Hey guys!
Last week the Victorian Government announced $20 million in funding for support services that target those who perpetrate family violence and "to keep perpetrators in full sight."
The Minister for Prevention of Family Violence Gabrielle Williams stated at the press conference:
"This investment will essentially get more perpetrators of family violence into alternative accommodation which … supports victim survivors of family violence to be able to remain safely in their own homes."
While the response to family violence has gone a considerable way towards removing the burden from victim-survivors and placing it on the system, this ‘system’ had not yet developed to the point of being fully effective, with its blunt response sometimes entrenching perpetrator narratives of victimisation instead.
This raises the question of what ‘perpetrator accountability’ is understood to mean. Does ‘accountability’ create the expectation that perpetrators ‘take responsibility’ for their behaviour or does ‘accountability’ simply refer to the consequence imposed through the use of legal and regulatory power by the family violence ‘system’.
The ANROWS report, ‘Improved accountability: The role of perpetrator intervention systems’, to which the CIJ made a major contribution is linked in the newsletter below. The report explores the question of what ‘perpetrator accountability’ means within the family violence system and what it might look like if all family violence services operated as coordinated perpetrator intervention systems, working together to prevent and respond to harm.
The family violence ‘system’ needs to become more effective and coordinated to ensure that its responses are more meaningful and that perpetrators of family violence are kept in view in an ongoing way.
Until next time!
Family Violence in the News
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