This book addresses the intersection of two current major concerns in Australia: law and justice responses to domestic violence - including harsher punitive measures - and the over-representation of Indigenous Australians in the criminal justice system, which are similar concerns in New Zealand, Canada and the US. Nancarrow re-conceptualises typologies of violence and provides a means of understanding and explaining female use of violence without undermining the hard-won gains of the women¿s movement. It does, however, argue for a paradigm shift, which has implications for every aspect of the system we have built to stop men¿s violence against women (law, police policy and practice, counselling and advocacy for victims, and interventions for those who perpetrate violence). The book is based on quantitative and qualitative research and explores the nature of Indigenous intimate partner violence and the types of violence that domestic violence law sought to address.

Heather Nancarrow is Chief Executive Officer of Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS). She has 35 years' experience in research, policy and practice in the violence against women field, including extensive work with Indigenous Australian communities, whose experiences of violence and the criminal justice system feature in this book. She completed her PhD at Griffith University, Australia. 

1. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM IN CONTEXT

The problem

Feminist theory

Critical race theory and intersectionality

Neo-colonial theory

The context

Part 1: Australia's First Nations Peoples

Part 2: Civil domestic violence law and its operation

What we know about Australia's domestic violence laws

Expanding the prior body of knowledge

References

Endnotes

2. CONCEPTUALISING INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

Debates on the gendered nature of intimate partner violence

Types of violence

Coercive control versus fights

Prevalence and impact of intimate partner violence

Prevalence

Impact

Indigenous Australian women and violence

Traditional cultural practices

Neo-colonial violence

References

Endnotes

3. GENDERED ASPIRATIONS IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LAW

Violence against women and feminist law reform

Criminal law response to intimate partner violence

Focus on physical violence

A law to protect women from men's coercive control

The Queensland Domestic Violence Taskforce

The Domestic Violence (Family Protection) Bill 1989 (Qld)

Amendments to the Domestic Violence (Family Protection) Act 1989 (Qld)

Missed opportunities 1989 - 2002

Recent developments in defining domestic and family violence

Summary and discussion

References

Endnotes

4. SEX AND RACE DIFFERENCES IN LAW'S APPLICATION

Analysing sex and race differences

Demographics

Respondent history of orders and breaches

History of orders as the aggrieved

Case character

Group profiles

Indigenous men

Non-Indigenous men

Indigenous women

Non-Indigenous women

Group comparisons

Respondent/perpetrator

Respondent as aggrieved

Case character

Discussion of sex and race differences

References

Endnotes

Approach to identifying explanatory themes

Fights

Chaos

Lack of comprehension

Disadvantage

Formulaic response

Race relations

Summary

References

Endnotes

6. RECONCEPTUALISING TYPOLOGIES OF VIOLENCE

Materials and methods

Distribution of types of violence among the four groups

Coercive control

Fights

Sex and race differences in the profiles

Reconceptualising coercive control and fights

Case studies: Reconceptualised typology of violence

Coercive control

Violent resistance

Fights

References

Endnotes

7. GENDERED AND RACIALISED POWER AND THE LAW

Law, implementation and patriarchal power

Erroneous assumptions

Formulaic responses

Racialised power and intersectionality

Fights

Chaos

Formulaic response

Race relations

Recent developments and proposals for change

Criminal law versus civil law

An offence of coercive control and an alternative

Summary

References

Endnotes

8. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Gendered aspirations and racialised realities

Alternative justice strategies

Structural reform for violence prevention

EXPLANATORY NOTES

APPENDIX I

APPENDIX II