1CHILDREN’S PERPETRATION OF VIOLENCE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTRES: PRACTICES OF CHILDREN AND PERCEPTIONS OF STAFF

In 1988 a National Committee on Violence was established to look into the prevalence of violence in Australia, present explanations for violence and provide recommendations for prevention. This arose from the Australian government’s alarm at the tragic Hoddle and Queen street killings the previous year. This has been the most comprehensive study of violence in Australia to date (Mukherjee, personal communication Feb, 1998). The National Committee (1990, p. xxiii) reported that, since the 1970s, there has been a sharp increase in Australia in the various types of non-fatal violence, including assault, rape and robbery. The Committee (1990) noted that this figure is high compared to the standards of western industrial nations and they noted that violent offenders are overwhelmingly male. The National Committee on Violence stated that: One of the most striking aspects of violence in Australia is that the vast majority of those who commit acts of violence are males. Over 80 % of all homicide offenders, and well in excess of 90 % of those charged with serious assault, robbery and sexual assault are men (NCV 1990, p. 33). It is an almost universal finding that men and boys perpetrate most violence in society (Toc