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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/11519
Record ID: 23279386-421f-4139-bdb5-88e50f450793
Type: Non-Fiction
Title: Domestic violence law reform and women's experience in court : the implementation of feminist reforms in civil proceedings
Authors: Hunter, Rosemary
Keywords: Legal issues;Family law;Protection orders
Year: 2008
Publisher: Cambria Press, Amherst
Notes:  General overview: This Australian book, Domestic Violence Law Reform and Women's Experiences of Court:, examines the legal processes of the Victorian protection order system and the federal family law system, as experienced by women seeking protection from domestic violence during 1996-1997. The book examines the system in operation prior to the passing of the significant changes to family law legislated under the previous federal Government in 2006, and the more recent Victorian Family Violence Protection Act 2008.

Method: The book is based on research conducted for submission of a doctoral dissertation. It involves examinations of court processes, interviews with legal practitioners, support workers and women litigants, as well as a review of files and case law. The study was conducted over a period of 18 months and examined cases from various Melbourne Magistrates' Courts and the Melbourne Registry of the Family Court. The author locates her analysis in a feminist jurisprudential framework. She argues that legal processes play an important 'cultural' role in relation to domestic violence, especially in that these processes have the capacity to validate the message that women don't deserve the violence that they experience.

Discussion: The women interviewed expressed a general dissatisfaction with the processes. Most women did not feel their views and experiences were validated or respected, or that perpetrators were made to feel accountable for their harms. The book's central thesis is that court processes in both jurisdictions draw on perspectives that do not see domestic violence as a gendered issue of control, impacting negatively on women's experiences and undermining the likelihood of the legal system to successfully manage risk or ensure the safety of victims. In addition, the brevity of proceedings, 'bureaucratic-style' processing of matters by magistrates and the legal norms which dominate court processes have led to a failure of the system in fulfilling law's 'cultural' function.

The book concludes with a discussion of the value of specialist, cross-jurisdictional courts, with adequately funded and trained staff. Such courts, if willing to embrace their capacity to exercise jurisdiction over family matters affected by domestic violence, can address the processes of law, moving them forward in order to meet the needs of women and children.
URI: https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/11519
ISBN: 9781604975758
Physical description: xiv, 343 p. ; 24 cm.
Appears in Collections:Books

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