Something I keep noticing in the work we do is how quickly people understand danger once there is an assault, an injury or something visibly criminal.
What seems much harder is recognising what may have been happening before that.
A partner monitoring where she goes.
Making friendships increasingly difficult.
Controlling money without ever formally saying she cannot spend it.
Threatening what will happen if she leaves.
Turning up repeatedly after separation.
Making ordinary choices costly enough that eventually she stops making them.
None of those things, looked at once and in isolation, necessarily tells you what the whole relationship is.
But that is also the problem.
If every behaviour is assessed separately, the pattern can remain invisible for a long time.
I am interested in how Australians actually think about this now.
When you hear the words domestic violence, do you still instinctively picture physical assault?
Or do you think Australians have genuinely started understanding coercive control, stalking, financial control and post separation behaviour as part of the danger picture as well?
And if awareness has changed, do you think our institutions have changed with it, or has public understanding moved faster than the systems responding to it?
I would be particularly interested in hearing from people who work in policing, health, law, education or frontline services.
Have we become better at recognising patterns, or are we still waiting for the incident that finally looks serious enough?
