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A stand-alone strangulation offence was introduced in Queensland, Australia in 2016. One of the elements of the Queensland strangulation offence is that the victim did not consent to the strangulation. This paper reviews the harms and dangers associated with strangulation before overviewing the debates about the use of strangulation during sex. Drawing on focus group discussions conducted with domestic violence support workers and men's behaviour change workers, we discuss four overlapping themes identified in the discussions. These were perceptions that: strangulation during sex is normalised; consent is not informed; it happens in the context of coercive control; and the requirement of consent opens a loophole in the strangulation offence. Considering the issues raised, and the clear risks and harms, we suggest that consideration should be given to whether it is ever possible to consent to strangulation and we consider possible reforms such as following the two-tiered approaches to consent used in the England and Wales law and elsewhere in Australia. We also conclude that law reforms such as these are partial solutions and there is significant need for more community education about the risks and harms of strangulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been significant investment by police agencies in the use of body-worn cameras (BWCs). Preliminary evidence suggests that when used in the context of domestic and family violence, BWC footage may strengthen evidential cases and prosecutions. There is, however, a paucity of research examining the merits of and risks posed by the use of BWC footage in DFV incidents and legal proceedings. Notably absent in much of the literature are the views and experiences of police officers who, as initial owners of BWC footage, are likely to affect how it is produced and interpreted. This paper presents findings from the first Australian study to examine how police officers, as users and operators of BWC technology, perceive the use of BWC footage in DFV-related civil and criminal legal proceedings in two Australian state jurisdictions: Western Australia and Queensland. While broadly supportive of BWC technology, police respondents, especially those from specialised DFV units, identified various benefits and limitations to using BWC footage in the context of DFV, including that BWCs have the potential to capture DFV upon police call-outs, but can be limiting insofar as they do not show ongoing patterns of violence. Our findings highlight the importance of exercising domain-specific, rather than a 'one size fits all' approach when it comes to understanding the benefits and limitations of BWC technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines domestic violence. We present insights from a highly influential paper. Here are the highlights from this paper: How police respond to domestic and family violence (DFV) has important ramifications for the safety of women and their children. Despite recognition of the key role police play in responding to DFV and the importance of the perspectives of survivors in informing appropriate responses, there has been no recent exploration of survivors' experiences of the police response to DFV in Queensland. This article draws on interviews with women in Brisbane, Australia, who have experienced DFV and engaged in some way with the legal system. It explores women's reasons for calling, or not calling, the police and their experiences with police between 2014 and 2017. The article highlights the role of police culture in appropriately responding to DFV. It suggests that cultural change is needed and may be facilitated by ongoing training, addressing gender balance within the police service and introducing women-only police stations. For our overseas readers, we then present the insights from this paper in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous women are disproportionately affected by the prevalence and severity of domestic and family violence (DFV) perpetrated by men against women in Australia. The impact of their experiences is further exacerbated by the level of social and cultural marginalisation affecting Indigenous communities, families and individuals along with regional, rural or remote living. The pervasive, ongoing impact of colonisation, dispossession and transgenerational trauma continues to shape the experiences of Indigenous women and their communities, including their help‐seeking decisions and opportunities, and their level of trust in and access to adequate and culturally sensitive support services. In this paper, we explore the experiences of Indigenous women affected by DFV in two regional Australian settings through face‐to‐face interviews with women (n = 13) and community stakeholders (n = 18). The findings of this study highlight the complex role of social and cultural marginalisation, spiritual (dis)connectedness and role of family as both a stressor and a protective factor. Implications for policy and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic and family violence (DFV) is a serious, worldwide public health concern and the literature suggests that women who have experienced violence identify health care providers as the professionals they would most trust with disclosure of abuse. Social work is well positioned to respond to women presenting in hospitals after experiencing DFV and in advocating for systems and policy initiatives to support health staff in becoming adequately trained and supported to detect and respond appropriately. This paper reports on research that surveyed health staff in two hospitals in Queensland, Australia, to identify what DFV training they had received, whether this training increased their knowledge, skills and confidence to address DFV and what services they would access to support women presenting with DFV. The results showed that the respondents were an experienced staff group who had worked in the health sector for 10–20 years but despite having access to State-based training, the majority of them had not completed any in-house training and only 12% had received face-to-face training, and when they did undertake training, it was usually only a two-hour session. Seventy-five per cent of respondents would refer to their hospital-based social worker and 40% would make referrals to other support services, primarily social work. IMPLICATIONS Hospitals need to prioritise, commit to, and resource appropriate and regular training to better equip health staff to identify and respond to DFV. Training needs to build the knowledge and skills of staff members to address their confidence to intervene and offer support. Social work can provide an important role in advocating and developing training and procedures to sustain health staff members' capacity to respond appropriately to DFV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Professionals in many contexts confront situations where children have been harmed or are at risk of harm. These include health, mental health, disability, and education, as well as a complex array of child and family welfare services. This paper focuses on the perspectives of workers within four child and family welfare service types: statutory child protection, domestic violence, family support, and intensive family support. As part of a broader study on participatory decision-making, 21 practitioners from two sites in Queensland, Australia, discussed their assessment and proposed intervention in relation to a vignette description of a family situation involving chronic neglect, substance abuse and domestic violence. This discussion was conducted in the context of an in-depth interview with each practitioner. Practitioners from all service types identified this as a high-risk case, and generally nominated similar environmental, parent-related and child-related issues. Further, their proposed response comprised a constellation of actions incorporating assessment of harm to the children, engaging family support services, attending to the needs of parents, and building a relationship with the parents. This commonality is of particular interest, given the complexity of the child and family welfare sector and the different roles played by different organisations. Building on these findings, we consider implications for the development of sector-wide approaches to risk assessment and for training of child protection professionals across a range of agency types. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]