‘A Man’s Home is His Castle. And Mine is a Cage’: A Feminist Political Economy Analysis of Economic Abuse in Victoria.

Abstract

Economic abuse commonly occurs alongside physical, sexual and psychological violence. This thesis draws on interviews with victims (n=18) as well as judicial officers, and legal stakeholders (n=62) across metropolitan, regional and rural Victoria. The interview data reveals the routes through which such abuse affects women – from experiences of insurmountable debt, property damage, malicious abuse of the legal and migration systems – to slavery-like conditions, sexual violence, and escalating, inescapable, and life threatening forms of physical violence. The case studies provide a rich understanding of the impacts of economic abuse demonstrating that denial of material security corresponds with denial of physical security.