Engaging men on their use of sexual violence as a power and ...

editorial
Welcome to the
45th issue of the
Clearinghouse
Newsletter.
protection orders and divorce. Judge Kulger discussed
operational issues for these courts and their expansion
to address emerging issues, such as to allow same-sex
partners to obtain civil orders of protection.
It is that time again
when we consult you,
our users, to find out
what you think of our
services and how we
can make them more
relevant and useful
to you. Our survey
is open until the end
of July, so go online to www.surveymonkey.com/s/
ClearinghouseSurveyJuly2011 to have your say. This
information is invaluable to us in planning and business
develop<strong>men</strong>t, and we appreciate your input.
The Clearinghouse staff have been very busy over the past
couple of months with our project work, running a forum on
domestic violence deaths, writing submissions and papers,
all which you can read about in the Clearinghouse Update
on page 2 of this Newsletter.
In May, I made a lightening visit to the United States and
Canada. The primary reason for the trip was to attend
Violence Against Wo<strong>men</strong> – Complex Realities and New
Issues in a Changing World, an international conference
held in Quebec, Canada. The conference heard from a
diverse range of speakers on many interesting topics and
I will provide a more detailed report in the next issue of the
Newsletter. For now, I will just <strong>men</strong>tion three of the keynote
speakers.
Well known researcher Dr Michael Johnson has written
extensively on typologies of intimate partner violence. At
this conference, he spoke about differences between
three major types of violence (intimate terrorism, violent
resistance and situational couple violence) in terms of their
causes, their effects on individuals and couples, and their
responsiveness to intervention. He argued persuasively for
a differentiated approach in dealing with violent <strong>men</strong>, while
emphasising the need to recognise that common couple
violence is as significant and dangerous as controlling
violence.
Judy Harris Kluger is the Chief of Policy and Planning in
New York State’s unified court system. She spoke about
the growing number of integrated domestic violence courts
in the state and how their operation is increasing access
to justice for victims. In these integrated courts, a single
judge will deal with a criminal domestic violence case and
all its related family issues, such as custody, visitation, civil
The third speaker was Dr Floya Anthias, a professor
of sociology at Roehampton University in the United
Kingdom. She argued for a more differentiated
understanding of wo<strong>men</strong> in terms of complex inequalities,
in order to understand and better address their experience
of violence and their needs. She called for more
collaboration between different sectors in order to address
wo<strong>men</strong>’s complex lives. Her paper then discussed a range
of issues around gender and violence; for example, around
the growth of migration, ‘diversity’, transnationalism and
global labour markets.
As well as attending the conference, I was also able to
visit two peak organisations in the United States: the
National Network to End Domestic Violence in Washington
and the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence
in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I was impressed with the
significant resourcing of these organisations through
govern<strong>men</strong>t funding to support the work of the practicebased
sector. They provide training, knowledge transfer,
technical support and resource develop<strong>men</strong>t, as well as
representation to and advocacy with govern<strong>men</strong>t. The
level of support and advocacy that these organisations
can lend to domestic violence services and workers is
something we would love to see replicated in Australia,
with a peak organisation situated in each state and territory
carrying out this work.
Having the opportunity to hear eminent practitioners
and academics from around the world, learn about
new approaches and forge international links was an
invigorating experience and the learnings from this trip will
inform our work at the Clearinghouse into the future. While
it was great to learn about develop<strong>men</strong>ts going on around
the world, it was also heartening to have acknowledged
that our Clearinghouse is also spearheading innovation
and investigation, for example, through our domestic
violence workplace project and financial security research.
In this issue of the Newsletter, you will read about
engaging <strong>men</strong> on their use of sexual violence as a power
and control tactic (pp. 3-4), read a summary of recent
develop<strong>men</strong>ts in family law (pp. 5-7) and a review of the
AVERT family violence resource (pp. 14-15), as well as find
out about a new resource for working with the media (p. 8).
I hope you enjoy this issue of the Newsletter.
Gaby Marcus
Director
1
www.adfvc.unsw.edu.au