Improving Access to Justice for Women Who Kill Their Abusers: Practitioner Insights and Experiences
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Deakin University
Australia -
RMIT University Australia
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The University of Western Australia Australia
Abstract
Over the past decade, Australia has made significant reforms aimed at improving legal understandings of intimate partner violence, women’s use of force and their access to self-defence. While some courts have recognised the cumulative effects of coercive control and social entrapment on women’s responses, significant problems remain that deny many women access to justice. This article presents findings from a Victorian pilot study involving interviews with lawyers and experts who work with victim-survivors in these cases. Results revealed that a number of interviewees had limited knowledge of the family violence legislation. While psych-based expertise was seen as helpful, this tended to be in limited ways. Interviewees emphasised both the challenges accessing, and limited authority afforded, family violence experts/expertise by the courts. We conclude with recommendations for building the workforce and capacity of experts to work in this area and targeted training to skill up practitioners to more effectively utilise the family violence evidence provisions throughout the whole court process.
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Author Biographies
Danielle Tyson is an Associate Professor of Criminology at Deakin University, with expertise in gender-based violence, intimate partner homicide, filicide, homicide defences, and criminal law reform.
Bronwyn Naylor is Emeritus Professor of Law at RMIT University, Melbourne, and has degrees in law and criminology. She has been teaching, researching and publishing in criminal law, law and gender, and human rights for over 30 years. She has worked with Law Reform Commissions on reforms to homicide laws and sexual offences, and has published extensively in these areas, including on defences to intimate partner homicides. Her research also addresses the protection of human rights in detention, and the impact of criminal records on people seeking employment. In 2022 Bronwyn was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to tertiary education and the law.
Stella Tarrant is a member of the Law Faculty at the University of Western Australia where she teaches criminal law, evidence and gender and the law. For 30 years she has published widely in the areas of crime and the impact of law on women. Her research focusses on the ‘ways of thinking’ that underpin the law and contribute to how we understand the status of women and gender roles more generally. With co-authors Professor Julia Tolmie and George Giudice her report Transforming Legal Understandings of Intimate Partner Violence won an inaugural Council of Australian Law Deans Research Award in 2020. This research was funded by the Australian National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), and supported the first legislation incorporating principles of ‘social entrapment’ into evidence law in criminal proceedings. She currently works with Dr Hannah McGlade and Carol Bahemia as an academic expert in the preparation of public interest human rights cases relating to violence against Indigenous women and their use of force in defence.