Violence Against Indigenous Women

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With unemployment, discrimination, substance and alcohol abuse, the effects have caused many family and community violence problems. The impact of violence within the community and family can be felt from one generation to the next. (SCRGSP 2016) reports that in 2015, police records indicated that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experienced physical abuse and sexual assault between 1.1 and 2.6 times more than non-Indigenous women, with the Northern Territory having the highest rates. For every 100,000 Indigenous women, 530 were hospitalised between 2014-2015 because of family violence and assaults, this was 32 times more than non-Indigenous women. The most disturbing figures though relate to homicide, between 1989 and 1998 the figures of “homicide for Indigenous women was 11.7 per 100,000 compared to 1.1 per 100,000 for non-Indigenous women”, the perpetrators more likely being the Indigenous …show more content…

Australia has now made a commitment to combatting violence against women through a National Plan of Action which includes Indigenous women. The plan aims at strengthening Indigenous communities, and includes strategies focused on improving support services and fostering leadership of Indigenous women within communities and society, and the plan also includes strategies to ensure justice responses are effective and that perpetrators are held accountable for their crimes. In the past, a number of incidences took place where women were mistreated and ignored by the police and judicial system, and due to the negligence, unfortunately these Aboriginal women were killed, yet these deaths may have been avoided if they were non-Indigenous and the people they turned to for help ie. Police, Judicial team had of stopped, listened and aided

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