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Policing intimate partner violence in Victoria (Australia): examining police attitudes and the potential of specialisation

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posted on 2023-06-09, 09:06 authored by Marie Segrave, Dean WilsonDean Wilson, Kate Fitz-Gibbon
The adequacy of police responses to intimate partner violence has long animated scholarly debate, review and legislative change. While there have been significant shifts in community recognition of and concern about intimate partner violence, particularly in the wake of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence, it nonetheless remains a significant form of violence and harm across Australian communities and a key issue for police, as noted in the report and recommendations of the Royal Commission. This article draws on findings from semi-structured interviews (n 163) with police in Victoria and pursues two key inter- related arguments. The first is that police attitudes towards incidents of intimate partner violence remain overwhelmingly negative. Despite innovations in policy and training, we suggest that this consistent dissatisfaction with intimate partner violence incidents as a poli- cing task indicates a significant barrier, possibly insurmountable, to attempts to reform the policing of intimate partner violence via force-wide initiatives and the mobilisation of general duties for this purpose. Consequently, our second argument is that specialisation via a com- mitment to dedicated intimate partner violence units – implemented more consistently and comprehensively than Victoria Police has to date – extends the greatest promise for effective policing of intimate partner violence in the future.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology

ISSN

0004-8658

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Issue

1

Volume

51

Page range

99-116

Department affiliated with

  • Sociology and Criminology Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Crime Research Centre Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-11-29

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2017-11-29

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-11-29

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