Researcher covers 'unintended consequences' in talk on domestic violence laws
Published on 26 June, 2013
CQUniversity researcher Heather Nancarrow will reflect on the intentions and the unintended consequences of civil domestic violence protection orders, during a Research Unplugged presentation in Mackay on August 21.
All interested people are welcome at the free presentation from 6pm-7pm at the Shamrock Hotel in Nebo Road, with RSVPs and details via 07 4923 2184.
Heather Nancarrow
Ms Nancarrow's topic includes reflections on a quasi-criminal justice response to intimate partner violence.
Light refreshments will be provided.
The Research Unplugged series is presented by the Institute for Health and Social Science Research at CQUniversity.
Ms Nancarrow is Director of the Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research, based at CQUniversity Mackay.
For more than 20 years, the primary legal response to intimate partner violence in most Australian states and territories, and New Zealand, has been a civil domestic violence court order.
Ms Nancarrow says the civil law response to domestic violence was intended, primarily, to address men's violence against their intimate female partners.
"The domestic violence laws were designed to overcome the limitations of criminal law associated with the nature of domestic violence, where needed; and to be used in conjunction with the criminal law, where possible," she says.
"The civil domestic violence laws in fact straddle both civil and criminal law jurisdictions in terms of exceptional police powers and the breach provisions constituting a criminal offence."
Ms Nancarrow has a MA (Hons 1) in Criminology and Criminal Justice and 30 years' experience working in the field of domestic and family violence prevention, including direct service provision, policy and legislation, professional development and research. She has published in national and international peer-reviewed journals and has published two book chapters with another forthcoming. Her primary research interests are justice responses to violence against women, particularly as they relate to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples This is the subject of her PhD research, which is nearing completion.