Gender and Crime Policy Analysis: Issues and Intervention Plans

This report delves into the intricate relationship between gender and crime, particularly focusing on family and domestic violence issues. It analyzes the impact of these issues, especially on vulnerable groups like women with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness, and examines intervention plans developed by the New South Wales (NSW) government. The report highlights strategies such as the 'It Stops Here' framework, the NSW Domestic Violence Justice Strategy, and the NSW Homelessness Action Plan. It also explores FACS housing responses, including Rent Choice Start Safety, SHLV programs, and various housing assistance initiatives like temporary and crisis accommodation, and social housing tenancies. Furthermore, the report considers the application of intersectionality and feminist critical theory to understand and address the complexities of gender-based violence, referencing key concepts and the work of feminist scholars. The report concludes by emphasizing the comprehensive approach of FACS and NSW in providing housing and support services to victims, aiming to improve their well-being and ensure access to essential resources.

Gender And Crime Policy
Analysis

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Overview................................................................................................................................1
Issues and Intervention Plans.................................................................................................2
FACS housing responses to family violence..........................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The relationship between Gender and crime are persistent. Gender is recognized one of
the most important factors that plays an important role in solving problems within criminal
justice system. This report is going to show issues related to domestic and family violence which
create several problems in human life Buzawa Eve S, Buzawa, Carl. G & Stark Evan.
(2011). This is based on New South Wales department of family and community service that
was responsible for the delivery of those services that provides relief to the most disadvantaged
families in the state. For solving all these problems it will also show about different intervention
plans according to the violence. The department of family and community service identifies that
family as well as domestic violence has very significant impact on families and its member. For
improving the condition of families, this department is working for minimizing negative effects
of family violence by having access to affordable housing.
Overview
A family relationship refers a bond and people who are connected with each other
through marriage, blood and fostering relationship. Domestic or family violence includes that
behaviour which is violent, unbearable, threatening that lead a person to live in fear. This family
violence is becoming more serous between intimate relationship. Policy related to family
violence provides an outline of characteristics by children as well as women in the society. There
are several reasons of become violent and the main reason is women with disability. There is a
combination of dis ability and gender Fitz-Gibbon Kate & Walklate Sandra. (2018).
Relationship between gender and crime is persistent as men are more likely to commit crimes as
compare to women. For this type of violence, women with disability and domestic and family
violence policy plan can be used. So, it can be said that different types of family violence fave
different policies by which domestic and family violence can be minimized. There are list of
some behaviours that shows family violence: Sexual abuse, emotional abuse that involves threats
of violence, physical abuse, stalking, harassment, lack of financial support to women, damage to
property of the person who owns the property etc.

Issues and Intervention Plans
In the context of impacts and issues it can be said that Family and domestic violence
cause of homelessness in Australia. For more supporting this statements it is also stated that
approximate 37% people said that the main reason of family violence occur when they seek
assistance from specialists homelessness services in New South Wales. This homelessness create
many other problems like lack of finance or financial stability that also affects their active
participation in employment. People who suffer from homelessness, they become depress
mentally and physically Gartner Rosemary, McCarthy Bill & Valverde Mariana.
(2014).
Family and domestic violence is the main problem and issues that can have serious
negative impacts on young people and children as well. It is stated that children and young
people get affected from family violence, and they become victim of mental depression. It
impacts on their career which can even destroy their career and future sometimes. In the context
of women with disability it can be said that this type of family violence occur due to
dependency, misdiagnosis, social myths etc. There are several governments as well as non-
government agencies that take a responsibility for protecting young people and children from
these risks Gender and Criminal Justice Workers. Marisa Silvestri & Chris
Crowther-Dowey. (2008).
There are several intervention plans are being developed by NSW government in order to
prevent the lives of people who are suffering from domestic violence. Some strategies are
defined as below:
Family and domestic violence framework for reform; it stops here: This framework
involves all those services and support that are required by domestic violence victims. This
approach is made up of other five strategies which plays 5 roles such as safety recovery,
accessible, flexible, prevention and early intervention and provide pathways to secure victims.
By providing opportunity to making effective use of resources to skilled workforce, it
strengthens criminal justice system more responsible. It does not only provide primary
intervention but also give early and crisis intervention Gender Patterns to Crime and
Victimisation. Pamela Davies. (2019). Primary intervention is being provided before

occurrence of violence. Early intervention means to give protection at early signs of violence and
crisis intervention means providing protecting services after violence has occurred.
NSW Domestic violence justice strategy: This framework describes all those
approaches that will be adopted by NSW in order to give quick criminal justice system responses
to family violence. The main aim of developing this strategy is to make responsible to criminal
justice system to provide every type of needs that victims of domestic violence seek and to also
stop violence from occurring Harrisson, Georgina Jane, (Mrs James Fern) (2009).
NSW homelessness action plan: This is other main strategy by NSW for those people
who are experiencing family and domestic violence. The main aim of developing this action plan
is to give them long term accommodation in order to make them feel happy. Family violence
create several issues like homelessness, isolating women from the family Identifying and
experiencing domestic violence and abuse. Jodie Valpied & Kelsey Hegarty
(2015). Threatening of physical harm, choking, verbal abuse, hitting are some types of
domestic violence that generally happened with disabled women. It gives improved services to
homelessness service sector and put people at centre.
Keep them safe: It is a shared approach of NSW for child well-being. It has 5 year action
plan which mainly focuses on reforming child protection and improve children conditions who
suffer from domestic violence. Protecting young people and children from becoming victim of
domestic violence, mental and physical depression is the main aim of this approach Marion,
(2011).
Rather than all these plans and interventions it is stated that interactional theory or
feminist critical theory can also help out to solve family violence problem. This theory provides
people with the mindset as well as language in order to examine interdependencies between
social system and categories. On the basis of race, it is stated that black women become victims
of abuse and violence. Some feminist scholars like Audre Lorde, Claudia Rankine identified
some reasons that why female people and black women are more likely to be abused. The main
purpose was to find better solution to protect them against discrimination. Intersectionality
concept tries to look at the intersections between group of oppressed people Goyette, Martin,
(2019).

With the help of this theory and framework, people can recognize differences, avoid
oversimplified languages, seek other point of view. It changes the way of thinking in social work
by providing an analytical tool. This tool has the ability to capture dynamic power relations in an
effective way.
So, it can be said that there are several preventive plans, theories and policies that are
being developed by NSW department for preventing victims of family violence.
FACS housing responses to family violence
There are some initiatives and FACS housing responses to domestic and family violence
for assisting in the prevention of family violence. As it is already stated that domestic violence
are having very serious and negative impacts on social, physical and psychological well-being of
children and women Campo, Monica. and Tayton, Sarah, (2015). It is the main and
leading cause of homelessness as victims of domestic violence often think and have feeling
abusive situation that nowhere to go. Due to shame and domestic violence they do no rely on
their relatives or social networks.
Rent choice start safety: South Australian government is continuously trying a new
approach and has taken initiative for preventing victims of family and domestic violence. By
providing housing to victims, they are supporting them with the main aim of staying safely in the
family home. Rent choice start safety is other and main initiative by FACS, which provides
short to medium term financial help to victims of family violence and also secure rental
accommodation Adam, Barry, (2019). This opportunity and service help victims as they can
easily stay there and do not have to return to violent situation. For getting this type of service
there is a requirement of clients eligibility. It is reported that Australian Government has already
allocated approximate A$4 million for shelter accommodation for children and women victims.
It is called the best responding approach to family violence.
SHLV (staying home, leaving violence): It is an important family and domestic
program whose main aim is to provide housing stability and prevent homelessness to victims.
FACS also plays a significant role in this program as it is a partner in SHLV. This program and
services are available in different location across NSW. Target group for this services includes
women aged over 18 years who want to separate or have separated from their violent partner and

want to live peaceful life in another home. Workers have seen changes in local victims of family
violence Stewart, Kiersten. (2019). It is said that, domestic violence does not only affect
women and children of that family but also a whole society and community. So, by providing
this facility to victim women and children, FACS is solving problems of whole community. They
provide all services to victims along with housing like upgraded security, security equipment,
court support etc.
Housing assistance: FACS is providing housing assistance services and products also
through housing pathways to victims of family violence who are eligible. Some housing
assistance includes:
Temporary accommodation: FACS housing and housing providers are providing
temporary accommodation services like approximate for 28 fays in 1 year in low cost hotels. It is
for those who are homeless, victims of family violence or to those who are suffering from
housing crisis Thiara Ravi, Gill Hague, Bashall, Ruth & Harwin, N. (2012)
Crisis accommodation: FACS housing funds the transitional housing for those people
who are victim of family violence or for those who are at risk of homelessness. This type of
housing and services are being managed by registered community housing providers. Some of
those housing providers provide, specialists homelessness services Buzawa Eve S, Buzawa,
Carl. G & Stark Evan. (2011) Crisis accommodation, women's refuges and transitional
accommodation are some examples of this services. It is stated that NSW government has funded
approximately 82 women's refuges in which 65 are governmental owned properties and 17 are
non-governmental owned.
Social housing tenancies: Social housing providers provide housing facilities or
affordable housing to those who have housing needs. The main characteristics of this services is
these are being provided on low to moderate prices and income. These housing properties are
being managed by FACS housing. It is not possible for housing providers to give services to all
applicants, so they verify application forms and make sure that they have urgent housing
requirement. If applicants are not able to resolve housing problems for themselves then service
providers prioritize them and give facilities to them.
Housing with support: For more supporting family violence victims, social housing
providers have joined partnership. In this partnership all members try to provide complex needs

in order to sustain their likelihood 6 Lessons Learned in Evaluating Domestic
Violence and Sexual Assault Services. Stephanie Riger & et.al., (2002).
There are several private sector rental market that also provide these type of housing
facilities on rent to low income households. So, it can be said that there are several intervention
plan and policies which are being given and developed by FACS and NSW.
Responding to clients affected by family violence: Social housing providers and FACS
do not only give housing facilities but also try to respond and solve their problems as soon as
possible. They respect all clients' right in order to make it lawful. They also consider well-being
of victims at the time of assessing requests for assistance. Provide complete as well as reliable
informations to clients related to their issues. If they can not provide services then they refer their
clients to appropriate service providers agencies. In addition, they tell them about ways of
accessing housing assistance Dragiewicz Molly & Burgess Jean. (2016) There are
several people who do not have proper knowledge that how to access housing assistance and
where to go for that. So, they give them accurate and detailed information that from where they
can take counselling, accommodation services etc.
So, it can be said that in the context of crime policy analysis that New South Wales
department of family and community service (FACS) deliver relevant services to victims of
domestic and family violence Responding to clients affected by family violence,
(2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above it has been summarized that family and domestic violence is a critical
problem that has several negative impacts on families. New South department of family and
community service (FACS) has developed some intervention plans and policies in order to
minimize all these type of violence and providing housing to victims of violence. It has also
shown several frameworks of NSW such as homelessness action plan, framework for reform,
justice strategy and safer strategy for preventing people who are suffering from domestic
violence. All these strategies brought several positive changes and has prevented many of
families from violence. Further this report has shown FACS responses to family violence like
staying home, leaving violence, temporary accommodation, housing with support etc.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
6 Lessons Learned in Evaluating Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Services. Stephanie Riger & et.al., (2002). Evaluating Services for
Survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. 84-102.
Buzawa Eve S, Buzawa, Carl. G & Stark Evan. (2011). Responding to
Domestic Violence: The Integration of Criminal Justice and Human
Services. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Dragiewicz Molly & Burgess Jean. (2016). Domestic violence on# qanda: The
“Man” question in live Twitter discussion on the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation's Q&A. Canadian journal of women and the
law. 28(1). 211-229.
Fitz-Gibbon Kate & Walklate Sandra. (2018). Gender, Law and Criminal
Justice Policy. Gender. Crime and Criminal Justice, 175-199.
Gartner Rosemary, McCarthy Bill & Valverde Mariana. (2014). The Legal
Regulation of Sex and Sexuality. The Oxford Handbook of Gender,
Sex, and Crime.
Gender and Criminal Justice Workers. Marisa Silvestri & Chris Crowther-
Dowey. (2008). Gender & Crime Gender & crime. 137-162.
Gender Patterns to Crime and Victimization. Pamela Davies. (2019). Gender,
Crime and victimization Gender, crime and victimization, 17-35.
Harrisson, Georgina Jane, (Mrs James Fern), (born 17 Jan. 1978), Deputy
Secretary, Department of Family and Community Services, New South
Wales, since 2014. (2009). Who's Who.
Identifying and experiencing domestic violence and abuse. Jodie Valpied &
Kelsey Hegarty (2015). Domestic violence and sexuality, 89-120.
Goyette, Martin, (2019). Leaving Care and the Transition to Adulthood.
Leaving Care and the Transition to Adulthood: International
Contributions to Theory, Research, and Practice, p.329.

Campo, Monica. and Tayton, Sarah, 2015. Domestic and family violence in
regional, rural and remote communities. Melbourne, Australia:
Australian Institute of Family Studies.
Adam, Barry, (2019). Political economy, sexuality, and intimacy. In The
Oxford Handbook of Global LGBT and Sexual Diversity Politics.
Stewart, Kiersten. (2019). Violence Against Women Act. Encyclopedia of
Interpersonal Violence.
Thiara Ravi, Gill Hague, Bashall, Ruth & Harwin, N. (2012). Disabled Women
and Domestic Violence: Responding to the Experiences of Survivors.
London, England: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Online
Responding to clients affected by family violence. 2019. [Online]. Available
through: <http://www.legalaid.qld.gov.au/About-us/Policies-and-
procedures/Best-practice-guidelines/Working-with-clients-who-have-
been-affected-by-domestic-violence>