By Carolina Villacampa, Marc Salat

This publication examines the legal landscapes surrounding forced marriages in Germany, Spain, Ireland, and Finland, offering insights into prevailing legal approaches and institutional initiatives. Through comparative research, it sheds light on the prevalence of forced marriage in these countries, the legal strategies deployed to combat it, and existing institutional efforts to support victims. By delving into international obligations and their integration into domestic legal systems, the publication aims to foster a more gender-sensitive and victim-centered approach to support services, ultimately working towards preventing forced marriages and mitigating their consequences. This resource is designed as a tool for policymakers and practitioners, providing insights to guide future interventions and promote informed discussions in the field of forced marriage prevention and victim support.\

Report Series no. 104. Helsinki: HEUNI, 2024. 87p.

By Cassia Spohn

One of the goals of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women is to end violence against women and girls in all countries. An important component of this goal is ensuring that all crimes of violence against women and girls are taken seriously by the criminal justice system and that police, prosecutors, judges and jurors respond appropriately. However, research detailing how cases of sexual assault proceed in the criminal justice system reveals that this goal remains elusive, both in the United States and elsewhere. The rape reform movement ushered in changes to traditional rape law that were designed to encourage victims to report to the police and to remove barriers to arrest and successful prosecution. However, four decades after this reform, victims are still reluctant to report sexual assaults to the police, and arrest, prosecution and conviction rates for sexual assault cases are shockingly low. Reversing these trends will require policy changes that are designed to counteract the stereotypes and myths underpinning sexual assault and sexual assault victims.

International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 9(1), pp. 86-94.2020.

By Kerry Carrington, Natacha Guala, María Victoria Puyol, and Máximo Sozzo

Women’s police stations are a distinctive innovation that emerged in postcolonial nations of the global south in the second half of the twentieth century to address violence against women. This article presents the results of a world-first study of the unique way that these stations, called Comisaría de la Mujer, prevent gender-based violence in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. One in five police stations in this Province was established with a mandate of preventing gender violence. Little is currently known about how this distinctive multidisciplinary model of policing (which includes social workers, lawyers, psychologists and police) widens access to justice to prevent gender violence. This article compares the model’s virtues and limitations to traditional policing models. We conclude that specialised women’s police stations in the postcolonial societies of the global south increase access to justice, empower women to liberate themselves from the subjection of domestic violence and prevent gender violence by challenging patriarchal norms that sustain it. As a by-product, these women’s police stations also offer women in the global south a career in law enforcement—one that is based on a gender perspective. The study is framed by southern criminology, which reverses the notion that ideas, policies and theories can only travel from the anglophone world of the global north to the global south.

International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 9(1), pp. 42-67. 2020.

By Elaina Behounek

Safety in educational settings is a barrier to equality for women and girls. This article highlights four key areas that perpetuate inequality in education for women and girls, and that contribute to a worldwide lack of safety in educational settings for women and girls: cultural norms, societal norms, sexual assault and sexual harassment. All four areas form part of a social–structural condition that underpins a world in which women and girls experience violence and an economic and social inequality that contributes to their lack of safety in educational settings. Several solutions are proposed to combat this. To improve the life outcomes of women and girls, we must invest in approaches that empower and educate them in safe environments. In doing so, we must also ensure that such approaches are holistic and intersectional.

International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 9(1), pp. 31-41. 2020.

By Amelia Roskin-Frazee

Higher education institutions in four of the top 20 wealthiest nations globally (measured by GDP per capita) undermine gender equality by failing to address sexual violence perpetrated against women with marginalised identities. By analysing student sexual violence policies from 80 higher education institutions in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, I argue that these policies fail to account for the ways that race, sexuality, class and disability shape women’s experiences of sexual violence. Further, these deficiencies counteract efforts to achieve gender equality by tacitly denying women who experience violence access to education and health care. The conclusion proposes policy alterations designed to address the complex needs of women with marginalised identities who experience violence, including implementing cultural competency training and increasing institution-sponsored health care services for sexual violence survivors.

International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 9(1), pp. 13-30. 2020.

By Heather Wolbers, Hayley Boxall and Anthony Morgan

Drawing on a large sample of female carers living in Australia (n=3,775), this study aims to document and explore children and young people’s experiences of abuse in the past 12 months. We focus on children’s exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrated against their female carers, as well as children being the target of direct physical and emotional abuse themselves.

Overall, a significant proportion of respondents who had a child in their care during the past 12 months said that a child was exposed to IPV perpetrated against them (14.1%). One in nine said a child in their care had been the target of direct abuse perpetrated by their current or most recent former partner (11.5%). Critically, one-third of respondents who experienced IPV said a child was exposed to the violence at least once in the past 12 months (34.8%).

A number of factors were associated with an increased likelihood of children being subjected to direct abuse. These included the characteristics of respondents and their relationships, children and households. We also present evidence linking economic factors, including changes in employment, with the direct abuse of children.

Research Report no. 26. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2023. 72p.

By Hayley Boxall, Samantha Lyneham, Christie Black and Alexandra Gannoni

Sexual exploitation can have significant short- and longer-term impacts on victim-survivors. However, there is currently a lack of research exploring the support needs of sexual exploitation victim-survivors accessing support in Australia, and barriers to support provision. To address this knowledge gap, we analysed case management records for 50 victim-survivors of sexual exploitation in Australia and conducted interviews with 12 victim-survivor caseworkers.

On average, victim-survivors required support across six domains, the most common being financial hardship, mental health, social isolation and housing and accommodation. The most crucial barriers to service provision were systemic in nature. For example, some victim‑survivors on temporary visas were ineligible for government funded medical services, affordable housing or welfare schemes, which placed significant financial burdens on victim‑survivors and support services.

These findings demonstrate that to support the recovery of victim-survivors, services need to be funded appropriately to ensure they can provide holistic wraparound interventions.

Research Report no. 29. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2023. 51p.

By Victoria Pedjasaar

In the EU, a third of women over the age of 15 have experienced physical or sexual violence and over half have been sexually harassed. According to a study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), just 13% of women reported their most serious incident of non-partner violence to the authorities. Gender-based violence can occur in various situations and circumstances. According to an EU-wide survey report, 32% of perpetrators of sexual harassment in the EU come from the employment context. Although often overlooked, the majority of (workplace) violence takes place in the healthcare sector as healthcare professionals are 16 times more at risk of violence in comparison to other occupations. Violence does not only manifest in abusive behaviour toward workers on duty but can also be perpetrated on women as receivers of healthcare. High rates of violence in healthcare, brought on and exacerbated by gender stereotypes and inequality, point to dysfunctional health systems. This Paper is divided into the following chapters and provides policy recommendations on the way forward for the EU member states: 1. Gender-based violence against healthcare workers. 2. Obstetric and gynaecological violence against women. 3. Gender-based violence is a story of gender inequality. 4. Legislation and policies that protect women.

Brussels, Belgium: European Policy Centre, 2023. 12p.

By Atkins, Susan and Brenda Hale, Baroness

Women And The Law is a pioneering study of the way in which the law has treated women – at work, in the family, in matters of sexuality and fertility, and in public life. Originally published in 1984, this seminal text is one that truly deserves its 'groundbreaking' moniker. Predating many key moments in contemporary feminist history, it was written before Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble; before Naomi Klein’s The Beauty Myth, with the term ‘feminist jurisprudence’ having only been coined three years earlier. It went on to inspire a legion of women lawyers and feminist legal rulings, from the Family Law Act 1996 to the legal definition of ‘violence’ (Yemshaw v. LB Hounslow 2011). This 2018 edition comes with a new foreword by Susan Atkins and provides a timely analysis of women in law forty years on, how much has changed and the work still left to do

London: University of London Press, 2018. 284p.

By Savannah Minihan, Melanie Burton, Mariesa Nicholas, Kylie Trengove, Sarah Napier and Rick Brown

This study examines the prevalence of requests for facilitated child sexual exploitation (CSE) online. Of 4,011 Australians surveyed, 2.8 percent had received a request for facilitated CSE in the past year. Requests for facilitated CSE were significantly higher among those who had shared a photo of or information about children publicly online. Among respondents who had shared publicly, requests for facilitated CSE were significantly higher among men, younger individuals, linguistically diverse individuals, individuals with disability, and those who had experienced other sexual or violent harms online. The results highlight the need for increased awareness of the potential harms of posting photos of and information about children publicly online, and place onus on platforms to warn users of these potential harms.

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 692. . Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology. 2024.

Edited by  Sharon Lamb 

It is increasingly difficult to use the word "victim" these days without facing either ridicule for "crying victim" or criticism for supposed harshness toward those traumatized. Some deny the possibility of "recovering" repressed memories of abuse, or consider date rape an invention of whining college students. At the opposite extreme, others contend that women who experience abuse are "survivors" likely destined to be psychically wounded for life.
While the debates rage between victims' rights advocates and "backlash" authors, the contributors to New Versions of Victims collectively argue that we must move beyond these polarizations to examine the "victim" as a socially constructed term and to explore, in nuanced terms, why we see victims the way we do.
Must one have been subject to extreme or prolonged suffering to merit designation as a victim? How are we to explain rape victims who seemingly "get over" their experience with no lingering emotional scars? Resisting the reductive oversimplifications of the polemicists, the contributors to New Versions of Victims critique exaggerated claims by victim advocates about the harm of victimization while simultaneously taking on the reactionary boilerplate of writers such as Katie Roiphe and Camille Paglia and offering further strategies for countering the backlash.
Written in clear, accessible language, New Versions of Victims offers a critical analysis of popular debates about victimization that will be applicable to both practice and theory.

New York; London: NYU Press, 1999. 192p.

By Natalie Townsend

The Australian Government Department of Social Services (2019, p. 60) defines sexual violence as sexual actions without consent, which may include coercion, physical force, rape, sexual assault with implements, being forced to watch or engage in pornography, enforced prostitution or being made to have sex with other people. While there is a growing body of international evidence on sexual violence, its prevalence and impact has not been extensively examined in the Australian context. The existing evidence base is largely limited to data sources that are likely to underestimate the prevalence of sexual violence or to apply only to discrete groups of women (e.g. clinical samples). Further, while international and national estimates of sexual violence prevalence are available, these rarely capture experiences and outcomes across the life span. The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) has collected sexual violence data since its inception in 1996 and offers an ideal opportunity to examine sexual violence over the life span. The ALSWH has captured a broad range of data on women’s health, which are crucial for understanding the economic, social, physical and mental health trajectories of women who have experienced sexual violence. This report was developed in consultation with ANROWS to address the limitations of the existing evidence by utilising ALSWH data. Aims The purpose of this report was to assess the prevalence of sexual violence over the life course and the impacts of experiencing sexual violence on health and wellbeing among Australian women using national, longitudinal data. The research had the following specific aims: 1. Determine the prevalence of sexual violence across the life course, including sexual violence experienced in childhood and adulthood, perpetrated both within an intimate relationship and outside of such a relationship. 2. Determine the role of sexual violence during childhood as a risk factor for experiences of multiple forms of violence later in life. 3. Identify the impact of sexual violence on socio-economic factors over time, such as education, paid employment and financial stress. 4. Determine the nature of associations between sexual violence experienced by women at different life stages and subsequent health behaviours. 5. Assess the impact of sexual violence on women’s physical and mental health. 6. Measure health service use in relation to sexual violence, including costs of selected health services and satisfaction with general practitioner services. 7. Identify factors associated with the general health and wellbeing of women who have experienced sexual violence.  

Sydney: Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety Limited (ANROWS). 2022, 95pg

By Violence Policy Center

 Intimate partner violence against women is all too common and takes many forms. The most serious is homicide by an intimate partner. Guns can easily turn domestic violence into domestic homicide. One federal study on homicide among intimate partners found that female intimate partners are more likely to be murdered with a firearm than all other means combined, concluding that “the figures demonstrate the importance of reducing access to firearms in households affected by IPV [intimate partner violence].” Guns are also often used in non-fatal domestic violence. A study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers analyzed gun use at home and concluded that “hostile gun displays against family members may be more common than gun use in self-defense, and that hostile gun displays are often acts of domestic violence directed against women.” The U.S. Department of Justice has found that women are far more likely to be the victims of violent crimes committed by intimate partners than men, especially when a weapon is involved. Moreover, women are much more likely to be victimized at home than in any other place.5 A woman must consider the risks of having a gun in her home, whether she is in a domestic violence situation or not. While two thirds of women who own guns acquired them “primarily for protection against crime,” the results of a California analysis show that “purchasing a handgun provides no protection against homicide among women and is associated with an increase in their risk for intimate partner homicide.” A 2003 study about the risks of firearms in the home found that females living with a gun in the home were nearly three times more likely to be murdered than females with no gun in the home. Finally, another study reports, women who were murdered were more likely, not less likely, to have purchased a handgun in the three years prior to their deaths, again invalidating the idea that a handgun has a protective effect against homicide. While this study does not focus solely on domestic violence homicide or guns, it provides a stark reminder that domestic violence and guns make a deadly combination. According to reports submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), firearms are rarely used to kill criminals or stop crimes.9 Instead, they are all too often used to inflict harm on the very people they were intended to protect.

Washington, DC: Violence Policy Center. 2022, 27pg