annotated bibliography of new zealand research into family violence

transmission’ of violence when children are witness to domestic violence. The researchfindings support this notion as parents play a significant and influential role in their children’slives. Children witnessing violence are taught that violence can be used as a very powerfuland effective means of control. The authors further discuss the behaviour and adjustmentdifficulties of children who witness abuse, noting that these children often are often moreaggressive and disruptive that their peers. As throughout other parts of the article, findingsfrom the authors’ study of children living in Women’s Refuge are presented to support thisargument.The authors address the issue of children who are ‘direct’, as well as ‘indirect’, victims ofviolence, making the link between intimate partner abuse and child abuse. At the time of thisarticle, women abuse and child abuse have traditionally been examined in isolation. However,the authors highlight a number of trends that show the two to be inherently linked. Alsodiscussed is the significance of mothers’ health related factors, such as stress, and how thiscan increase the risk of emotional and behavioural problems in children due to the disruptionin parental and family functioning. Further, the authors also raise the concern of women andchildren’s vulnerability to abuse post-separation from their abusive partner. Even afterseparation, men can still control their ex-partners, often using the children as a target andexploiting their custody and access privileges. The article concludes by briefly discussinglegislation and the reasoning for supervised access. The authors make suggestions forlegislation to work in the best interests of the child, and caution that in relation to supervisedaccess, children’s psychological safety is as imperative as their physical safety.Polaschek, D. L. L. (1999). A descriptive model of the offence chain for rapists. Unpublished doctoraldissertation, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.See: www.nzfvc.org.nz/13169.pubTopic Areas: Sexual assault/rape, Perpetrators/offenders, JusticeAbstract: This study developed a preliminary descriptive model of the offence chain inrapists. Qualitative, primarily interview-based, data was obtained from 24 incarcerated NewZealand European rapists. The main source of data was a verbal description of the offencedeveloped by the offender during interviews with the researcher. This description includedthe cognitive, affective, motivational and behavioural features of the sexual violation offence.It was analysed using grounded theory methodology. The resulting model demonstrates howrapes unfold over time and includes both offender behaviour and offender responses to victimbehaviour.The model uses a number of variables to determine which path the offender followed, such aswhether the offender believed the act was a sexual assault, the nature of the pre-offencerelationship to the victim (stranger versus non-stranger), the level of force used in the offence,and the degree of victim injury. Using the model, analysis of the offenders’ individual offencepatterns indicated that they could be summarised in terms of three paths: seeking sexualgratification to enhance positive mood, escaping negative effect through sexual gratification,and redressing harm to self by harming others.Polaschek, D., Ward, T., Hudson, S., & Siegert, R. (2001). Developing a descriptive model of theoffence chains of New Zealand rapists: Taxonomic implications. In D. Farrington, C. Hollin& M. McMurran (Eds.), Sex and violence: The psychology of crime and risk assessment (pp.153-174). London: Routledge.See: www.nzfvc.org.nz/12991.pubTopic Areas: Sexual assault/rape, Perpetrators/offenders, Justice149