Qualitative Domestic Violence in Australia (Criminology Area) - Critical Review #1

Qualitative Domestic Violence in
Australia (Criminology Area)
Assessment 1: CRITICAL REVIEW #1
Student Name: Student ID:
Subject Name: Subject ID:
Date Due: Professor Name:
Page | 1

1.0 Introduction
The Family Act 1975 defines domestic violence in Australia being a behaviour of a person
threatening to control or coerce members of family to be fearful (Livingston, 2011). The act
primarily refers to violence amongst people having or have had intimate relationship in domestic
setting. Most prevalent form of domestic violence is of men against female partners and also
extends to include same-sex relationships. State’s legislations sometimes applies broader
concepts to include more types of violence, as in Victoria it is referred to as family violence. The
scope of this study analyses qualitatively parliamentary publication of Mitchell (2011) Domestic
violence in Australia: an overview of the issues (Mitchell, 2011). The scope of this journal
evaluates to find correlation between sale of alcohol with that domestic abuse cases. The
reseacrh was udnertaken as a social rescherch program for Federal Government.
2.0 Research Aims and Questions
Domestic violence is a grave criminal offence and is often under reported or avoided. The
scope of this article primary conducts a correlation between alcohol density and rates of domestic
violence in Australia (Hennink, 2010). The scope of the above article evaluates the following
research aims and questions pertaining to the topic.
 Research Aim 1: To understand the meaning of domestic violence and its types
prevalence across various parts of the country Research Aim 2: To analyse the risk factors associated with domestic violence,
especially use of alcohol and other drugs Research Aim 3: To evaluate various risk groups facing violence Research Aim 4: To analyse cases that are reported to police for seeking help Research Aim 5: To action taken by police to resolve cases
Page | 2

In order to answer the above research aims the following questions has to be answered (Taylor,
2015).
 Research Question 1: What are the various definitions of domestic violence used across
Australia?
 Research Question 2: What are the prevalent types of domestic violence?
 Research Question 3: Who are the risk groups facing domestic violence?
 Research Question 4: How many cases of domestic violence are reported to police?
 Research Question 5: What is the action taken by police to resolve cases reported of
domestic violence?
3.0 Qualitative Method evaluation
The journal is an integral paper that understands the correlation between liquor license rate,
reports made to police authorities in a given area with that of domestic violence rate from local
police data. The author of the paper has adopted qualitative methods of evaluation by collection
of data from various parts of Australia (Tracy, 2012). Subjective data was appropriate and used
for the purpose of the study to draw correlation between variables proposed. The scholar mostly
adopted data collection from metropolitan areas of Australia. The article conducts research in
area that had not been attempted earlier in Australia. The scholar adopted participant
observation. The participants in the observation comprised mainly of mixed characteristics of
Aboriginals and other Australians (Lewis, 2015). Though the observation had been conducted
across specific post codes only but it was suited for the specific study as reported incidence to
police at these post codes were higher compared to other regions. Each participant was well-
suited for the purpose of data collection as data obtained was specific. Participant observation
Page | 3