Violence In Australia Research Articles

Developing a Research Agenda with Victim-Survivors to Improve Health Sector Responses to Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence in Australia

Developing a Research Agenda with Victim-Survivors to Improve Health Sector Responses to Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence in Australia

A partial view: the limits and value of the legal archive for historicising domestic violence

In a wider history of domestic violence in Australia from 1850 to the present, divorce and family law have emerged as key sites for tracing what options were available for women and children fleeing violence, and what obstacles and repercussions they faced in doing so. In this article, we consider what constitutes the ‘legal archive’ in relation to the legibility of domestic violence across three different time periods – the colonial period, with its patchwork of divorce legislation, with a specific focus on Western Australia; the use of the ground of constructive desertion in the twentieth century until the Matrimonial Causes Act 1959 (Cth); and family law as operative from the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) to the present.

Gender-Based Violence and Carceral Feminism in Australia: Towards Decarceral Approaches

This article explores the limitations of criminal legal responses to gender-based violence in Australia, specifically sexual assault law reforms and the criminalisation of coercive control. We demonstrate that carceral horizons deployed to address gender-based violence cause further harm to survivors and overshadow diverse perceptions and practices of justice. We suggest that such an approach is inappropriate and dangerous in the Australian context, given the historical and enduring harms of colonisation and the extent to which the actors within and the structure of the criminal legal system perpetrate violence towards Indigenous survivors of gender-based violence. Drawing on insights from research on survivors’ justice needs, survivors’ experiences in the criminal legal system, and abolitionist, transformative, and Indigenous scholarship, we discuss the potential for alternative ways of conceptualising justice responses in the Australian context that move beyond and avoid further perpetuating the harms arising from criminal legal responses to gender-based violence.

‘In the middle … waiting for a future’: Time and waiting in partner visa migration and family violence in Australia

This article reports on findings regarding the experience of prolonged temporariness of migrant women on partner visas that separated after experiencing domestic or family violence (sponsored women). Four participants’ narratives were selected from a longitudinal study to understand how women rebuild their lives after violence while in an uncertain visa status. The analysis reported in this article reveals two strong experiences: Investigation and waiting times and productive waiting. The conclusion is that like with protection visa applicants and students, waiting and prolonged temporariness is experienced as harmful and delaying progression and healing even when the sponsored women engaged in productive waiting. Further, time and waiting also shape women’s experiences of migration and in the case of this cohort, their relationship with the host country and their experience of safety and well-being.

‘I felt I had no-one to depend on but myself’: Examining how women with insecure migration status respond to domestic and family violence in Australia

Feminist research that takes an intersectional approach has highlighted how a woman's migration status can influence their ability to disclose domestic and family violence (DFV) and access formal support in the countries where they live, work and study. In recent years, research in Western multicultural societies such as Australia has shed light on the ways that restrictive state policies work against victim-survivors and can result in women delaying formal help-seeking, withstanding violence for longer periods and presenting at frontline services at a point of crisis. While important findings have been generated, very few Australian studies have documented responses to violence among women with insecure migration status, including the strategies they rely on to resist different forms of control and to keep themselves safe during a relationship with a violent partner.This article draws on data from a study with 18 victim-survivors who experienced DFV when they were living in Victoria, Australia, and their migration status was ‘insecure’, and 23 professional stakeholders. It explores how women drew on personal strategies to resist, cope with, put a stop to and survive DFV. The article uses ‘citizenship’ as a lens to interpret women's experiences and in doing so draws attention to the ways that women's options for responding to DFV were impacted by the conditional nature of their migration status. It also highlights women's expressions of agency and explores the actions victim-survivors took, which influenced their lived experiences in different ways in the weeks, months and years following their move to the country. The article seeks to contribute to scholarship that challenges assumptions of passivity in research on DFV with migrant women and draws attention to the ways that women worked to ensure their safety and survival despite the limited recognition of their experiences in state policies that address gendered violence.

A Comparative Account of Institutional Approaches to Addressing Campus-Based Sexual Violence in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Sexual violence is prevalent on university campuses globally. In this article, we report a qualitative insider research study examining practices for addressing sexual violence at four universities across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. We collected, analysed, and synthesised descriptive information about the practices at each institution. We found unique institutional approaches that nonetheless share some commonalities, yieldingseveral themes that are central to practice. In reflecting on our findings, we conclude with an outline of critical considerations and a call to action for future efforts to address campus-based sexual violence, particularly as this field remains underdeveloped across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Revisiting Empowerment Through Critical Praxis: Perspectives of Front-Line Workers Supporting Refugee Women Experiencing Gendered Violence in Australia

This article revisits the concept of empowerment that has underpinned the global movement to address gendered violence. Using a critical praxis lens, the article explores different understandings of empowerment that arose in interviews with front-line domestic violence workers who support refugee and migrant women experiencing gendered violence in Queensland, Australia. Two-thirds of the participants are from refugee and migrant backgrounds themselves. The findings reflect the shift in the service sector from more macro understandings of empowerment, grounded in feminist activism, to more micro understandings. In a context of neoliberal, bureaucratic service delivery, and limited means to address gendered violence that focus on women leaving and legal interventions, empowerment is sometimes viewed in individualistic, therapeutic terms of self-help. There is evidence that domestic violence services, founded on theories of empowerment, are now implicated in the surveillance and risk tracking role of social work as a profession, which has implications for survivor centeredness, agency, and equal participation. However, there is also evidence that front-line workers are aware of structural failings and questioning individualistic conceptions of empowerment amid broader concerns of social justice. Empowerment is viewed as transformative, with possibilities for more collective models aimed at addressing social justice. Outlining implications for feminist scholarship and practice, I suggest empowerment might be revisited by considering the differences between and within groups; structural violence and the consequences of interventions for marginalized groups; collective strategies aimed at broader structural change, such as poverty and race; and by strengthening the capacity of communities to respond to violence.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Trends of Violence-Related Offences in Australia.

To investigate the medium-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on violence-related offences in Australia, and whether there was evidence of a 'dual pandemic' of family violence in addition to COVID-19. Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average time series were conducted to analyse publicly available violent crime statistics data from January 2017 to November 2021. Population rates of homicide, sexual, domestic and non-domestic assault were assessed across each Australian state and territory, with the effects of COVID-19 being modelled using the average monthly World Health Organization COVID-19 stringency rating for each jurisdiction. All jurisdictions in Australia showed increasing or stable domestic assault trends over the past decade, which were not significantly impacted by COVID-19, nor by the subsequent lockdowns. Non-domestic assaults demonstrated a significant, negative relationship with the stringency index for each jurisdiction, except Western Australia. There was no significant change in the rates of homicide or sexual assault across Australia in relation to COVID-19. Overall, there was no evidence of a 'dual pandemic' in Australia, and whilst domestic assaults continue to increase across the country, non-domestic assaults showed a notable but brief decline. However, these have returned to levels at least as high as pre-COVID-19 and some states show a continuing upward trend. The findings also suggest that alcohol availability may have played a role in continuing high violence numbers. Given the ongoing increasing and high levels of family violence in Australia, revised conceptual frameworks and interventions are indicated.

Is Far-Right Violence Actually Increasing in Australia? Tracking Far-Right Terrorism and Violence in Australia

In recent times, governments throughout the Western world have warned of an increase in far-right violence. A range of government and academic sources have also made spectacular claims regarding a rise in far-right violence in Australia. However, for a range of reasons, the actual prevalence of far-right violence occurring in Australia remains largely unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, the following documents acts of far-right violence and terrorism in Australia between 1990 and 2020. This study demonstrates that no clear increase has actually occurred. A total of 181 incidents are identified across almost all geographic locations, with concentrations of violence noted in Melbourne and North Queensland. A clear spike in violent incidents was identified between 2005 and 2010. However, a complete reduction in fatal violence has occurred since that time, and there has also been a notable reduction in violent events across most years since that peak. Notably, only a vanishingly small number of incidents were perpetrated by individuals associated with organised far-right groups. Rather, the vast majority of attacks are committed by lone actors or small unorganised groups, often spontaneously. To date, this more chronic form of far-right violence has been almost entirely overlooked by policymakers. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see if Australia’s existing counter-terrorism and countering violent extremism infrastructure, built primarily to address a Jihadist threat that is highly networked, geographically concentrated and transnationally linked, can be adapted to combat a far-right that is largely unorganised and geographically decentralised.

The true (financial) costs of workplace violence in Australia

There is a need to determine the contemporary financial costs of workplace violence to the Australian economy. Since 2001, this intractable and typically gendered workplace problem has been viewed through a mythical lens which suggests it costs Australia between $6–36 billion every year. For over two decades, this estimate has been touted as an immutable source of truth. Accurate and realistic costings could support better policy and regulatory approaches to the prevention and effective management of workplace violence while also protecting those vulnerable members of our community who are most at risk of ongoing harm on account of workplace violence.

Violence-Related Death in Young Australians After Contact With the Youth Justice System: A Data Linkage Study.

Little is known outside of the United States about the risk of violence-related death among young people who have had contact with the youth justice system (justice-involved young people). We examined violence-related deaths among justice-involved young people in Queensland, Australia. In this study, youth justice records for 48,647 young people (10-18 years at baseline) who were charged, or experienced a community-based order or youth detention in Queensland, Australia (1993-2014) were probabilistically linked with death, coroner, and adult correctional records (1993-2016). We calculated violence-related crude mortality rates (CMRs) and age- and sex-standardized mortality ratios (SMRs). We constructed a cause-specific Cox regression model to identify predictors of violence-related deaths. Of 1,328 deaths in the cohort, 57 (4%) were from violence. The violence-related CMR was 9.5 per 100,000 person-years (95% confidence interval [95% CI] [7.4, 12.4]) and the SMR was 6.8 [5.3, 8.9]. Young Indigenous people had a greater risk of violence-related death than non-Indigenous people (cause-specific hazard ratio [csHR] 2.5; [1.5, 4.4]). Young people who experienced detention had more than twice the risk of violence-related death than those who were charged only (csHR 2.5; [1.2, 5.3]). We found that justice-involved young people have a risk of dying from violence that far exceeds that of the general population. The rate of violence-related death found in this study is lower than that in U.S.-based studies, which most likely reflects lower population level firearm violence in Australia. In Australia, young Indigenous people and those released from detention appear key groups to target for violence prevention efforts.

Living through family violence in Australia: An integrative literature review of children’s mental health outcomes.

Living through family violence in Australia: An integrative literature review of children’s mental health outcomes.

Supplemental Material for Living Through Family Violence in Australia: An Integrative Literature Review of Children’s Mental Health Outcomes

Supplemental Material for Living Through Family Violence in Australia: An Integrative Literature Review of Children’s Mental Health Outcomes

Perpetration, Victimhood, and Blame: Australian Newspaper Representations of Domestic Violence, 2000-2020.

Newspaper media plays a significant role in forming a public understanding of domestic violence. This article analyses 554 articles from 24 newspapers across Australian states and territories published between 2000 and 2020 that describe specific instances of domestic violence. It examines whether such violence is framed as a systemic issue or as a collection of individual events, as well as how such representations of perpetrators and victims displace both "blame" and "victimhood." Although positive aspects of reporting can be observed, the tendency within newspaper articles to blur distinctions between perpetrators and victims distorts the true scale of domestic violence in Australia.

Indigenous LGBTIQSB + People's Experiences of Family Violence in Australia.

This article uses an Indigenous concept of family violence as a frame to interrogate interviews held with Indigenous LGBTIQSB + people in Australia. The article reorients family violence away from Western heteronormative framings and aims to contribute towards a new conversation about family violence. A qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyse 16 interviews with Indigenous LGBTIQSB + people in the state of New South Wales, Australia. This is one of a series of articles that provide preliminary findings from a research project into the social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous LGBTIQSB + young people living in New South Wales. The interviews highlight the complex impact family violence on Indigenous LGBTIQSB + youth. The article shows differences in reactions between family and community in urban settings with those experienced in rural settings highlighting intergenerational differences, with older family members such as grandparents, more likely to exhibit negative reactions and behaviours. These experiences are interconnected as many young people were living in urban areas while extended family often lived in rural or remote communities. The findings of this study demonstrate the intersectional nature of family violence highlighting the fact that Indigenous LGBTIQSB + young people are integral parts of extended kinship networks, families and communities and are deeply impacted by any acts of family violence. The study's findings also support current research into family and community violence for LGBTIQ + people that shows the differential behaviours and actions of rural and urban families as well as the different reactions between generations within families.

Social Work Practice for Muslim Women Experiencing Domestic Violence in Australia, a Critical Approach to Practice

Social Work Practice for Muslim Women Experiencing Domestic Violence in Australia, a Critical Approach to Practice

Understanding the Lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women with Traumatic Brain Injury from Family Violence in Australia: A Qualitative Study Protocol.

Globally, there is growing recognition of the connection between violence and head injuries. At present, little qualitative research exists around how surviving this experience impacts everyday life for women, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. This project aims to explore the nature and context of these women's lives including living with the injury and to identify their needs and priorities during recovery. This 3-year exploratory project is being conducted across three Australian jurisdictions (Queensland, Northern Territory, and New South Wales). Qualitative interviews and discussion groups will be conducted with four key groups: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women (aged 18+) who have acquired a head injury through family violence; their family members and/or carers; and hospital staff as well as government and non-government service providers who work with women who have experienced family violence. Nominated staff within community-based service providers will support the promotion of the project to women who have acquired a head injury through family violence. Hospital staff and service providers will be recruited using purposive and snowball sampling. Transcripts and fieldnotes will be analysed using narrative and descriptive phenomenological approaches. Reflection and research knowledge exchange and translation will be undertaken through service provider workshops.

Sexual Violence in Australia, 1970s–1980s: Rape and Child Sexual Abuse by Lisa Featherstone

Sexual Violence in Australia, 1970s–1980s: Rape and Child Sexual Abuse by Lisa Featherstone

Societal disruption as a disaster. Exploring suicide, drug addiction and domestic violence in Australia through a disaster risk reduction lens

Societal disruption and hazards can result in health threats and impacts that are not usually recorded as events in disaster management databases or associated with emergency or disaster management risk reduction activity. Current disaster recording databases are commonly aligned to disaster definitions oriented towards predefined rapid or slow onset hazards causing disasters. Consequently, disaster risk reduction activity is predominantly tailored to these event types. This paper applied a disaster risk reduction lens to the impacts of drug addiction, domestic violence and suicide in Australia. We found that these events meet national and international classifications of disasters according to thresholds and definitions; and propose that contemporary health emergency and disaster risk management (HEDRM) practice can inform disaster risk reduction and support action to reduce the impact of these events.

Indigenous and Settler Understandings for Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Australia: The Significance of a Decolonial Approach

Addressing the gendered dimensions of family violence remains a key focus in the primary prevention of violence against women (PVAW) in Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian communities. What is seen as more important for Indigenous communities in PVAW is addressing the legacies and ongoing impacts of colonisation on Indigenous people, families, and communities. This focus on decolonisation deviates from settler PVAW programs where the emphasis is on challenging hegemonic masculinity and patriarchy. In this paper, I consider the importance of critiquing the western logic of colonisation within both Indigenous and non-Indigenous PVAW programs through examining the links between hegemonic masculinity, colonisation and neoliberal capitalism. I draw attention to the inherent violence and corrosion within processes of colonisation that adversely affect the social and emotional wellbeing and relationships of Indigenous and non-Indigenous men (albeit in very different ways) and argue the importance of a decolonising approach for addressing gender-based violence within Indigenous and non-Indigenous programs.