| Project title: | Attitudes and Practices of Doctors Toward Spouse Assault Victims: An Australian Study |
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| Project type: | Developmental Crime Prevention |
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| Researchers/contact: | Dr Patricia W. Easteal and Simon Easteal Australian Institute of Criminology |
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| Commencement date: | 1988 |
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| Location: | ACT, Australia |
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| Funding body/institution: | Criminology Research Council Grant |
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| Description of the study: | This study aimed to develop an understanding of how often medical practitioners recognise victims of domestic violence and what they perceive their role to be in violence prevention and intervention. The underlying theme of this report is the idea that early detection by medical practitioners can be useful in domestic violence prevention. |
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| Description of the outcomes: | Results show that medical practitioners fail to identify a large proportion of victims that consult them and often inappropriately treat those that they do identify. Long-serving medical practitioners tend to have more conservative attitudes about the causes of domestic violence and about their role in its prevention. Female doctors have more liberal beliefs about domestic violence causation. One major finding of this research was that few doctors receive comprehensive training about domestic violence. The implications are that if medical practitioners were trained in the detection of Domestic Violence, their knowledge could be used to prevent further violence within the home. |
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| Evaluation: | |
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