Improving Access to Justice for Women Who Kill Their Abusers: Practitioner Insights and Experiences

Over the past decade, Australia has made significant reforms aimed at improving legal understandings of intimate partner violence, women’s use of force and their access to self-defence. While some courts have recognised the cumulative effects of coercive control and social entrapment on women’s responses, significant problems remain that deny many women access to justice. This article presents findings from a Victorian pilot study involving interviews with lawyers and experts who work with victim-survivors in these cases. Results revealed that a number of interviewees had limited knowledge of the family violence legislation. While psych-based expertise was seen as helpful, this tended to be in limited ways. Interviewees emphasised both the challenges accessing, and limited authority afforded, family violence experts/expertise by the courts. We conclude with recommendations for building the workforce and capacity of experts to work in this area and targeted training to skill up practitioners to more effectively utilise the family violence evidence provisions throughout the whole court process.