Improving justice responses for victims of intimate partner violence: examining the merits of the provision of independent legal representation

ABSTRACT

Justice processes have long been criticised for their inability to meet the needs of intimate partner violence victims and provide remedies that facilitate recovery. Despite a bevy of victim-oriented reforms, victims continue to report dissatisfaction in their engagement with the legal process. Recognising the failures of policy responses to date, the Royal Commission into Family Violence (2016) in Victoria, Australia, sought to reimagine justice responses to victims of intimate partner violence through innovative models of reform, such as the introduction of legal representation for victims in court. In the absence of prescribed detail as to how this could be achieved, this article contends that there is a need to tread cautiously in this space. It sets out the potential benefits from trialling legal representation for victims in emerging Victorian specialist family violence courts, as well as the perceived risks that should be kept in mind prior to instituting state wide reform.

KEYWORDS:

• Intimate partner violence
• victims
• independent legal representation
• specialist family violence courts
• Royal Commission into Family Violence

Notes

1. See section 4A of the Criminal Law (Rape) Act 1981 (IRE), as inserted by Section 34 of the Sex Offenders Act 2001 (IRE).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary Iliadis

Mary Iliadis, Lecturer, Criminology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University, Vic 3125; Editor for the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology PacifiCrim Newsletter.

Kate Fitz-Gibbon

Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Senior Lecturer, Criminology, and Lead Researcher, Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre, School of Social Sciences, Monash University, VIC, 3800, Australia.

Sandra Walklate

Sandra Walklate, Professor of Criminology, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, UK; Eleanor Rathbone Chair of Sociology conjoint with Professor of Criminology, Monash University, and member of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre.