annotated bibliography of new zealand research into family violence

areas in which some governments prioritise more than others the area of violence againstwomen. Included is an international comparison of the scope of national policies on violenceagainst women, where New Zealand is statistically ranked amongst other democraticcountries. Recommendations are made to democrats, feminists and policy makers about newdirections for research and government policy responsiveness.Wellington Community Law Centre. (2002). Review of the Domestic Violence Act 1995: Is it meetingits objectives? Wellington, New Zealand: Author.See: www.nzfvc.org.nz/13370.pubTopic Areas: Victims/survivors, Justice, Protection orders, Legislation, Social services,Prevention/intervention/treatmentAbstract: This report discusses whether or not the Domestic Violence Act (1995) is meetingits objectives, as set out in section 5 of the Act. The research involved sending questionnairesto people working in agencies in the area of domestic violence, police, and lawyers. Overall,the participants said that the Act was not completely successful and many recommendationswere given for improvement. These recommendations include the granting of protectionorders without notice, access to legal aid for all women, more simplified protection orderapplication forms, ongoing training for judges and police officers, and a tightening of section14 of the Act that currently gives judges too wide discretionary power.White, K. (2000). Intimate homicide: Women as offenders, women as victims, and the trouble with thelaw. Unpublished manuscript, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.See: www.nzfvc.org.nz/13141.pubTopic Areas: Intimate partner abuse, Homicide, Women, Perpetrators/offenders, Victims/survivors, Violence against men, Justice, Legislation, Cultural factors, Gender, CulturalpracticeAbstract: This dissertation looks at the legal response to intimate homicide. This form ofintimate partner violence is usually the last act in a continuum of violence against women in,or after, relationships. When women kill their intimate partners they kill out of fear of deathor bodily injury. When men kill their partners they kill to control or to punish. The legalresponse to these crimes does not reflect the true nature of either group. For women, thismeans that they are subject to male aggression that is not legally sanctioned, and from whichthey cannot effectively protect themselves. Necessity for reform is clear, but manysuggestions for change focus on only one gender, and while this may help, it will always belimited. The author argues that to adequately protect women, discourses and assumptions thatrender women powerless and men powerful, must be directly challenged. Legal systems mustunderstand that domestic violence and intimate homicide are related and are completelydifferent to male paradigms of violence.Part 1 discusses violence and intimate homicide, and how the gap between reality and legalresponse has occurred and been maintained. Part 2 outlines the gap between the reality ofintimate homicide and the legal construction of the crimes, and highlights the commonreasons for the differences. Part 3 considers suggestions for new defences, reformulations ofcurrent defences and new definitions of crimes, for both male and female offenders, andhighlights their dependency on each other.Source: Author’s abstract182