Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash
Trigger Warning
This article contains discussions of sensitive and potentially distressing topics, including rape, murder, sexual abuse, and assault. Reader discretion is strongly advised. If you find these subjects upsetting or triggering, please consider whether continuing is right for you.
Gendered violence is on the rise; it’s been declared an epidemic in several countries, including Australia, with the past few years having proved particularly dangerous for women. For the hardline conservatives, there are a host of people to blame; recently, immigrants have been a favourite. The scapegoating of vulnerable communities by this section of the political spectrum has proven not just ineffective at combating male violence against women, but points towards a worrying trend of the dehumanisation of one group in the name of protection for another.
Trump signing the Laken Riley Act into law. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Misogyny of Trump’s America
American student Laken Riley was just 22 years old when she died from head trauma and asphyxiation at the hands of an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant. Her murder was a major talking point for the Republican Party in the 2024 election. To Trump’s voters, her tragic death seemed to be a reminder about the threat of Latino “rapists” that Trump had warned about in his first term. Even better, they could mobilise women by placing female safety at the forefront of their campaign. However, Trump’s win required a convenient lack of discussion around the – at least – 26 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct, a court’s finding that he is liable for sexual abuse, and his past graphic sexual comments about women.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration certainly capitalised on Riley’s death, ushering in the Laken Riley Act. Introduced in January 2025, it requires the mandatory detention of undocumented immigrants who have been charged with certain crimes, most low-level and relatively non-violent such as theft or burglary. These people do not have to be convicted to be detained and do not have the right to apply for bail.
This ominous beginning to Trump’s term sets a dangerous precedent; it degrades the right to due process that every person in the United States has, including immigrants. This right to due process is protected by the Fifth Amendment in the American Constitution, a document which is often a focus for American conservatives. When asked if he needs to maintain every person’s right to the Fifth Amendment, Trump replied, “I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer,” and expressed concern over the volume of trials that would be needed to ensure the process.
Critics of the Trump administration point out hypocrisy in his response. Immigrants are scapegoated in the assumption that they will commit crime – including against women – but the President often ignores the Constitution, a document many of his supporters feel passionately about. His voter bases’ claims to unending loyalty to the Constitution may be reasonably called into question if they are willing to look past Constitutional violations for the sake of their own narratives.
It appears hypocritical, too, that Trump played a role in freeing Andrew Tate and his brother and bringing them back to the States, despite their charges of rape and sex trafficking.
In many cases, abuse can be homegrown; a product of one’s own society rather than solely imported. Fraternities – an all-American rite of passage – are notorious for their rape culture; women in sororities are 74% more likely to be assaulted than other women in college. Likewise, America’s largest Christian denomination, the Southern Baptist Church, is deeply conservative and dominates the ‘Bible Belt’, a region which Trump won in a landslide in 2024. Almost 400 Southern Baptist church leaders have pleaded guilty to or been convicted of sex crimes since 1998, with most of the cases involving white male perpetrators. In recent years, there have been greater discussions around sexual violence in the church, as well as its patriarchal structure, which has been found to be a breeding ground for sexual abuse.
Nigel Farage. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Save Europe – or its women?
Europe, too, has had a moral panic around immigration. Nationalist ideas have long been amplified on social media, but reached TikTok several years ago, with users exclaiming that their leaders need to ‘save Europe’. The conservative Reform party in the United Kingdom certainly feels this way, promising to secure Britain’s borders as a major party policy. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform, was, unsurprisingly, a staunch supporter of Brexit. He expressed concern that Pakistani gangs, targeting young British girls, are being ignored.
The Reform focus, however, disregards the broader issue in the UK of general violence against women; it was declared a national emergency last year. In July 2024, three women were killed by the ‘crossbow killer’. The murderer raped his ex-girlfriend following their breakup, and killed her, her sister, and her mother. Last year, another British citizen murdered three girls at a dance class – they were between the ages of six and nine. He injured several other young girls. Once again, immigration is clearly not the sole cause of violence and femicides.In France, the true extent of sexual violence committed by nationals became clear in the Gisele Pelicot case, in which at least 50 different men raped Pelicot after she was drugged by her husband. Most of the offenders lived within 50 kilometres of her house; one she knew personally, one was a soldier, one a nurse, many with wives and children of their own. Pelicot’s case demonstrates that it is not necessarily strangers women need be most worried about, but often those around them. Globally, current and former intimate partners account for up to 38% of femicide’s perpetrators. Over 51,000 women were murdered by their intimate partners or family members alone in 2023. This issue must be front and centre in Europe’s fight against gender-based violence.
In memorial for the Bondi Stabbing. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Too Close to Home
Australia voted no to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s immigration policies at the 2025 election, but that doesn’t ensure that the tide has turned on social attitudes. Anthony Albanese declared violence against women to be a “national crisis” last year, with one woman murdered every four days, an upwards trend in the last few years. Many communities are especially impacted, including Indigenous women, as well as refugee and migrant women who face challenges reporting and seeking help for violence. At least 69 women were murdered in acts of femicide last year, but some reports place the number significantly higher. Australian women are over three times more likely to experience sexual violence at the hands of a man they know than by a stranger.
This May, a ‘She Matters’ mural, dedicated to women who have allegedly died as a result of male violence, was defaced with the words “war on men”. The mural, located in Hosier Lane, has the names and pictures of over 100 women. This flagrant disrespect for the mural, and the women on it, shows a lack of compassion for gendered violence – and also demonstrates a worrying attitude. 40% of Australian men under 35 feel that feminism has gone too far, and nearly 20% of Australian men believe that feminism should be violently resisted if necessary; but in the face of mass violence experienced by women, this idea must be challenged if we are to improve women’s safety.
The Bondi Stabbing was a horrific reminder that Australia is not immune to misogynistic violence, necessitating feminist perspectives. When Joel Cauchi attacked the Bondi Junction shopping centre in April last year, he killed six people, five of whom were women, and stabbed a total of 14 women and three men. Before Cauchi’s identity – white and Australian – was released, there was speculation on social media about the attacker, particularly that they were an Islamic extremist committing an act of terrorism, despite no information to suggest this. At least two people were wrongly named as the perpetrator, which spread Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, and anti-semetic rhetoric.
After the identity of the killer was released, however, the attack was branded a mental health crisis, and it was claimed that his motivations were not ideological, despite Cauchi’s focus on attacking women. Following the incident, Cauchi’s father said his son was “desperate for a girlfriend”, which suggests the attack was an act of incel violence, incidents which are becoming increasingly common with the rise of the ‘manosphere’. It appears that Cauchi’s motivations were rooted in a hatred for women, giving rise to considerations about whether gender-based attacks like the Bondi Stabbing can be considered terrorism themselves. Though a term often reserved for non-nationals, the incident, and its response, begs the question of why violence against women is so often deemed separate to political violence. In the wake of the stabbing, Australia will review its definition of terrorism for a new era, one in which mass violence against women may be addressed with the appropriate severity.
Defining and Combating Violence
It is not uncommon for vulnerable communities to be scapegoated in apparent concern for women. When one woman is murdered every ten minutes by a partner or family member around the world, it is clear what the issue is – male violence against women. 140 women and girls are killed every day by someone close to them. These appalling statistics display the universality of gendered violence, as well as the necessity to prevent and combat it – and claiming that specific marginalised groups (often immigrants or those of ‘other’ races or religions) are the primary reason for the issue is disingenuous.
The West’s preoccupation with immigrant men’s violence must extend to their national men to effectively fight the issue. We cannot shy away from issues in our own communities; after all, if one in five women experience sexual abuse in our country, it’s very likely to know someone who has committed that violence. Femicide and sexual assault does not just involve sporadic, disconnected murders of women and girls – it is the result of consistent, systemic failures to ensure women’s safety, and cannot be boiled down to increased immigration. Women’s safety must be at the forefront of national security, in Australia and globally, to work towards a more equitable future that gives women and girls the justice and security that they deserve.
For support after sexual violence, you can visit the Victorian Sexual Assault Crisis Line at 1800 806 292.
Lizzy Bingham
Lizzy is in her second year of studying journalism and international relations. She is particularly interested in feminist theory in the IR field, as well as conflict, extremism, and humanitarianism. She also enjoys learning about history and literature. In her free time she likes to read, bake, and spend time with her cats.