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We keep us safe: working with communities to end domestic, family and sexual violence

We're working with criminalised communities to help end domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV). 

DFSV is a serious problem in Australia. Per the National plan to end violence against women and children, domestic violence has not significantly decreased in the last 12 years. Existing legal responses like policing can also perpetuate cycles of harm. 

In the face of these challenges, many victims and survivors have shared their stories. They've spoken out about what they need to be safe and to heal. We believe that those most impacted by violence have the experience needed to help end this issue. This is uniquely true for people with a history of criminalisation or drug use. However, these communities continue to face social and political exclusion. Systemic barriers have made it difficult to turn lived and living experience into published research.

Our project will therefore gather evidence on how to best respond to DSFV. To do this we'll partner with people with a history of criminalisation or drug use.

Our project is community-led and takes a non-carceral approach.

Criminalisation refers to the ways people are rendered as criminals in society. Someone who is criminalised may have been imprisoned or had contact with police. They might engage in criminalised activities such as drug use or sex work.

Non-carceral refers to things that occur outside of the criminal legal system. Non-carceral methods do not involve prisons or policing. Instead, they focus on root causes and reducing harm. Such an approach might prioritise care, community and cultural safety.

Aims

Our project has the following aims:

  • examine the social systems that enable domestic, family and sexual violence
  • explore the specific pathways that lead to the use of DFSV by criminalised men who use drugs
  • generate survivor-led alternative responses to harm
  • centre the voices and priorities of criminalised women who use drugs
  • gather evidence that prioritises lived/living experience
  • create a framework for prevention and response that is led by survivors.

We envision the resulting framework of our study will be used by services for criminalised people who use drugs. Our aim is to generate results that are useful to victims and survivors as well as those who use DFSV.

Methods

The project will use a transformative justice framework. This means we will examine systemic power structures rather than focusing only on the individual.

The project will also use feminist participatory co-design. We will attend to the role of people, gender and power in our research. We will work directly with the relevant communities, and they will take the lead in how we conduct the study. The methods that we use will be informed by the people we work with.

The study will run 2024–2026 and include three stages:

  1. prioritising lived/living experience while preparing for the study
  2. co-designing theories of change with victims, survivors and men who use DSFV
  3. synthesising and reflecting on the results.

The phases will unfold sequentially, with each stage informing the next.

 

Prioritising lived and living experience

We will recruit a researcher who has experienced DFSV, criminalisation and drug use. This researcher will co-lead project activities. 

We will also review transformative justice theories and practices developed by survivors. This will help us develop our own emerging framework.

 

Co-design process

Participants will take part in interviews and workshops. Criminalised victims and survivors will help develop a conceptual framework. They'll share their insights and preferences on justice, accountability and healing. 

We'll also work with men who use violence. We will better understand the structural factors that lead men to use DFSV. We can explore the potential pathways into and out of using violence.

Criminalised victims and survivors and men who use DSFV will work together as well. Together we will finalise our 'theory of change'. We will identify and design community-led interventions to address DFSV.

 

Synthesis and reflection

In the last stage, we plan to use autoethnographic reflection. This means we will use narration and self-reflection to examine tensions and possibilities of survivor-led transformative justice work. We will use the results of our study to create an evidence base. We hope these results will contribute to new ways of understanding the world.

More information

For more information, please contact jade.lane@burnet.edu.au.

 

Chief investigator A 

Jade Lane

 

Other chief investigators

Nina Storey 

Amy Kirwan 

Professor Mark Stoove 

Assistant Professor Georgina Sutherland 

Partners and collaborators 

Flat Out 

Self Help Addiction Resource Centre (SHARC) 

 

Funding partners

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS)