Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T11:52:07.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

For the sake of the children? Children, domestic violence and public policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

Suellen Murray  and
Anastasia Powell
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

More attention than ever before is being paid to children in Australian public policy concerned with domestic violence. In family law and in the areas of child protection, policing and in the provision of specialist services, there is recognition that children are affected by domestic violence. Yet the ‘discovery’ of the impact of domestic violence on children and the development of public policy responses have not been straightforward processes of problem identification and solution. Rather, there are a number of competing discourses which underlie various policy approaches. Drawing on Bacchi’s (1999) ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ approach, we examine the discursive constructions of children’s experiences of domestic violence and the responses to them as evident in Australian public policy. In identifying these particular understandings, and considering the implications of these meanings for current policy and practice, we aim to contribute to debate on the future direction of domestic violence policy concerned with children.

Type
Research Article
Information
Children Australia , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , 2007 , pp. 6 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkinson, J. (2002) ‘Voices in the wilderness: Restoring justice to traumatised people’, UNSW Law Journal, 25(1), 233–41.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006) Personal safety survey. Cat. No. 4906.0, Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (1996) Women’s safety suivey. Cat. No. 4128.0, Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2005) Female SAAP clients and children escaping domestic and family violence 2003–04, Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.Google Scholar
Bacchi, C.L. (1999) Women, policy and politics: The construction of policy problems, London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagshaw, D. & Chung, D. (2001) ‘The needs of children who witness domestic violence: A South Australian study’, Children Australia, 26(3), 9–17.Google Scholar
Blagg, H. (2000) Crisis intervention on Aboriginal family violence: Summary report, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Blanchard, A. (1999) Caring for child victims of domestic violence, Perth: Nandina Press.Google Scholar
Davies, L. & Krane, J. (2006) ‘Collaborate with caution: protecting children, helping mothers’, Critical Social Policy, 26(2), 412–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department of Human Services (2005) Child protection and family violence. Guidance for child protection practitioners, Melbourne: Government of Victoria.Google Scholar
Department of Human Services (2004) Towards collaboration. A resource guide for child protection and family violence services, Melbourne: Government of Victoria.Google Scholar
Edelman, M. (1988) Constructing the political spectacle, Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Edleson, J. (2004) ‘Should exposure to adult domestic violence be defined as child maltreatment under the law?’, In Jaffe, P.G., Baker, L.L. & Cunningham, C. (eds), Protecting Children form domestic violence: strategies for community intervention, (pp.8–29). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Edleson, J. (1999) ‘The overlap between child maltreatment and woman battering’, Violence Against Women, 5(2), 134–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrante, A., Morgan, F., Indermaur, D. & Harding, R. (1996) Measuring the extent of domestic violence, Sydney: Hawkins Press.Google Scholar
Fantuzzo, J., Boruch, R., Beriama, M., Atkins, M. & Marcus, S. (1997) ‘Domestic violence and children: Prevalence and risk in five major US cities’, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(1), 122–162.Google Scholar
Flood, M. (2006) The debate over men’s versus women’s family violence, paper presented at Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Family Violence Conference, Adelaide, 23–24 February.Google Scholar
Flood, M. & Pease, B. (2006) The factors influencing community attitudes in relation to violence against women: A critical review of the literature, Melbourne: Vichealth.Google Scholar
Humphreys, C. (2007) Domestic violence and child protection: Challenging directions for practice. Issues Paper 1, Sydney: Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse.Google Scholar
Indermaur, D. (2001) ‘Young Australians and domestic violence’. Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, Australian Institute of Criminology, 195, 1–6.Google Scholar
Institute of Child Protection Studies (2006) Literature review: The experiences and effects of family homelessness for children, Canberra: ACT Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services.Google Scholar
Itzin, C. (2000) ‘Gendering domestic violence: The influence of feminism on policy and practice’, in Hanmer, J. & Itzin, C. (eds), Home truths and domestic violence: Feminist influences on policy and practice, (pp. 356–380), London: Routledge.Google Scholar
James, M. (1994) ‘Domestic violence as a form of child abuse: Identification and prevention’. Issues in Child Abuse Prevention, 2, 1–14.Google Scholar
Kaye, M. & Tolmie, J. (1998) ‘Fathers’ rights groups in Australia and their engagement with issues in family law’, Australian Journal of Family Law, 12(1), 19–68.Google Scholar
Kaye, M., Stubbs, J. & Tolmie, J. (2003) Negotiating child residence and contact arrangements against a background of domestic violence. Sydney: Families, Law and Social Policy Research Unit, Socio-Legal Research Centre, School of Law, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Kelly, L. (1994) ‘The interconnectedness of domestic violence and child abuse: Challenges for research, policy and practice’, in Mullender, A. & Morley, R. (eds), Children living with domestic violence: putting men’s abuse of women on the child care agenda, (pp. 43–55), London: Whiting and Birch.Google Scholar
Laing, L. (2000) Children, young people and domestic violence, Issues Paper 2, Sydney: Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse.Google Scholar
Lesley Gevers Community Management Services (1999) Models of service for working with children and young people who have lived with domestic violence, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
MacDonald, H. (1998) What’s in a name? Definitions and domestic violence. Discussion Paper No. 1, Melbourne: Domestic Violence and Incest Resource Centre.Google Scholar
Murray, S. (2005) ‘“An impossibly ambitious plan?” Australian policy and the elimination of domestic violence’, Just Policy, 38, 28–33.Google Scholar
Murray, S. (2002) More than refuge: Changing responses to domestic violence, Perth: University of Western Australia Press.Google Scholar
New South Wales Task Force on Domestic Violence (1981) Report of New South Wales Task Force on Domestic Violence, Sydney: New South Wales Government.Google Scholar
Norris, K., Thompson, D., Eardley, T. & Hoffmann, S. (2005) Children in the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP): Final Report, Canberra: Department of Family and Community Services, Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Oberin, J., Foster, P. & Kirkwood, C. (2005) Making children count: Children, violence, homelessness and the law, Canberra: Women’s Emergency Services Network.Google Scholar
Office of Women’s Policy (Victoria) (2002) Women’s safety strategy: A policy framework, Melbourne: Victorian Government.Google Scholar
Partnerships Against Domestic Violence. (2000) Partnerships against domestic violence: Second report of the Taskforce 1999–2000, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Phillips, R. (2006) ‘Undoing an activist response: Feminism and the Australian government’s domestic violence policy’, Critical Social Policy, 26(1), 192–219.Google Scholar
Rhoades, H. (2002) ‘The “no contact mother”: Reconstructions of motherhood in the era of the “new father”’, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 16, 71–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risley-Curtiss, C. & Heffernan, K. (2003) ‘Gender biases in child welfare’, Affilia, 18(4), 395–410.Google Scholar
Stanley, J. & Goddard, C. (2003) Hearing only half the story by leaving out half of the violence, Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.Google Scholar
Task Force on Domestic Violence (1986) Break the silence, Perth: Western Australian Government.Google Scholar
Taylor, J., Cheers, B., Weetra, C. & Gentle, I. (2004). ‘Supporting community solutions to family violence’, Australian Social Work, 57(1), 71–83.Google Scholar
Tomison, A. (2000) Exploring family violence: Links between child maltreatment and domestic violence, Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.Google Scholar
Victorian Community Council Against Violence (2006) Victorian Family Violence Database: Five Year Report 1999–2004, Melbourne: Department of Justice.Google Scholar
Weeks, W. (2000) ‘Women’s citizenship: Back into the family?’, in McMahon, A., Thomson, J. & Williams, C. (eds), Understanding the Australian welfare state: Key documents and themes, (pp. 55–69), Melbourne: Tertiary Press.Google Scholar
Wilcox, K. (2007) ‘Supporting children living with violence at home: The need for nationwide “good practice”’, Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse Newsletter, 28, pp.3–5.Google Scholar