Our National Crisis: Violence against Women and Children is a book whose existence is simultaneously vital and regrettable: the former because domestic, family and sexual violence are ‘old problems that are showing no sign of abating’ (p 13); the latter because ‘the killing of women by men’s violence … is inherently preventable’ (p 1). Published four years after Our National Shame: Violence against Women (Monash University Publishing, 2021), two changes to the title – from ‘shame’ to ‘crisis’, and the addition of ‘and children’ – reflect two major shifts in the national conversation about violence in Australia. Forging the nexus between shame and crisis, Fitz-Gibbon observes that [t]he extent of men’s violence against women and children in Australia is a national crisis, and our inaction to date in responding to it in all its forms is our national shame (p 76). She asks, ‘Is this really the best we can do?’ (p 35).
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OUR NATIONAL CRISIS: Violence against Women & Children