Coercion related to mental health and substance use in the context of intimate partner violence: a toolkit for screening, assessment, and brief counseling in primary care and behavioral health settings
Carole Warshaw and Erin Tinnon
National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma and Mental Health 2018
Summary : This US toolkit provides trauma-informed guidance on integrating questions about mental health and substance use coercion into routine mental health and substance use histories and into in-depth intimate partner violence (IPV) assessments in primary care and behavioral health settings. This toolkit is intended to be used in conjunction with comprehensive guidance on trauma-informed approaches to screening, assessment, and brief intervention for intimate partner violence in healthcare, mental health, and substance abuse treatment settings... Read more 

 

The forgotten victims: Prisoner experience of victimisation and engagement with the criminal justice system
Andrew Day, Sharon Casey, Adam Gerace, Candice Oster and Deb O'Kane
Sydney, NSW: ANROWS, 2018
ANROWS Research report, Issue 01, August 2018
Summary : Many women in prison have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). As this form of violence is often intergenerational and entrenched, women in prison are widely considered to be at particular risk of ongoing victimisation following release from custody. And yet, their support needs often go unrecognised, and it is likely that a range of barriers exists that prevent ex-prisoners from accessing services. This research develops an understanding of the factors that influence help-seeking by women in prison who may have concerns about their personal safety post-release and how this might inform service responses... Read more 

 

A guide to evaluating interventions related to violence against women
Celina McEwen
Sydney, NSW: ANROWS, 2018
ANROWS Insights, 03/2018
Summary: Evaluation is a standard requirement for most community-based services, programs and projects. Ideally, they are done by evaluators, but often they are done by those delivering the services, who may have little evaluation knowledge and skills. This guide can be seen as a companion to other evaluation guides. It is a resource for community and health workers, clinicians, as well as educators, activists, policy-makers, academics and others... Read more

 

Handle with care: A guide to responsible media reporting of violence against women
Edinburgh, Scotland: Zero Tolerance, 2018
Summary : This guide, produced by Zero Tolerance, a charity based in Scotland, offers comprehensive advice to journalists and those working in the media on various issues from interviewing survivors to providing relevant context and ensuring that violence is neither trivialised nor sensationalised... Read more 

 

How can we improve the health systems response to reproductive coercion in the Australian context?
Laura Tarzia
Melbourne, Vic: Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, University of Melbourne, 2018
Discussion paper, no. 1, 2018
Summary : Despite the numerous health impacts of reproductive coercion, and the fact that health practitioners are well-placed to respond to women experiencing it, little is known about what an effective health systems response might look like... Read more 

 

Intimate partner, family and community violence in disaster: Plenary panel
Diversity in Disaster Conference, Melbourne, Vic, 17-18 April 2018
Summary : This conference included a session on "Gendered Expectations and Consequences in Disasters". Within this there was plenary panel on "Intimate partner, family and community violence in disaster". Videos of a number of the presentations are available... Read more 

 

Moving toward prevention: A guide for reframing sexual violence
Berkeley Media Studies Group and National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2018
Summary : In the guide the authors review best practices in framing sexual violence to inform the public about preventing sexual assault. They highlight ways to communicate with the media, which plays an important role in educating the public... Read more

 

National Public Inquiry into Family Violence in Samoa State of human rights report
Sā'ili'iliga Lautele i Sāuāga i Totonu o'Aiga i Sāmoa
Apia: Samoa Office of the Ombudsman, 2018
Summary : This report highlights the issue of family violence in Samoa based on evidence collected from testimonies and village visitations, during the National Inquiry held in 2017. Available in English and Samoan... Read more  

 

Older women and domestic abuse
Annelies Allcock
Glasgow, Scotland: Iriss, 2018
ESSS Outline, August 2018
Summary: This evidence summary seeks to address the following question: What are effective interventions for older women experiencing domestic violence and abuse?... Read more 

 

Sentencing and treatment of juvenile sex offenders in Australia
Riddhi Blackley and Lorana Bartels
Canberra, ACT: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2018
Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, no. 555, July 2018
SummaryThis paper examines sentencing and treatment practices for juvenile sex offenders in Australia and the challenges of reconciling the imperatives of rehabilitation, accountability and community protection. It begins with an overview of juvenile offenders and the juvenile justice system, including the principles for sentencing young offenders. It then considers the complex lives and offending patterns of juvenile sex offenders, before providing examples of judicial reasoning in sentencing... Read more

 

Strengthening and sustaining the primary care response to family violence: A new model
Kelsey Hegarty
Melbourne, Vic: Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, University of Melbourne, 2018
Discussion paper, no. 2, 2018
Summary: Safer Families CRE has developed a Sustainable Primary Care Family Violence Model (see Fig 1) that connects with the significant program by the Royal Australian College of General Practice (RACGP) and recent work by the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM). It also aligns with work being undertaken by Primary Health Networks in parts of Australia, particularly Victoria... Read more 

 

Systems thinking for social change: A practical guide to solving complex problems, avoiding unintended consequences, and achieving lasting results
David Peter Stroh
White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2015
Summary : This book enables readers to contribute more effectively to society by helping them understand what systems thinking is and why it is so important in their work. It also gives concrete guidance on how to incorporate systems thinking in problem solving, decision making, and strategic planning without becoming a technical expert... Read more

 

Temporary migration and family violence: An analysis of victimisation, vulnerability and support 
Marie Segrave
Melbourne, Vic: School of Social Sciences, Monash University, 2017
Summary:The report offers recommendations that speak to the opportunities we have as a community to ensure that migration status does not impact on how we respond to family violence and how we support victim/survivors of family violence who seek assistance... Read more 

 

Understanding and preventing the onset of child sexual abuse in adolescence and adulthood
Nadine McKillop, Susan Rayment-McHugh, Stephen Smallbone and Zoe Bromham
Canberra, ACT: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2018
Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, no. 554, July 2018
Summary: Offender and offence characteristics associated with the onset of child sexual abuse in adolescence and adulthood were examined in a sample of males adjudicated for sexual offences. Predictors of adolescent- and adult onset abuse reinforce that adolescents and adults, for the most part, are two distinct offender populations who may be motivated to sexually abuse for different reasons and who are influenced by opportunity structures, constraints and experiences that characterise these developmental stages... Read more

 

Understanding domestic violence incidents using crime script analysis
Hayley Boxall, Chloe Boyd, Christopher Dowling and Anthony Morgan
Canberra, ACT: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2018
Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, no. 558, August 2018
Summary : Finding ways to reduce repeat domestic violence requires an understanding of both violent relationships and what happens during violent incidents. The current study uses crime script analysis to describe incidents of men's violence against women. The results provide new insights into the situational factors present when arguments escalate to violence... Read more 

 

Violence against women in Australia: An overview of research and approaches to primary prevention
Melbourne: Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, 2017
Summary : This publication presents a synopsis of the latest published research examining violence against women in Australia and its prevention. It also includes responses to violence against women and primary prevention actions... Read more

 

Journal articles 

Contact your local library for full text access to articles which are not freely available online.

Are immigrant women visible in Australian domestic violence reports that potentially influence policy? 
Nafiseh Ghafournia and Patricia Easteal
Laws, 2018, 7(4)
Summary: Through an intersectional lens, this article explores whether immigrant women are represented in a sample of Australian government documents aimed at providing information about family violence in Australia, and discusses implications for policy development. The authors find that while these documents pay lip service to the special vulnerabilities of immigrant and refugee women; arguably, they do not engage with the complexities of the intersection of gender and other social categories... Read more 

 

The domestic violence protection order system as entry to the criminal justice system for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Heather Douglas and Robin Fitzgerald
International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 2018, 7(3): 41-57
Summary : The domestic violence protection order (DVO) system is a hybrid system of criminalisation in which the DVO itself is a civil order, but any contravention of that order may result in a criminal charge. Limited attention has been paid to the potential consequences of criminalisation through the hybrid DVO system in the Australian context... Read more

 

Exposure to interpersonal violence during pregnancy and Its association with women's prenatal care utilization: A meta-analytic review
Brittany Jamieson
Trauma, Violence & Abuse, Advance online publication, 15 October 2018
Summary : Inadequate prenatal care utilization has been proposed as a mechanism between exposure to violence during pregnancy and adverse maternal and fetal obstetric outcomes. Adequate prenatal care is important for identifying and treating obstetric complications as they arise and connecting pregnant women to supports and interventions as needed. There is some evidence that pregnant women experiencing relational violence may delay or never enter prenatal care, though this association has not been systematically or quantitatively synthesized. The present meta-analysis investigates the relationship between interpersonal violence during pregnancy and inadequate prenatal care utilization across two dimensions: (1) no prenatal care during gestation; and (2) delayed entry into prenatal care... Read more