ABSTRACT
At a time when domestic and family violence (DFV) is being cast as a national emergency, comparable to terrorism, it is timely to review the relationship between feminist advocacy and state-led responses. The principles of long-standing feminist interventions into DFV, which privilege victims’ accounts of their experience, are at risk of being sidelined in the contemporary emphasis on evidence-based policy and atheoretical approaches. However, promising signs are evident in interventions that support women’s economic security, safe and permanent housing, and employment. These interventions are constituted by specific, local networks of actors including government and non-government organisations. The effects of DFV can be distributed across multiple domains, including workplaces, housing, and courts. These diverse effects may best suit an integrated, multi-systemic response, which is based on recognition of the importance of empowerment, agency, and meeting practical needs.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Factiva search, ‘domestic violence’ Source Australia/Oceania 25 August 2015.
8 The National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, for example, was produced as a response to the directive by the Commonwealth for an ‘evidence-based plan’ and includes ‘improving the evidence base’ as one of its ‘foundations for change’. A key task for ANROWS is to ‘to develop a cohesive and comprehensive national evidence base’ (ANROWS Citation2014; COAG Citation2013).
22 Chang, Dado, Ashton, Hawker, Cluss, Buranosky and Scholle (Citation2006).
25 Baker, Billhardt, Warren, Rollins and Glass (Citation2010); Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (Citation2014).
27 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (Citation2014).
28 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (Citation2014).
39 Breckenridge, Chung, Spinney and Zufferey (Citation2015).
43 Breckenridge, Hamer, Newton and valentine (Citation2013).
44 This is sometimes referred to as ‘sexually transmitted debt’ and is a form of economic abuse.
49 ‘Redfern Legal Centre Warns Clients Will Miss Out as Funding Crisis Hits Sector’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), 17 May 2015.
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