How effective are domestic violence promoting campaigns in stopping violence against women?

Domestic violence is a major personal, community and social problem that pulls great attention.

After several recent horrific cases, media discussions, calls for a royal commission To end the violence and public demonstrations, Australia says: “enough is enough“.

Domestic violence could be fatal and the results can last for years. Yet domestic violence is some of the underreported crimes locally And internationaland is the least more likely to end in a conviction.

Violence against women has a deep and profound meaning long-term toll negatively impacts women's health, well-being and economic security, and has a negative impact on families, communities and society as an entire.

Address the issue with marketing campaigns

Over the past 40 years, government agencies and community organizations worldwide have attempted to handle this problem through social marketing campaigns.

The aim of those campaigns is to boost awareness of the difficulty and ultimately prevent domestic violence.

Some have received coveted awards, akin to the Salvation Army's campaign in South Africa.Why is it so hard to see black and blue?“. But others have been criticized and even banned for their violent images, such as Britain's Women's Aid campaign.”The cut” with actress Keira Knightley, who depicted violent physical abuse.

“Stop it at the Start” – a campaign for respect

In April 2016, the Australian government launched a nationwide campaign “Stop it in the beginning“.

This prevention campaign was jointly funded by all state and territory governments to cut back violence against women and kids.

The aim was to interrupt the cycle of violence by encouraging adults to reflect on their attitudes and have conversations about respect with young people. It was about how violence against women begins with disrespect.

Part of the campaign encouraged community members to “unmute” – to arise against disrespectful behavior and support those experiencing abuse.

The latest phase of the campaign focuses on the thought of ​​“educating respect,” encouraging parents and other young influencers to behave positively Example and supply education about respectful behavior.

How effective are these violence prevention campaigns?

Because Stop it on the Start was a prevention campaign, we examined ABS data to know its impact on domestic violence prevention.

Reports published in 2012, 2016 and 2021 showed that the number of ladies who had experienced physical and/or sexual violence from a domestic partner for the reason that age of 15 rose from 5% (467,300) to 23% (2) during this era .3 million).

We also examined the typical word seek for “domestic violence” using data from Google Trends, which showed an overall increase in average search interest of 29.1% from 2012 to 2022.

This could indicate an increased awareness of domestic violence amongst the overall population. However, the increasing variety of reported cases over the identical period suggests that domestic violence campaigns alone may not help reduce or prevent violence against women, although they could help raise awareness of the issue.

How effective are past campaigns?

This raises the essential query of how campaigns convey a message about stopping gender-based violence.

To assess this, we searched various platforms akin to YouTube and AdsoftheWorld in addition to industry media, including 120 print and 25 video ads on YouTube. We were taken with understanding who the perceived audience of the promoting was and what message it conveyed.

When reviewing the advertisements, we found that older examples showed a better level of violence by the perpetrators, sometimes extremely graphic.

This type of “Shock promotingThe aim is to draw the viewer's attention.

Shock promoting has been utilized in public health and safety campaigns to scare people for a few years HIV/AIDS preventionFor example.

However, Research has found that the usage of violence in shock promoting obscures core messages and might desensitize audiences.

More recent campaigns appear to have moved away from shock messages and tried to send the message to the broader community.

Our research team reviewed the promoting messages and created a perception mind map based on (1) the goal of the message (perpetrator or community) and (2) the extent of violence (non-violent or graphic).

Positioning of promoting images for domestic violence

We observed that the messaging modified depending on the target market – shocking to the perpetrator's awareness/understanding of the difficulty and to the survivor's education/support locally.

However, we discovered a significant gap in messaging – survivors.

Targeting victims and survivors

There appears to be a movement from violent, shocking promoting to campaigns aimed toward the community to support victims and survivors.

But few campaigns have identified the strength and empowerment survivors must take motion, although the New South Wales government's recent campaign “It's not love, it's coercive control“is a start.

Domestic violence is a posh problem and further measures to forestall violence are needed. If campaigns do the identical thing over and another time, there’s a risk that this essential prevention work shall be “outsourced” to future generations others have recently argued.

We also must concentrate on more immediate measures to forestall violence within the short term.