TY - JOUR
T1 - Family violence, protection orders and systems abuse
T2 - views of legal practitioners
AU - Reeves, Ellen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 Sydney Institute of Criminology.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Family violence is a prominent public health issue in Australia, and in accordance with its gendered nature, women and children face significant risk. Knowledge of family violence is both multidisciplinary and continuously growing, yet explorations of the experiences of female ‘perpetrators’ remain limited. This article discusses research on the misidentification of female victim-survivors as predominant aggressors within the context of Victoria's family violence intervention order (FVIO) system, which was conducted through interviews with eight Melbourne-based legal practitioners. To date, understanding women's experiences of misidentification in the FVIO system has been left under-researched. Whilst there are multiple explanations for the misidentification of predominant aggressors within other jurisdictions, this paper is particularly concerned with the intersection between manipulative techniques employed by abusers and the FVIO system. The findings of this research suggest that male perpetrators may use the FVIO system to commit ‘systems abuse’ by encouraging police officers to apply for a FVIO against the genuine victim-survivor. It is argued that there is a strong need for a greater recognition of systems abuse within the police and the judiciary in order to prevent the FVIO system from serving as a tool of abuse readily available to perpetrators of family violence.
AB - Family violence is a prominent public health issue in Australia, and in accordance with its gendered nature, women and children face significant risk. Knowledge of family violence is both multidisciplinary and continuously growing, yet explorations of the experiences of female ‘perpetrators’ remain limited. This article discusses research on the misidentification of female victim-survivors as predominant aggressors within the context of Victoria's family violence intervention order (FVIO) system, which was conducted through interviews with eight Melbourne-based legal practitioners. To date, understanding women's experiences of misidentification in the FVIO system has been left under-researched. Whilst there are multiple explanations for the misidentification of predominant aggressors within other jurisdictions, this paper is particularly concerned with the intersection between manipulative techniques employed by abusers and the FVIO system. The findings of this research suggest that male perpetrators may use the FVIO system to commit ‘systems abuse’ by encouraging police officers to apply for a FVIO against the genuine victim-survivor. It is argued that there is a strong need for a greater recognition of systems abuse within the police and the judiciary in order to prevent the FVIO system from serving as a tool of abuse readily available to perpetrators of family violence.
KW - Australia
KW - court system
KW - family violence
KW - misidentification of predominant aggressors
KW - policing
KW - protection orders
KW - systems abuse
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083368516&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10345329.2019.1665816
DO - 10.1080/10345329.2019.1665816
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85083368516
SN - 1034-5329
VL - 32
SP - 91
EP - 110
JO - Current Issues in Criminal Justice
JF - Current Issues in Criminal Justice
IS - 1
ER -