counselling support, as well as offering emotional and social support and support to recognise and define abusive and violent behaviour. We argue that these services also have the potential to lead to social change at a structural level as suggested by a reverse dominance coalition framework.
We use data from interviews of victim-survivors to illustrate the applicability of the reverse dominance coalition framework to DFSV support services. We find that the framework offers a means of understanding how support at an individual level to victim-survivors also has broader transformative power to change societal awareness, attitudes and responses. We conclude that DFSV agencies not only assist DFSV victims to recover and heal but also play a leadership role in promoting broader changes at the community, policy and societal level.
Previous ANROWS attitudinal research shows that the Australian public has a long way to go in improving awareness and understanding of gender inequality and DFSV in particular (Coumarelos et al., 2021). Their data show a plateau in attitudes since 2017, suggesting the need for more targeted strategies. DFSV recovery agencies provide one means of creating this change through victim-survivor support that also fills the broader function of a reverse dominance coalition. This would not only assist DFSV victims to recover and heal but may also lead to broader changes at the community, policy, and societal level.