By Sophie Gillfeather-Spetere, Amy Watson

Designed for use by policymakers, practitioners and advocates, this guide synthesises findings from 20+ reports to outline key actions for consistent and effective policy responses supporting children and young people experiencing violence. It includes four principles that outline ways of working to underpin reform and eight priority areas for action.

The report finds that policies and service systems are failing to meet the needs of children and young people, particularly those with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, those from culturally and linguistically diverse families and LGBTQ+. The guide calls for significant policy and practice reforms that centre children and young people’s voices, acknowledge the profound and diverse impact of violence on their lives and move away from a reactive system to one that prioritises primary prevention.

Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety, 2024. 84p

By Cristina Bellés-Obrero, Giulia La Mattina, Han Ye

The prevalence and determinants of intimate partner violence (IPV) among older women are severely understudied. This paper documents that the incidence of IPV remains high at old ages and provides the first evidence of the impact of access to income on IPV for older women. We leverage a Mexican reform that lowered the eligibility age for a non-contributory pension and a difference-in-differences approach. Women's eligibility for the pension increases their probability of being subjected to economic, psychological, and physical IPV. The estimated effects are found only among women in the short-term and are more pronounced for women who experienced family violence in childhood and those from poorer households. In contrast, we show that IPV does not increase when men become eligible for the non-contributory pension. Looking at potential mechanisms, we find suggestive evidence that men use violence as a tool to control women's resources. Additionally, women reduce paid employment after becoming eligible for the pension, which may result in more time spent at home and greater exposure to violent partners.

WORKING PAPER No IDB-WP-1640, Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank, Gender and Diversity Division , 2024. 74p.

By Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

This publication was prepared as part of the Organization for Security and Co-operation’s (OSCE) Gender Issues Programme project “WIN for Women and Men: Strengthening Comprehensive Security through Innovating and Networking for Gender Equality”, in co-operation with the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This mapping is based on a combination of a desk review and interviews with key stakeholders in each of the five countries in Central Asia. The results of the mapping are presented first as regional trends and tendencies, followed by findings per country. Programs aimed at changing the violent behaviour of perpetrators are important elements in preventing gender-based violence and ending impunity. The aim of this document is to look into existing programs and trends and offer a set of recommendations for further engagement in Central Asia.

Vienna: OSCE, 2024. 27p.

By: Dr. Jeffrey L. Edleson

The purpose of this manual is to help you make informed decisions about doing evaluation, and to provide you with concrete ideas for evaluating a specific program or group of programs.

In a clear and simple style, the issues, elements, and procedures of beginning evaluation are examined. You will learn how to develop goals and outcome objectives that will focus your program and facilitate productive evaluation. Benefits and drawbacks of program evaluation are laid out, along with guidelines for assessing your agency’s ability to conduct an evaluation. The basic evaluation process is mapped out in step-by-step fashion, complete with sample forms and questionnaires. Throughout this manual you are encouraged to focus on how your study results will be used. Finally, you will learn the most effective ways to present your findings to various audiences when your evaluation is finished.

If you are being asked to cooperate with an outside evaluator, this manual will help you know what questions to ask about the proposed evaluation. It will give you a basis on which to decide, if you have a choice, whether to open your program to the evaluation. If you don’t have a choice, you will gain insights that will help you determine whether you are being fairly judged by an outside evaluation and how to gain some control over the process.

Evaluating Domestic Violence Programs is based on 14 years of a unique collaboration between research and services. Whether your program is new or long established, you can gain a more intimate knowledge of it through the kind of evaluation explained in this manual. This knowledge can help you increase your effectiveness as an administrator.

Domestic Abuse Project 1997

By: Leslie Tutty, Jennifer Koshan, Deborah Jesso, Cindy Ogden, Jacqueline G. Warrell

The serious nature of intimate partner violence and the harm to women and their children has been acknowledged in numerous documents (Statistics Canada, 2005; Tutty & Goard, 2002). The costs to society for charging abusive partners and providing treatment in the hope of stopping domestic violence are substantial (Bowlus, McKenna, Day & Wright, 2003; Greaves, Hankivsky, & Kingston-Reichers, 1995; Healey, Smith, & O‘Sullivan, 1998).

The criminal justice system is an institution that deals with a high number of cases of domestic assaults yearly. While there is no separate domestic violence offence, abusers are subject to a variety of charges, from common assault to uttering threats to murder, that would apply to anyone regardless of the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. Nevertheless, the dynamics and the intimate relationship between the accused and the victims in domestic violence cases, has severely challenged the criminal justice response that typically deals with crimes committed by strangers.

Beginning with the development of the court in Winnipeg in 1991, specialized domestic violence courts have become increasingly available across Canada with the goal of more effectively addressing the criminal justice response to domestic violence. The extensive effort involved in creating such specialized justice responses should be acknowledged. To date, however, few evaluations have been published that assess whether these initiatives make a difference, exceptions being the work of Ursel in Winnipeg, the Yukon Domestic Violence Treatment Option (Hornick, Boyes, Tutty & White, 2005: funded by NCPC), some courts in Ontario (Moyer, Rettinger & Hotton (2000), cited in Clarke, 2003; Dawson & Dinovitzer, 2001), and Tutty and Ursel in the Canadian prairie provinces (Ursel, Tutty, & LeMaistre, 2008).

Calgary‘s model developed in early 2000 with the input of key players from not only the criminal justice institutions such as police services, the Crown Prosecutor offices, probation, Legal Aid and the defence bar, but also community agencies that offer batterer intervention programs and support, shelter and advocacy for victims. The model was innovative, with the initial emphasis on a specialized domestic violence docket court with the aim of speeding up the process for those charges with domestic abuse offences to both allow low risk offenders to take responsibility for their actions and speed their entry into treatment.

Such actions were thought to better safeguard victims, both because their partners were mandated to treatment much earlier, and to prevent repercussions to victims who, if the case proceeded to court, might be required to testify. Crisis intervention theory has long posited that the sooner one receives intervention, the more likely the counselling will be effective (Roberts & Everly, 2006). Also, the safety and wishes of the victims are taken into consideration by the court team early on in the process, while the assault is still fresh in their minds and they are not influenced by the accused to the same extent as they might be later on.

RESOLVE Alberta, March 2011

By: Nur Hasyim, Aditya Putra Kurniawan, and Elli Nur Hayati

This reports investigates the issue of violence against women using a different perspective, as opposed to studying women as the victims, the current study presents a perspective from the perpetrators of violence, namely men. The study explores how Indonesian men perceive themselves, and based upon the elaborations from the sources of the study, a strong value of male patriarchy is present among Indonesian males. With patriarchal values strongly embedded within most Indonesia men, it becomes plausible to assume that Indonesian men are susceptible to conduct violence against women. On the other hand, male hegemonic awareness becomes a large problem for men when they observe a situation that contradicts their assumptions, for example when women demonstrate to become more advanced in their education and career. In this context, men that are tied up in patriarchal cultures will view such events as threats or even a disaster.

Jambon IV Kompleks Jatimulyo Indah Yogyakarta 55242. 2011

By: Mugisho Ndabuli Théophile

Domestic violence is a branch of Gender Based Violence (GBV). Domestic violence is directed towards family members, particularly the wife and so it is rampant in the world. This research delves in the beliefs and attitudes towards male domestic violence in South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It also provides a comprehensive understanding of some different factors, forms, reasons and consequences of such violence in the province.

This research used qualitative approach with focus group and in-depth interviews with adult men in the mentioned province. There were organised two focus groups and two in-depth interviews. Fourteen men participated to these interviews. The researcher selected them with the help of the provincial authorities.

The dynamism of men’s beliefs and attitudes towards domestic violence in this province is of paramount importance to understand. The research found that South Kivu men believe that asserting power and masculinity in the family in general, particularly to the wife is their right. This connectivity promotes the widespread of GBV in the province. The participants also revealed that society fosters men’s power and masculinity over family members. This actually makes domestic violence become a culture in the area.

In combating domestic violence through means of education, awareness raising and law reinforcement and its fair implementation, families can be harmonious. This is possible if society motivates men to use their power and masculinity in a constructive way, and if the victims are helped to restore their self esteem, regain hope and break the silence.

Mugisho Ndabuli Théophile 2011

By: Nisha Prichard

This study set out to examine the decision-making process in care proceedings brought before the Children’s Court involving allegations of domestic violence as a child maltreatment concern in accordance with NSW Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act, 1998. The growth in understanding of domestic violence as a specific category of child maltreatment has seen increased attention and involvement of an array of professionals in the child protection field including statutory caseworkers, solicitors, and other external services working with children and families. Court decisions encompass risk assessment and immediate and long-term safety planning. They also involve professionals navigating both shared and individual language in the process of assessment. What constitutes the specific risk of domestic violence, and decision-making in cases involving domestic violence is often contested in care and protection matters. This study utilised qualitative methodology, specifically applying a case study approach involving both a prospective and retrospective review of cases. The retrospective review followed a series of cases from the commencement of the court case, to the finalisation of orders. A parallel retrospective review of archive cases and court files from Community Services was undertaken.

Central to this study was examination of the role of professional stakeholders, their assessments and contribution to court decision-making. The findings in this study highlight that much professional decision-making occurs prior to proceedings. The decisions made in all reviewed matters were found to be the result of the coalescence of professional knowledge, interpretation and interagency collaboration. Professionals developed discourses of risk, compliance, insight and safety in their assessments. Such assessments formed a narrative of domestic violence characterized by an emphasis on summarising patterns within key incidents, evaluating the parent’s ongoing relationship dynamics and parenting capacity. Significantly, in this narrative, an inability to separate from a violent partner was indicative of a lack of maternal protectiveness. Additionally, childrens’ age and gender influenced the assessment of the impact of violence on individual children. These interpretations informed the court’s evaluation of evidence of domestic violence and its impact on children as well as the proposed interventions and care plans necessary to ensure children’s safety.

The University of New South Wales, 31 August 2015

By: Tracey Michelle Pyscher

As a society, we do not openly discuss domestic violence and yet its reality is front and center for children and youth whose lives are deeply shaped by it. At best, the school landscape is bleak for many, if not all, HDV youth (i.e. youth with histories of domestic violence and youth currently living with domestic violence). We know little to nothing about how HDV youth navigate school from their perspectives—how they engage with and resist educational discourses and practices and thus take up subject positions. What we do know from popular, psychological literature is that HDV youth are often objectified as troubled and deficient and this shapes their identities and experiences in school.

In this study, I discuss the challenges HDV youth face when they navigate normative and hegemonic interactions in school. I also analyze the resistive identities and performances HDV youth take up in response to interactions perceived as violating. The study is situated in a public, urban middle school and outlines how HDV youth make sense of their daily interactions with school peers and staff. The study is told through the subjective voices of three female middle school HDV youth—Jen, Mac, and Shanna. Their stories along with the voices of their caregivers offer a counter-narrative to the dominant discourses often shaping the representations of HDV youth.

Data analysis is grounded in the theoretical conceptions of critical sociocultural theory (Lewis, Enciso, & Moje, 2007), resistive ambivalence (Pyscher, 2015; Pyscher & Lozenski, 2014), and Scott’s (1990) conceptualization of hidden and public transcripts. I seek to better understand and theorize the intersections of actions, identities, practices, and discourses that HDV youth use in educational interactions. The methodological foundation of this study is fourfold: critical discourse studies (Gee, 2014), critical ethnography (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995), geosemiotics (Scollon & Scollon, 2003), and mediated discourse analysis (Jones & Norris, 2005). Implications include the possibility of creating more liberating educational practices for youth with histories of domestic violence and marginalized youth in general. I conclude by suggesting that we consider creating more transgressive and humane school cultures that embody carnivallike practices.

University of Minnesota, March 2016

By: Suellen Murray and Anastasia Powell

In August 2009, in response to an attack upon a federal member of parliament by her male partner, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was reported in the Melbourne Age as saying that ‘acts of violence against women are cowardly acts by men and have no place in modern Australia’. In the same article, the Minister for Women, Tanya Plibersek, said domestic violence ‘remained a serious problem despite changing attitudes’. Nearly 30 years earlier, the 1981 report of the New South Wales Task Force on Domestic Violence – one of the first initiatives taken in Australian public policy in this area – had identified domestic violence as ‘a deep-seated national problem’.3 What then has happened in the past 30 years?

Advertising campaigns in the intervening years have advised us to say ‘no’ to violence and explained where, if we experienced domestic violence, we could get assistance. Such campaigns have assisted in raising awareness and bringing about changes in attitudes. Self-evidently, domestic violence has not been eliminated – the attack on the member of parliament is just one of many examples – but has it been reduced? And what policies and programs have been put in place to tackle the problem of domestic violence?

This book provides some answers to these questions. We are particularly interested in how Australian governments have responded to domestic violence over the past 30 years, that is, the period roughly from 1981 to 2011. The central purpose of this book is to critically review the range of public policy responses to domestic violence (legal, welfare and prevention responses at both federal and state levels).4 We consider how domestic violence has been understood and the approaches that have been taken, as well as the impact on groups targeted by these responses (children, women, men, and Australian Indigenous peoples). The book includes up-to-date policy and legislative case studies from Australia to illustrate these responses, and also places this work within international debates.

In this book we argue that there have been significant changes in understandings of domestic violence over the past 30 years, resulting in – and to some extent produced by – heightened policy activity in this area. These policy shifts built on the campaigns and lobbying of the women’s refuge movement from the 1970s and the subsequent activities of feminist bureaucrats in Australian state, territory, and federal governments. During the 1980s, all Australian states and territories investigated the nature and extent of domestic violence. Out of these investigations came government commitments to address domestic violence in more than the ad hoc ways of previous decades. Since then, regardless of their political persuasion, governments across all states, territories and federally have maintained an interest in domestic violence, although their approaches have varied, with more or less attention paid to gendered or feminist analyses of domestic violence.

Despite the policy shifts and service developments around domestic violence across numerous key agencies, according to 2004 data, over a third of Australian women reported experiencing at least one form of violence from an intimate male partner during their lifetime. These findings reflect those published in the national 1996 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Women’s Safety Survey, in which 36 percent of women surveyed reported experiencing some form of physical or sexual violence since the age of 15 years. Over 75 percent of these incidents were at the hands of a current or previous partner or boyfriend. Similarly, a decade later, in the 2006 Australian Personal Safety Survey, 40 percent of women reported experiencing at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 15 years. While men who experience violence are most likely to be physically assaulted by a male stranger, women remain most likely to be assaulted by a current or former partner or family member.

Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2011

By: Gilberta Pavão Nunes Rocha, Piedade Lalanda, Suzana Nunes Caldeira, Áurea Sousa. Ana Cristina Palos, Daniela Soares, Nuno Martins, Sofia Rodrigues, Derrick Mendes

The basic objective of this research study is to understand the phenomenon of conjugal violence, using as a starting point complaints recorded by the Police Forces (PF), which in the Azores consist solely of the Public Security Police (PSP). The study aims to understand one part of the phenomenon of domestic violence, that which occurs between couples and which is reported since, as is well known, it is something often suffered in silence or confined to the privacy of the home.

In this study, we have preferred the term “conjugal violence” instead of “domestic violence”, as initially requested by the Directorate-General of the Ministry of the Interior (DGAI). This decision was motivated, firstly, by the significance of conjugal violence within domestic violence as a whole in the Azores, accounting for around 70% (DGAI). Secondly because, despite the importance of conducting a study of domestic violence, attempting to cover all its aspects (violence between couples, against children, the elderly or the disabled) was not consistent with the time available for the study.

While not dismissing the relevance of an evaluation of complaints of violence against children or the elderly, given that these situations represent a growing phenomenon in Portuguese society, such cases involve theoretical explanations and, mainly, representations and practices that are relatively distinct from those of conjugal violence, particularly in the case of Portugal. This situation is the third reason for restricting this study to violence reported in conjugal relationships.

Occasional Papers of the Ministry of the Interior, November 2010

By: JALESI NAKARAWA

This thesis investigates the influence of legal fiction over the philosophy behind family law in New Zealand and our subsequent responses to domestic violence. As a feature of common law reasoning, legal fiction, asserting something to be true when it is not true, persists as an important mechanism in judicial fact-finding. In family law, the convenient and crucially unrecognised fiction of the “ideal family” which may never have existed continues to drive the family justice system. The failure to be aware of the fiction may undo the justifications for its existence and undermine its utility.

Treating this fiction as true rather than treating it as “if true” drives a wedge between the normative intent of the law and the behavioural issues that underlie human interpersonal relationships. The resulting gap between the realities of the family experience we live with and the “ideal family” we live by underwrites the vague and imprecise objectives of our responses to domestic violence. Apart from the uncertainty of what we are trying to achieve, the fiction assumes that deception and aggression are pathologies in human behaviour. The law’s reliance on these legal fictions to pursue just ends requires careful consideration to avoid causing real-world pathologies.

Despite New Zealand’s reputation for innovative responses to domestic violence, the Family Justice System as a whole has failed to produce the anticipated result. The expansion of the continuum of conduct classified as domestic violence has criminalised instances of ordinary human negotiating behaviour. This expansion under the Domestic Violence Act was intended to provide victims greater protection from domestic violence, but it has not had the desired effect. While success in police management terms may be evaluated in higher rates of reported incidents, arrests and convictions, success for victims ought to be assessed regarding the reduction in incidences of violence over time. This has not happened. For this reason, the application of statistical data to support a specific agenda can distort our assessment of domestic violence.

The thesis proposes a holistic approach based on domestic violence as fundamentally a behavioural issue. It is important first to ascertain the nature of violence in the world and our lives and to unpack human behaviour for a better understanding of why we do the things we do. Secondly, statistical data should be properly analysed to provide an accurate picture of human behaviour and domestic violence as it is on the ground, the reality of family life as we live it daily. This and only this can provide a sound bases for developing explicit goals to guide our legal responses or interventions, bridging the divide between the aspirational objectives of the law and the human reality we live with.

The University of Waikato, 2016

By: InSul Kim

The purpose of this dissertation study is to conduct an art-based, community action research study as a means (1) to support the recovery process of domestic violence survivors; (2) to produce social capital among members of the community to initiate civic discussions on the consequences of domestic violence; and (3) to investigate its implications for cultural policy as the outcomes of this study highlight the unique role of the arts in making a difference in people’s lives and communities. The artworks produced by the workshop participants of this study (i.e., domestic violence survivors) were exhibited in a professional gallery as a form of visual narrative that speaks for their wounded past and difficult journeys. The collected data strongly indicates that art can be an exceptionally powerful tool for communication and healing, when words and discussions fall short. Overall, this research investigates the instrumental functions of the arts as a means to produce social capital for personal well-being, social support, and social justice. The study was framed within action research methodology and the triangulation model in data sources, research methods, and theoretical lenses, while both quantitative and qualitative techniques were employed. The collected data were analyzed at three different levels: (1) Personal level (i.e., the art workshop participants: n=16), (2) Organizational level (i.e., the staff of the transitional housing facility and the gallery: n=6), and (3) Community level (i.e., the general audience who came to the exhibit: n=74).

Ohio State University 2011

By: Dr. Hilal Özcebe, Dr. Sutay Yavuz, Hacer Taşcene, and Dr. Sinan Türkyılmaz

Around the world, women and girls are victims of countless acts of violence. The range of gender-based violence is devastatingly endless, occurring quite literally from womb to tomb. Violence against women and girls occurs in every segment of society – regardless of class, ethnicity, culture, or country.

While you are reading this text, many millions of women around the world will experience the trauma of violence and abuse. It is estimated that 1 in 3 women throughout the world suffer this violence during her lifetime. The same figure for EU countries is 1 in 5. Women in Turkey face violence like women in many other countries; the latest survey shows that 2 in 5 women have been exposed to physical violence. In the same research, 42 percent of women have been exposed to physical and sexual violence, and 44 percent of women have been exposed to emotional violence or abuse. All of these were caused by their husbands or partners.

Over the past 30 years, increasingly gender-based violence has been recognized both in Turkey and worldwide. One of the newest and most comprehensive international instruments to combat violence against women is “Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention)” which was built on the 4P principle of ‘Prevention, Protection, Prosecution, and Policy’. For many years all the interventions to combat VAW have been mostly built around the protection and prosecution. However policy development and prevention are the weakest links of the combating interventions. Among the prevention interventions the most excluded groups have been the youth and children. As it is indicated in some research, children and the youth are the two groups who have been the silent victims of violence within the family even they are not the subject of direct violence. However it is also known that violence is an act that is learnt and to prevent violence against women, the interventions should be started in the early childhood.

Increased rates of violence worldwide have heightened the need to understand what children think about their experiences as victims or witnesses of violence. Much has been written about children and violence, but less has been written from the viewpoint of the children themselves. Without knowing their experience and perception it is impossible to develop any intervention to prevent violence against women regarding to early ages of youth.

This research which is the first in its area had been conducted to understand the perception of school age youth (ages between 11-17) on violence against women and gender inequality which is the root cause of the act. Upon the results of this research UNFPA with the relevant partners will develop prevention interventions for the school age children.

As UNFPA we would like to thank to the researchers, Prof. Dr. Hilal Özcebe, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sinan Türkyılmaz, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sutay Yavuz and Hacer Taşçene and the interview team for conducting this special qualitative research. We would also convey our gratitude to all the government officials, school principals and teachers who supported us in Ankara, Aydın and Erzurum.

Population Association (Turkey) and United Nations Population Fund - UNFPA November 2013

By: Jeffrey L. Edleson, Taryn Lindhorst, Gita Mehrotra, William Vesneski, Luz Lopez, and Sudha Shetty

Mothers who flee with their children because of domestic violence may have few other options to ensure their safety and that of their children in the face of their partner’s violence. Yet when their flight takes them across international boundaries, they become vulnerable to being legally treated as an “abducting” parent by the courts. This report focuses on the situations of women who experienced abuse in another country and came to the United States in an effort to protect themselves and their children, but who then faced civil actions in U.S. state or federal courts for child abduction under international legal agreements. We interviewed battered mothers around the world, their attorneys, their husbands’ attorneys and examined published judicial decisions in cases involving the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction where there were also allegations of domestic violence by one parent against the other. The research team interviewed 22 mothers who responded to Hague petitions in U.S. courts, 23 attorneys representing both mothers and fathers in these cases and five specialists, such as expert witnesses. The research team also analyzed 47 published U.S. Hague Convention court decisions involving allegations of domestic violence.

Battered mothers who fled across borders to the U.S. to receive help from their families were often victims of life-threatening violence, and their children were frequently directly or indirectly exposed to the father’s violence. The women sought but received little help from foreign authorities or social service agencies and received little help from U.S. authorities once they came to the U.S. In fact, these mothers – most of whom were U.S. citizens – often faced U.S. courts that were unsympathetic to their safety concerns and subsequently sent their children back to the custody of the abusive fathers in the other country, creating potential serious risks for the children and mothers.

US Department of Justice, November 2010

By NSW Domestic Violence Death Review Team

This report is the most comprehensive data analyses the Domestic Violence Death Review Team has undertaken to date, presenting detailed findings from over two decades of domestic violence homicides in NSW. It provides crucial insights to guide policymakers, service providers and advocates in preventing, responding to, and aiding recovery from domestic violence.

The dataset has continued to grow year-on-year, not only in the number of cases— now over 1,800— but also in relation to the breadth and complexity of the data captured. The analysis in this report identifies a range of key findings and themes to direct the Team’s work as it recommences its in-depth case review analyses over the next reporting period.

Key findings

• Almost one-third of all homicides in NSW occurred in a context of domestic violence.

• While most homicides overall involved the deaths of males, females were far more likely to be killed in a domestic violence-context homicide.

• Approximately 80% of intimate partner violence homicides involved men killing women.

• Men who killed their female intimate partner were almost always the domestic violence abuser in the relationship, while women who killed men were almost always the victim of their partner’s violence.

• Over 25% of people killed in a context of domestic violence were born outside of Australia.

• Almost 19% of people killed in the context of domestic violence identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

• For 90% of children killed there was a history of intimate partner violence between their parents.

• Over 80% of relative/kin domestic violence-context homicide offenders had a history of experiencing mental health issues.

Sydney: Government of New South Wales, 2024.

By Elena Campbell, Todd Fernando, Leigh Gassner, Jess Hill, Zac Seidler, Anne Summers

The purpose of this review was to draw together advice and identify opportunities to strengthen prevention efforts and approaches across all forms of violence against women and children, including a particular focus on homicides. The report provides specific and practical advice to strengthen prevention approaches, and builds on work currently underway in the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.

The Rapid Review highlighted a number of areas of priority including:

• responding to children and young people’s experiences of domestic, family and sexual violence

• engaging with men and boys in violence prevention, including meeting them where they are at

• better understanding pathways into perpetration to improve targeting of early intervention initiatives, with the aim of preventing violence from occurring.

The report makes 21 recommendations across 6 key areas of:

• A national emergency – and an ongoing national priority

• The prevention potential

• Prevention through people

• Prevention through responses

• Prevention through systems and industries

• Prevention through learning and data.

Canberra: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia), 2024. 97p.

By Michelle Oberman and Cheryl L. Meyer

Michelle Oberman and Cheryl L. Meyer don’t write for news magazines or prime-time investigative television shows, but the stories they tell hold the same fascination. When Mothers Kill is compelling. In a clear, direct fashion the authors recount what they have learned from interviewing women imprisoned for killing their children. Readers will be shocked and outraged—as much by the violence the women have endured in their own lives as by the violence they engaged in—but they will also be informed and even enlightened.
Oberman and Meyer are leading authorities on their subject. Their 2001 book, Mothers Who Kill Their Children, drew from hundreds of newspaper articles as well as from medical and social science journals to propose a comprehensive typology of maternal filicide. In that same year, driven by a desire to test their typology—and to better understand child-killing women not just as types but as individuals—Oberman and Meyer began interviewing women who had been incarcerated for the crime. After conducting lengthy, face-to-face interviews with forty prison inmates, they returned and selected eight women to speak with at even greater length. This new book begins with these stories, recounted in the matter-of-fact words of the inmates themselves.
There are collective themes that emerge from these individual accounts, including histories of relentless interpersonal violence, troubled relationships with parents (particularly with mothers), twisted notions of romantic love, and deep conflicts about motherhood. These themes structure the books overall narrative, which also includes an insightful examination of the social and institutional systems that have failed these women. Neither the mothers nor the authors offer these stories as excuses for these crimes.

New York; London: NYU Press, 2008. 208p.

By Garth Morgan, et al.

First Nations children experience high rates of domestic and family violence and are overrepresented in child protection systems in Australia. The long history of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that commenced with colonisation, the effects of which are still being felt today, significantly contributes to these outcomes. Policies intended to respond to these harms, improve wellbeing, and enhance safety, instead continue to cause harm, rarely providing culturally safe, well-resourced and trauma informed solutions.

This is the second of two reports from the project, Service system responses and culturally designed practice frameworks to address the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children exposed to domestic and family violence. The project used culturally safe, participatory action research methods with First Nations community members in eight regional and remote locations across Queensland to generate new knowledge about what works for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who have both experienced domestic and family violence and had contact with the child protection system. The first report from this project, New ways for our families explored existing literature and presented the findings from the first action research cycles. The final report, You can’t pour from an empty cup presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations from the final rounds of action research.

Significantly, the researchers found that experiencing domestic and family violence negatively impacted childhoods, behaviours and the ability to form healthy relationships as adults. Harms were carried forward into adulthood as these children and young people became parents and moved through systems. As a result many experienced child protection responses that used oppressive and controlling techniques and this increased distress. Research participants identified that there was a lack of focus on providing healing and support services for children and young people who experienced DFV and that service providers were often ill equipped to respond effectively to trauma.

This research provides an understanding of how services and systems including health and education can better hear from and respond to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people who experience domestic and family violence. While conducting the research, and as a result of the initial findings which revealed the depth of cultural knowledge and community led solutions, the research team made the decision to also develop a culturally strong practice framework to guide policymakers and practitioners. The framework, Healing our children and young people: A framework to address the impacts of domestic and family violence is available on the ANROWS website.

ANROWS, 2023. 103p.

By James Ogilvie, Lisa Thomsen, Jodie Barton, et L.

This is the second and final report to be produced from the “Adverse childhood experiences and the intergenerational transmission of domestic and family violence in young people who engage in harmful sexual behaviour and violence against women” project.

Building on work completed in the first report which analysed a small subset of cases, the authors have used two large existing datasets that coded information relating to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) for male youth in Queensland who had committed an offence. The two data sets were Queensland Youth Justice records of proven offences (n=6,047) and clinical information maintained by Griffith Youth Forensic Services (GYFS) relating to young men who had been referred to services after perpetrating sexual offences (n=377). The analysis outlined the prevalence of specific ACEs by offence type (YJ dataset) and contrasted the prevalence of ACEs across male youth with and without histories of DFV (GYFS dataset); descriptive presentation ; descriptive analysis of group differences (sexual vs. non-sexual offending); and multivariate models to examine links between DFV and offending.

The report found that across both datasets, ACES were highly prevalent among young men who went on to commit sexual offences. They were also more likely to have experienced co-occurring ACEs. Young men who had been adjudicated for sexual offences were especially likely to have experienced DFV as children.

These findings provide an evidence base for designing program and policy responses for young men who have encountered the youth justice system.

These findings indicate that ACEs occur within a context of gender-based violence. Policy responses drawing on this evidence should prioritise early intervention and promote protective factors applied within a trauma and DFV informed practice framework.

Sydney: Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety Limited (ANROWS), 2022. 64p