Domestic Violence as Industry: Whiteness in Action and the Forgotten Identities in Domestic Violence in Australia

The social network that fights domestic violence is flourishing in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In the 1970s, women’s safety advocates were a small group of feminists operating on minimal budgets. Today, the domestic violence industry has grown on federal and state monies. Domestic violence as an industry is responsible for advocacy, policy development, government initiatives, setting standards of care, resource deployment, and interventions and assistance standards for victims and offenders. The domestic violence industry has gone “unchecked” and “unregulated” in many nation-states, with many individuals (responsible for grassroots advocacy) not being accounted for, as the cultural understandings of domestic violence have created hidden identities and rendered entire populations invisible. This chapter links critical Whiteness theory and the many forgotten identities in the representation of domestic violence in Australia. Typically, domestic violence is portrayed as a White, nondisabled, heterosexual, cisgender woman as a victim at the hands of a White, nondisabled, heterosexual, cisgender man. The representation has, to the detriment of other experiences, ensured these hidden identities remain hidden. As such, more robust and inclusive discussions on disability, First Nations people, people of color, religiously diverse people, gender and sexuality diverse people, and heterosexual men will be discussed. We close this chapter with crucial areas for consideration in managerialism or domestic violence as an industry and practical recommendations on how Whiteness in domestic violence perpetuates discrimination and misrepresentation and exacerbates the vulnerability of these forgotten identities.