Males accused of violence are typically treated more harshly than their female counterparts

On 27 September a 45-year-old woman was accused of running down her husband with a station wagon outside their home on a suburban street west of Brisbane. Neighbours claim the victim was trying to prevent his wife from leaving in the car, when she allegedly drove at him and killed him. Neighbours restrained the woman until police arrived. Detective Inspector Mick Manago reportedly said there had been a "disturbance" at the address. "The couple were known to the police and police had been to that location previously for domestic and family violence related matters. The wife was arrested at the scene and has now been charged with one count of domestic violence murder and one count of disqualified driving".

In this case, public reaction to the killing seems to have been largely sympathetic to the deceased.

In Canberra, a mentally impaired man, who fatally stabbed his wife of 60 years, remains in jail as no suitable alternative accommodation has yet been found. Manfred Uhle, 88, killed his wife at their Gordon home in June 2024. An autopsy identified the 78-year-old victim as having 10 stab wounds to her upper body, as well as 23 defensive injuries.

Uhle has a likely diagnosis of vascular dementia, with symptoms including memory loss, paranoid thoughts, confusion and delusions. He was found unfit to plead to a charge of murder, with the ACT Supreme Court finding elements of the charge had been proved. Due to cognitive impairment, the finding does not technically amount to a conviction but is instead a non-acquittal.

While there has been shock at the killing, there has been little public comment on the case.

More broadly, there has been academic discussion of the way domestic violence is reported, and significant numbers of journal articles can be found. In my opinion a big issue is that nearly all the commentary in this subject area is by feminist authors with "committed" views.

A review in the Journal of Communication Inquiry noted "significant gaps post #MeToo in ethical reporting on sexual violence because issues are contextually entrenched in systems of oppression, and much more work must be done to resist prominent stigma and stereotypes".

Another review stated that the Our Watch (2019) guidelines warn:

…journalists should not insinuate women are at fault for violence perpetrated against them". (Our Watch claims to be "Australia's leader in the primary prevention of violence against women".) "This includes information about who the victim was, with drugs or alcohol consumed, where they were, what they were doing, or how they may have 'provoked' the violence…Not only does victim blaming rhetoric ignore the autonomy of men in perpetrating these crimes, blaming women individually also treats violence against women as an individual concern, not a national, cultural issue.

While bringing attention to domestic violence experienced by Indigenous women is important, journalists must be careful not to unnecessarily refer to Indigeneity…The news media can work towards this by being receptive to guidelines such as those produced by Our Watch (2019). Featuring prominently in these guidelines is the direction to eliminate victim blaming messaging, as well as representations exonerating perpetrators.

Many newspaper reports were also likely to explain the crime in ways that detracted from the specific act of violence. More than half (52.7%) the articles we reviewed, for example, blamed male domestic violence on relationship difficulties, "jealousy" or infidelity, mental illness, criminality or character flaws, substance abuse issues, or financial difficulties. Rather than contextualising the violence as a systemic issue, these explanations often served to rationalise the man's violence as defensible.

In my view, it is very important, if Australia is to sensibly deal with the serious problem of domestic violence, that debate is not reduced to a divisive battle of the sexes. To date much of the legislative framework that deals with domestic violence (and related issues such as child custody and divorce) has been driven by the feminist lobby, which excessively pushes the notion that women committing acts of violence are sick or mad but not bad, and seeks to have violence by women swept under the carpet. On the other hand, feminists portray violence by male partners as "systemic".

Perversely, the main pushback in terms of seeking more balanced rights for men has not come from male politicians. It has come from women, such as Betina Arndt and Pauline Hanson. In addition, "lack of respect" has become excessively portrayed as almost the sole cause of violence against women. The reality is that mental issues, ethnic culture, substance abuse, and character also play a part, and need to be dealt with as part of any solution. It also needs to be said that some people (both men and women) can be aggressive in character and can never be lived with in harmony. Despite this some people are serially attracted to such partners.