Crime Statistics and Research report says the rate of domestic assault increased by 40 per cent in Sydney and more than 50 per cent statewide between 1997 and 2004. The economy can also play a role. Suzanne Dubbs, an executive director of the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Centre, a US domestic violence group, said: ''Bad economic times do not create batterers but they do exacerbate problems. And women who are lying in the dark at night, thinking about leaving, they have no idea how they'll support themselves and their kids on their own.''
IN THE real world the armies of our enemies are recruited from the ranks of our lovers and friends. Despite the best efforts of underbelly drug dealers, motorcycle gangs, bank robbers and serial killers, a large proportion of murders are committed by persons who knew, were de factos or were married to their victims.
The heart-shattering events on the Gold Coast last week - a triple murder-suicide at face value - is the norm in murder world. Victims were often in intimate, loving,
The wars on drugs and terrorism pale in the war between the sexes. In the lands of the free - the US and Australia - the domestic dead outnumber the dead and wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan. Children are being thrown from bridges in Melbourne and driven into dams in Geelong. When adults kill, children are collateral damage.
