Latest news with #BettinaArndt
News.com.au
7 days ago
- Health
- News.com.au
Uni police lecturer ‘cancelled' over DV claim
A university lecturer who was stood down from her role teaching police recruits for claiming 'just as many women as men' commit domestic violence says she is 'heartbroken' at being 'cancelled'. Dr Fiona Girkin, an associate lecturer in policing and emergency management at the University of Tasmania, previously taught police recruits about domestic and family violence issues and says she was 'much loved' by the police academy. But Dr Girkin came under fire this week over comments she made in a YouTube interview with anti-feminist commentator and author Bettina Arndt. The interview, published on May 15, was titled 'Tasmanian police resist feminist weaponisation of DV laws'. Dr Girkin told Arndt that she urged police, when they get called to a home, to 'not look at gender but look at behaviour'. 'Of course in most circumstances they're going to find that if it's a physical violence situation often it is the male, but I want them to go in and look at behaviour not at gender because I think that can bias how they view the situation,' she said. 'And given that's such a strong narrative out there in the world I'm really particular about not being biased. The other thing I do in my slides is I always make sure I put both lots of stats, you know, male victims, female victims, female perpetrators, male perpetrators.' Dr Girkin said she often put a 'question mark' on some numbers 'because there's actually no stats that I can locate around male victims of domestic violence, certainly in Tasmania, because no one's interested in gathering those statistics'. In response, Arndt claimed international research showed that in 'most violent homes males and females are violent, women often instigate violence … I mean the data is well and truly out there'. Dr Girkin said getting that message to police 'hasn't been as big of a task as I expected because what I'm hearing from police that have been around for a long time and police that are out there at the moment is that they're seeing just as many women as they are men in domestic violence situations as the perpetrator'. 'It's not males that are the offenders, it's equally both men and women and that's something that's certainly coming back from all levels of policing that they're telling me,' she said. Official numbers do not back up her comments. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 81 per cent of the 1582 family or domestic violence-related offenders processed in Tasmania last financial year were male. The rate of offending was around four times higher for males than females at 505 per 100,000 versus 117 per 100,000. Nationally, 79 per cent (71,336) of family or domestic violence offenders were male last year. In 2023 there were 157 victims of family and domestic violence-related homicides, 60 per cent of whom were female. Alina Thomas from family violence support service Engender Equality told the ABC that Dr Girkin's comments were a 'misrepresentation of what we know from evidence, from data and research about the causes and the impacts of family and sexual violence in the community'. 'When people are entering into that conversation who have a very alternative perspective to what the evidence is demonstrating, it detracts from the severity of the reality and the impacts of that,' she said. Speaking to 2GB's Ben Fordham on Thursday, Dr Girkin defended her position despite the talkback host pointing out 'the statistics don't back you up'. 'They're the stats, they're the numbers, I guess I can't argue with those,' she said. 'But it's not taking into consideration what is happening between when they're going into the home and when they're being charged. I've had multiple emails from police saying exactly the same thing, 'Yes we're seeing a lot more women than we used to.' I believe that's to do with the power dynamics changing and men being very fearful of their own behaviour and a lot more conscious of their own behaviour.' Dr Girkin said being 'cancelled' was 'not a very nice feeling at all'. She said she simply taught police that 'you should never make assumptions based on anything'. 'I think there's been a real shift in power dynamics in society with women but also in relationships,' she said. 'I've taken every opportunity since I've been working with police to have conversations about this and everybody I spoke to has said they're seeing as many women [domestic violence offenders] as men when they go into the home initially.' She said she was 'much loved by the police academy, I've had praise for the work I do' 'I try to come from a humanistic approach rather than a feministic approach,' she said. 'I'm looking at human beings and who's in danger and who's not, rather than looking at it as a gender problem. That doesn't mean that I don't teach that women are more likely to be violently harmed because men are a lot stronger than women. That is to be expected. It's a genetic thing, not so much a gender thing. I was simply directing my lectures in a way that matched what I was hearing from the police.' Dr Girkin stressed that she was 'not being disciplined, it's an assessment' but she was 'not sure' if she wanted her job back. 'I'm heartbroken,' she said. 'I really loved my job and it was extremely embarrassing for the ABC to print that I'd been stood down, because that's how my friends and family found out.' Tasmania Police told it 'did not have any input or awareness of the interview'. 'The content of Dr Girkin's interview was not endorsed by Tasmania Police and does not align with our approach in dealing with family violence,' a spokeswoman said. 'Tasmania Police is steadfastly committed with our key partners to a trauma-informed approach in dealing with victim survivors of family and sexual violence.' The University of Tasmania has been contacted for comment. Arndt has sparked controversy over the years for comments on consent and rape, and for sympathetically interviewing convicted pedophile and former Australian of the Year Grace Tame's schoolteacher abuser, Nicolaas Bester. In 2020 she drew fire for comments defending a Queensland detective's statement about the murders of Hannah Clarke and her children that mentioned a 'husband being driven too far'.
ABC News
22-05-2025
- ABC News
Domestic violence comments to Bettina Arndt puts UTAS lecturer in spotlight
A university lecturer who teaches Tasmanian police recruits about domestic violence will not be involved in police training courses while comments she made in an interview with controversial men's right's commentator Bettina Arndt are reviewed. In the video published online last week, Fiona Girkin says police are seeing "just as many women as they are men in domestic violence situations as the perpetrator ". Dr Girkin is an associate lecturer in Policing and Emergency Management at the University of Tasmania and a former service manager of Launceston sexual assault support service Laurel House. She teaches Tasmania Police recruits about family and domestic violence. In the video, titled Tasmanian police resist feminist weaponisation of DV laws, she nods along as Ms Arndt explains that Dr Girkin originally approached her saying she'd be interested in talking about her teaching role. "You thanked me for being willing to protect men from women who seek to destroy their lives," Ms Arndt says. "Yeah," Dr Girkin says. Bettina Arndt was condemned for her comments following the murder of Hannah Clarke and her three children in 2020, and has also been criticised for her sympathetic interview with a twice-convicted paedophile on YouTube. In the interview with Dr Girkin, Ms Arndt says "you do teach them [police] about the international research showing in most violent homes, most males and females are violent and women often instigate violence?. Ms Arndt continues "the data's well and truly out there", to which Dr Girkin nods and says "mmm". "What I'm hearing from police that have been around for a long time … is that they're seeing just as many women as they are men in domestic violence situations as the perpetrator," Dr Girkin replies. Alina Thomas from family violence support service Engender Equality said she was concerned about that messaging. "[It] is a misrepresentation of what we know from evidence, from data and research about the causes and the impacts of family and sexual violence in the community. "When people are entering into that conversation who have a very alternative perspective to what the evidence is demonstrating, it detracts from the severity of the reality and the impacts of that. "That undermines the services who are working in that space, it undermines the change that we are trying to create… and the absolutely worst thing that happens is that victim survivors who have experienced this insidious form of violence find themselves being disbelieved, discredited." According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 1,582 offenders were proceeded against for a family or domestic violence-related offence in Tasmania last financial year, and 81 per cent of those were male. The ABS states the male family and domestic violence offender rate was about four times higher than the female offender rate, with 505 male offenders per 100,000 males, compared with 117 female offenders per 100,000 females. Chief executive of the Women's Legal Service Tasmania, Yvette Cehtel, said the interview was "disappointing on a number of fronts". "So it's inconsistent with police reporting, it's also inconsistent with the Chief Justice of the Federal and Family Court of Australia's Lighthouse Project which identifies men as perpetrators of most family violence matters, and it just doesn't accord with what we see in our work either," Ms Cehtel said. In the interview with Ms Arndt, Dr Girkin also says "stats do show that there's a gender imbalance when it comes to domestic violence", but she urges police to go into homes and look at behaviour, not gender. She also tells Ms Arndt "we refuse to see women as perpetrators" and "we make a lot excuses for women, when women can be extremely manipulative and extremely harmful both in their own social groups but also to men in relationships". Dr Girkin also expresses her views on laws around coercion and emotional abuse. Dr Girkin told Ms Arndt "women are extremely manipulative and do use coercive control on a regular basis" and she believed that women were "probably more manipulative than men in many ways". Yvette Cehtel said she was concerned a view like that may create a hierarchy of family violence offences, when Tasmania's Family Violence Act was clear that emotional and financial abuse could be standalone offences. "It really normalises a whole raft of behaviours that constitute family and sexual violence. And there is absolutely a live conversation that we need to be having about barriers that exist for men reporting family and sexual violence. In a statement, Tasmania Police said it did not have any input or awareness of Dr Girkin's interview. "The opinions stated by Dr Girkin are not in line with the principles Tasmania Police supports in dealing with family violence," the statement said. The University of Tasmania, Dr Girkin's employer, confirmed it was "aware of the interview and reviewing the issue", but would not comment further on matters concerning an individual staff member while that process was underway. The University's Chief People Officer, Kristen Derbyshire, said UTAS was committed to fostering a community where respect, safety and inclusion were paramount and its values were set out in a Gender-Based Violence Action Plan in March this year. Bree Klerck from the Tasmanian Family and Sexual Violence Alliance said the university should have a broader review of its academic and educational standards. "To ensure that any adversarial narratives are looked at and not incorporated into UTAS lectures or coursework as well," she said. Alina Thomas from Engender Equality said while Dr Girkin was still on staff at UTAS, the university was effectively endorsing her. Dr Girkin did not respond to the ABC's attempts to contact her.
