RESEARCH REPORT “I just felt like I was running around in a circle”: Listening to the voices of victims and perpetrators to transform responses to intimate partner violence
In order to address the impacts of domestic and family violence, it is important to understand the journeys of help-seeking for both victims and survivors and those who use violence.
This second report from the ANROWS project “Transforming responses to intimate partner and sexual violence: Listening to the voices of victims, perpetrators and services” explores those help-seeking journeys. Crucially, it echoes a new focus from the recently published National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022–2032 on healing and recovery. Previous studies have focused on help-seeking in discrete contexts, for example emergency departments, primary healthcare providers and the court system. The methods of this study address this limitation and provide a broader view of the help-seeking journey.
The researchers used a mixed-methods approach, including national surveys and in-depth interviews. National surveys included 1,122 victims and survivors. To participate, women had to be over 16, speak English and have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) and/or sexual violence (SV) within an intimate partner relationship in the last five years. 563 people who have used IPV and/or SV participated: participants could self-identify as any sex and needed to have used IPV and/or SV against someone they had been in an intimate relationship with in the last five years. Researchers conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 30 victims and survivors and eight people who had used violence.
The findings from the research identified key points in the help-seeking journey, including that both victims and survivors and those who use violence seek help from friends and family before accessing professional services. The study calls for further education and training to build community capacity and equip friends and family with the resources to effectively respond and refer. The researchers also specifically recommend a focus on building community capacity to engage men.
Publication details
This work is part of the ANROWS research reports series. ANROWS research reports are in-depth reports on empirical research produced under ANROWS’s research program.
Authors
PROFESSOR KELSEY HEGARTY
University of Melbourne
DR MANDY MACKENZIE
University of Melbourne
DR ELIZABETH MCLINDON
University of Melbourne
MATT ADDISON
University of Melbourne
DR JODIE VALPIED
University of Melbourne
DR MOHAJER HAMEED
University of Melbourne
DR MINERVA KYEI-ONANJIRI
University of Melbourne
DR SURRIYA BALOCH
University of Melbourne
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR KRISTIN DIEMER
University of Melbourne
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR LAURA TARZIA
University of Melbourne
ISBN: 978-1-922645-59-3 (paperback) 978-1-922645-60-9 (PDF)
262 pp.
Suggested citation
Hegarty, K., McKenzie, M., McLindon, E., Addison, M., Valpied, J., Hameed, M., Kyei-Onanjiri, M., Baloch, S., Diemer, K., & Tarzia, L. (2022). “I just felt like I was running around in a circle”: Listening to the voices of victims and perpetrators to transform responses to intimate partner violence (Research report, 22/2022). ANROWS.