Social Research: Barriers to Women & Domestic Violence in Melbourne

This document presents an annotated bibliography and a research proposal on the topic of domestic violence, specifically focusing on the barriers faced by women in Melbourne, Victoria, when attempting to access service providers. The annotated bibliography comprises eight entries, each providing a full APA citation, a summary of the author's purpose, a brief overview of the methodology, and a critical analysis of the source's relevance to the research topic. The research proposal outlines the study's aims, objectives, and research questions, which center on understanding and addressing the limitations women face. It details a mixed-methods approach, including quantitative data collection through questionnaires and qualitative data collection via interviews, along with a detailed methodology for data analysis. The proposal also addresses ethical considerations and provides a framework for a budget and funding plan to support the research. The ultimate goal is to identify barriers and propose recommendations for service providers to improve women's access to support and resources when fleeing domestic violence.

Running head: SOCIAL RESEARCH
Social Research
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Assignment 1 – Annotated Bibliography
Introduction
Violence against women constitutes a significant human rights issue in the Australian
state of Victoria. Women in Victoria are seen to experience violence at the hands of their
husbands, their live in domestic partners and at times even their children. There are many
causes for domestic violence against women in Victoria, notwithstanding the capital city of
Melbourne, the most well-known of them being alcoholism and economic issues. This report
prepares an annotated bibliography on the subject of domestic violence in Melbourne and
other places in the state of Victoria, that will provide useful insights needed to prepare a
research proposal on the subject of barriers faced by women in accessing service providers
when fleeing domestic violence in Melbourne.
1. Fitz-Gibbon, K. E., Elliott, K. B., & Maher, J. M. (2018). Investigating adolescent
family violence in Victoria: Understanding experiences and practitioner
perspectives.
The purpose of the above article is to investigate the factors that trigger violence
towards, or among adolescent family members in the state of Victoria. The research aims
to understand the problem specifically from the perspective of practitioners and their
experience.
The research is based on a hundred and twenty families in Victoria that have
experienced violence with regard to adolescent family members. The researchers focus on
understanding what it is like for practitioners to deal with children in these families who
suffer from domestic violence and how such violence is seen to shape the lives of the
children

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The research provides some terrific insights for its readers on the topic of adolescent
family violence in the state of Victoria in Australia. It assesses the adequacy of the
country’s system of criminal justice as well as therapeutic or service responses that need
to be in place to address such violence.
2. Macvean, M. L., Humphreys, C., & Healey, L. (2018). Facilitating the
collaborative interface between child protection and specialist domestic violence
services: a scoping review. Australian social work, 71(2), 148-161.
The above study engages in a review of the child protection and the specialized
domestic services that are provided in the country of Australia. The research aims to
specifically understand the collaborations that take place between providers of child
protection services and those who render domestic violence protection services in
Australia.
This piece of research engages in a scoping review of all the models of inter-agency
that are seen to be at work between domestic violence and child protection services or
child protection services and family law, or all of the three services taken together. By
doing so, the research looks at the ways by which collaborative practices can be
developed between the child protection agencies and other agencies.
The research has been very thoroughly done. Ten organization websites and nine
databases were systematically searched. The results were then screened against all the
selection criteria after which 24 models could be identified. From these models 22
collaborative facilitators emerged that can guide policy as well as practice development
for families that do experience domestic violence.

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3. O’Connor, M., & Colucci, E. (2016). Exploring domestic violence and social
distress in Australian-Indian migrants through community
theater. Transcultural psychiatry, 53(1), 24-44.
This research aims at studying the co relation between domestic violence and social
distress as seen to exist among the Australian Indian migrant community, using
community theatre as a medium.
The authors have captured the voices of the women residing among the Australian
Indian migrant community by focusing a specific Indian community that stays in the city
of Melbourne. A modified version of the Forum Theater Approach was used and women
in the community reported on how difficult it was for them to lead a family life upon
experiencing or suffering from domestic violence at the hands of their partners on a
regular basis.
The research has been done in a detailed and thorough manner with the voices or
narratives of the women victims of domestic violence in an Australian Indian community
in Melbourne being well highlighted by the researchers. The correlation between social
distress and domestic violence as made evident by the women of this community can
serve as a guide for developing culturally sensitive service program to assist women
victims of domestic violence in Australia.
4. Heward-Belle, S., Laing, L., Humphreys, C., & Toivonen, C. (2018). Intervening
with children living with domestic violence: is the system safe?. Australian social
work, 71(2), 135-147.

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The purpose of the research is to analyze the effectiveness and the safety that is
associated with the intervention systems that are currently in place for helping and assisting
women children victims of domestic violence in the country of Australia.
What the article does is examine the cross sector relationships that impede or facilitate
effective responses to women and children who suffer from domestic violence in Australia.
As many as 54 professionals working in the area of statutory child protection, domestic
violence, community services and family law were used as a sample population for this
research study.
The research methods adopted included the use of focus group discussions with the
sample research population as well as participant observation behavior. Myriad practices as
well as policies were described or suggested by the respondents or participants in the focus
group discussions that can be implemented to combat the negative impact that domestic
violence of men carry out on their wives and partners in Australia quite frequently.
5. Wall, L., Higgins, D. J., & Hunter, C. (2016). Trauma-informed care in
child/family welfare services. Melbourne, Vic: Australian Institute of Family
Studies.
The purpose of the above article is to arrive at an understanding of the type of trauma
informed care services that are provided for child victims of domestic violence in Melbourne
Australia. The article in the process of doing so defines and clarifies what exactly the term
trauma informed care services, implies.
The authors argue that the experience of traumatic events in childhood such as domestic
abuse at the hands of parents and family members, neglect as well as domestic violence is a
direct driver of the need for service. It is argued by the authors that policies and service

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providers need to respond specifically to these experiences of trauma in order to respond
effectively to victims of domestic and family violence in research.
The research does a good job of pointing out all the challenges that may be experienced in
rendering such care services, and how such challenges can be overcome especially when
engaging in clinical interventions or evidence based programs to deal with the matter of
trauma and domestic violence in Australian families.
6. Stubbs, J., & Wangmann, J. (2017). Australian perspectives on domestic
violence. In Global responses to domestic violence (pp. 167-188). Springer, Cham.
The purpose of the above research is to examine both historical as well as contemporary
responses to the subject of domestic violence in the country of Australia. To this end,
historical policies on family violence and contemporary programs and policies on the same
subject especially domestic violence have been studied in detail by the authors.
It is the argument of the authors of the above article that domestic violence is a subject
that remained confined to the private sphere until the decade of the 1970’s. It was only when
the 1970’s set in that governmental inquiries and feminist activism emphasized that domestic
violence was a social problem that impacted mostly women.
The authors do a good job of point out the contemporary policy responses to the matter of
domestic violence in Australia, drawing on gendered analysis of the subject in the process. A
good historical overview of governmental and civil society responses to domestic violence in
Australia have been well illustrated in this research.
7. Murphy, B., Liddell, M., & Bugeja, L. (2016). Service contacts proximate to
intimate partner homicides in Victoria. Journal of family violence, 31(1), 39-48.

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The purpose of the above article is to examine the frequency, the proximity as well as
the nature of service contacts among both perpetrators as well as victims of what is
termed as intimate partner homicide, in the Australian state of Victoria.
The context of the research is basically an understanding or overview of how and
what service contacts are used and how frequently these are made use of when faced with
a situation that leads to intimate partner homicide, with the latter being triggered by
domestic violence. It has been discovered through the research conducted by the authors
that the judicial system of the country is to service contact that is most frequently made
use of to deal with the challenges and situation of violence and domestic violence at that
in Victoria.
The research has been undertaken in a very thorough manner. A retrospective review
was conducted of all the coroner’s records of as many as a hundred and twenty partner
homicides that took place in Victoria in the years between 2000 and 2008.
8. Cleak, H., & Bickerdike, A. (2016). One way or many ways: Screening for family
violence in family mediation. Family Matters, (98), 16.
The purpose of the above research article is to arrive at an assessment of how
effective family legislation has been in resolving or addressing the matter of family
violence through what is termed as family mediation. It aims to see whether family laws
have suitably come to the aid of children and women victims of domestic violence in the
country of Australia.
The main argument of the authors in this research article is that jurisprudence proves
to be the most effective medium for resolving and combating family violence in
Australia. The authors study all the significant amendments that were made to the
Australian Family Law Act of 1975, in the years between 2006 and 2011.

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The authors have done a thorough job of reviewing all the legislations, concluding the
process that the changes brought about in legislation led to a decrease by twenty five
percent in the court filings with regard to parent matters in instances of domestic violence
in Australia.

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Assignment 2 – Research Proposal
1. Title of the Research
What are the barriers to women in Melbourne, Vic, accessing service providers when fleeing
domestic violence.
Abstract
Domestic violence is quite a common phenomenon in the country of Australia, as
much as it is in other parts of the world. Domestic violence is seen to take place in all
segments of Australian life, be it in the high society or among the lower classes. While
victims of domestic violence are mostly women, domestic violence is something that extends
to children and other family members as well. Although there are a number of legal
mechanisms in place in Australia to deal effectively with the matter of domestic violence,
their implementation rests largely in the work done by service providers in the area of
domestic violence who work tirelessly to provide victims of domestic violence with the
comfort and support they need to combat their situations. This assignment prepares a research
proposal on the barriers that are faced by women victims of domestic violence in Australia, in
accessing service providers. The assignment provides a background to the study, mentions
the research questions, engages in an in depth literature review, mentions the methods to be
used for doing the research and finally, provides all ethical factors that will be taken into
consideration when conducting this research.
Research Aims and Objectives
The aim and objectives of this research are as follows –
 To understand the specific limitations or restrictions that are faced by women in
accessing service providers when fleeing situations of domestic violence in Australia

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 To arrive at ways and means by which such limitations and restrictions can be
overcome
 To provide recommendations for service providers of protection against domestic
violence in Australia that can be used by them to remove all barriers in terms of
access to their services.
Research Questions
RQ1 – What are the specific limitations, restrictions or barriers that women victims of
domestic violence face when accessing service providers for protection and support?
RQ 2 – What are the ways and means by which women victims of domestic violence can
overcome such barriers?
RQ3 – What are the measures that can be taken by service providers of protection against
domestic violence in Australia to remove such barriers for women?
Introduction/ Rationale for the Study
Domestic violence is a common problem in each and every part of the globe today, in
developed as well as developing countries. Domestic violence is mostly seen to be committed
by men against their partners or wives, and their children. Domestic violence is a gross and
selfish act and it is a criminal offence in many countries such as the United States of America
and in the United Kingdom. In the country of Australia too, victims of domestic violence can
approach law and order authorities in order to take punitive action against the people who
commit domestic violence against them. However, for the most part, victims of domestic
violence are known to remain silent, seldom ever reporting of the atrocities that are
committed against them within the private sphere of the household. In fact domestic violence
as a subject was trivialized for the longest period of time, until the decade of the 1970’s when

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feminist activism led to the acknowledgement and acceptance of domestic violence as a base
criminal offence that is punishable by law. It was in the decade of 1970’s that law and order
mechanisms in developed countries of the world such as Australia started coming up with
instruments and mechanisms that would condemn domestic violence as a criminal act,
discouraging it from being perpetrated at all levels of a domestic set up. One of the most
common forms of comfort and shelter and asylum that victims of domestic violence are seen
to receive are the services that are provided for their protection and care by organizations set
up specifically in number. Service providers for protection against domestic violence are
common in each and every part of the world with the country of Australia being no
exception. This assignment prepares a research proposal on the subject of the barriers that
women experience in accessing service providers, at the time of fleeing domestic violence, in
the city of Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria. The proposal engages in a detailed
literature review and highlights the methods to be used for the research and the ethical factors
that shall be considered to do the research as thoroughly and as effectively as possible.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Use of Technology as a Trigger for Domestic Violence
Woodlock (2016), has conducted extensive research on the matter of technology and
domestic violence in Australia. She argues how perpetrators of domestic violence threaten to
share sexualized content of the victims on social media and other electronic platforms, not
only to humiliate the victims but to blackmail them into being silent about the abuse that they
face at the hands of such perpetrators. She concludes that stalking facilitated by technology in
the area of domestic violence is a serious offence and that effective, policy, legal as well as
research responses need to be developed in order to put this menace to a complete end.
2.2. Women, Domestic Violence and the Family Legal System in Australia

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Roberts et al. (2014), argue that domestic violence is an all pervasive, social and
public health issue that has serious political, economic, legal, social, emotional and physical
ramifications. In the view of Roberts et al. (2014), the family court process plays a significant
role in addressing the problems faced by women victims of domestic violence. The authors
engage in an in depth study or a thematic analysis as it is commonly known, of the narratives
of fifteen women who left the abusive relationships that they were in and who engaged with
family court system in Australia to bring an end to the violent situation they were in.
2.3. Economic Abuse and Domestic Violence
Postmus et al. (2018), have pointed to a direct co relation between economic abuse
and domestic violence. They argue that economic abuse is nothing but an invisible
manifestation of domestic violence,, arguing that economic insecurity and situations of a
financial crisis are what play a crucial role in triggering situations of domestic violence in a
household set up. The authors engaged in an in depth review of global literature, namely 46
peer reviewed journal articles on the subject of economic abuse, to understand the term better
and discover how it related to and caused the problem of domestic violence worldwide.
2.4. Domestic Violence Screening in Family Clinics in NSW
Hunter et al. (2016), have engaged in a review of the implementation procedures
associated with domestic violence screening programs that are conducted at family clinics in
the Australian state of New South Wales. The medical records of a number of women
attending the clinic were studied and reviewed by the authors and it was found that a direct co
relation exists between sexual and reproductive health and the domestic violence experiences
of women. The authors conclude that the family planning centers in New South Wales need
to identify domestic violence among women attending such centers as early as possible and
undertaken interventionist measures to combat the problem.