Final Evaluation Report

2.5 Priority 5 – Continuing to build the evidence base

A reliable national evidence base is required for the National Plan to successfully reduce domestic violence against women. Improving the evidence base will add to the shared knowledge of what policy and service interventions are effective in preventing and responding to violence against women and their children. Maintaining a national evidence base is also the only way to reliably measure the success of the National Plan against long-term targets: having communities free from violence; greater development of respectful relationships from a young age; strengthening Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; developing effective justice measures for perpetrators; and meeting the needs of victims of violence with appropriate services.

Priority 5 of the Second Action Plan aims to expand data collection on violence against women and their children. This is intended to provide policy makers and service providers with a better understanding of effective ways to prevent and respond to violence and sexual assault against women and their children. This is seen as helping policy makers and service providers better understand the extent of change in community attitudes around violence against women and their children.

The actions underpinning this priority include:

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  expand the quality and quantity of national research on violence against women and their children through the implementation of the National Research Agenda;
  
• 
  measure the prevalence of violence against women and their children and community attitudes towards violence through national surveys; and
  
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  build the National Data Collection and Reporting Framework.
  

Action 24

Expand the quality and quantity of national research on violence against women and their children through the implementation of the National Research Agenda.

86.Intention and government commitment

Action 24 intends to use the National Research Agenda to increase the quality and quantity of national research on violence against women and their children. It is further intended that a wealth of quality research would be translatable to policy and practice to reduce violence against women and their children.

The Australian Government committed $22 million to the ABS to conduct the PSS on a four-yearly basis over the duration of the National Plan. The survey seeks to obtain information from male and female victims of violence about the nature and extent of violence they had experienced since the age of 15.

87.Completeness of Action 24

Action 24 was achieved with a comprehensive list of research initiatives across a number of jurisdictions.

Both private and public institutions contributed to the evidence base including the Federal Senate leading an inquiry into family violence. Most of the research has been spearheaded by ANROWS which developed and implemented the National Research Agenda and identified a range of strategic research streams to fund. Currently, there are also specialised research bodies and programs in most jurisdictions to address family violence and therefore promote improvement in national research quality and quantity. Key activities under this Action are outlined below.

Australian Government

ANROWS developed and implemented the National Research Agenda on 16 May 2014, on behalf of the Australian Government and state and territory governments. The purpose of the National Research Agenda is to identify key areas and direction of research for a range of academics, governments and community bodies. The National Research Agenda has identified four Strategy Research Themes, which are based on identified research priorities and focus on best practice and diverse and under-researched populations. The Strategy Research Themes are:

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  experience and impacts;
  
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  gender inequality and primary prevention;
  
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  service responses and interventions; and
  
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  systems.
  

Please refer Section 4 of this report for more details about ANROWS.

Australian Capital Territory

Three significant reviews were undertaken in the ACT to improve the local evidence base. The Domestic Violence Service System Gap Analysis Project Final Report was released on 20 May 2016. The Review of Family Violence Deaths in the ACT by the Domestic Violence Prevention Council and the Report of the Inquiry: Review into the system level responses to family violence in the ACT by Mr Laurie Glanfield AM were also released on 20 May 2016.

These three reports contain common findings and recommendations, particularly the need to improve information sharing and the need to build a more integrated and collaborative response to family violence across the range of relevant service areas.

New South Wales Government

The NSW Government invested $620,000 to fund three major violence prevention studies aimed at strengthening the evidence base on preventing domestic and family violence.

Queensland Government

The Queensland Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence was commissioned on 10 September 2014 to examine existing domestic and family violence support systems. The Taskforce made 140 recommendations in its final report Not Now, Not Ever: Putting an End to Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland. The Queensland Government is committed to taking the necessary action to eliminate domestic and family violence, and has accepted 121 recommendations for Government and will support the remaining 19 recommendations for non-government bodies.

Tasmanian Government

The University of Tasmania School of Health Science and Social Sciences collaborated with the Salvation Army to undertake new research aimed at reducing the harmful impact of exposure to domestic violence on children.

As a member of ANROWS, the TAS Government is committed to establishing a strong evidence base to help guide national and local initiatives to reduce violence against women and their children. The TAS Government actively promotes ANROWS research opportunities through agency networks, the National Plan mailing list and Family Violence Consultative Group.

Victorian Government

The VIC Government launched a Royal Commission into Family Violence in Victoria, which examined current service system and best practice approaches to provide practical recommendations to prevent family violence. In March 2016, the Commission delivered 227 recommendations, directed at improving the foundations of the current system, seizing opportunities to transform the way that Victoria responds to family violence, and building the structures that will guide and oversee a long-term reform program for family violence.

The VIC Government also commissioned ANROWS to help develop the Victorian Family Violence Index. This will help set benchmarks for government and society to measure various aspects of family violence such as prevalence, impact, response and prevention.

88.Effectiveness of Action 24

Literature reviews and comparative research needs to be performed to determine whether the quality and quantity of national research on violence against women and their children has improved under the National Plan. The ANROWS evaluation report and Section 4, Evaluation of flagship programs, provides greater detail on this.

Survey respondents found that Action 24 was effective in helping to continue building the evidence base with 80 per cent of those surveyed reporting that the implementation of the National Research Agenda was somewhat effective, very effective or extremely effective.

“Research produced by ANROWS has been useful but translating findings into more accessible summaries (or other resources) would be useful.” – Survey respondent

Consistent with survey results, many government and non-government service providers in workshops acknowledged that ANROWS’ recent publications were useful and high quality. However, they believed that the publications were too broad and voluminous in content, which was challenging for policy makers to incorporate into services and for service providers to use as reference tools for targeted or specialised services. Government and non-government service providers generally agreed that the content of ANROWS publications need to be more succinct (for example one-page summaries). Some government service providers also felt that in comparison to Our Watch publications, ANROWS publications reflected limited practical engagement and limited understanding of the state of service delivery and issues.

A number of NGO service providers suggested that they should be publishing their own research, with ANROWS’ assistance to do so. NGOs collect a lot of primary data and it could be useful to publish the findings of experiences and evidence based research. This could be a solution to the significant difficulty NGOs have with accessing university databases for best-practice methodologies, ethics clearance processes and peer-reviewed articles.

“Research and practice must stay connected. Ask family violence service practitioners what should be researched in order to improve service provision.” – Survey respondent

“Broadening the focus on violence against women and their children, to cover the continuum of violence and the range of settings…Until women can be safe in all settings, from all forms of violence, we will not be able to address family violence and sexual assault, as different settings and forms of violence reinforce each other.” – Survey respondent

Service providers in general believed that ANROWS research should receive more funding, and should focus more on the following issues:

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  cross jurisdictional problems;
  
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  family courts (for example outcomes for women who have gone through the family courts);
  
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  families and translating the experience of domestic and family violence into parenting orders that are both appropriate and increase accountability – this needs to be considered in terms of effectiveness for the children involved as well as the victim;
  
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  parenting capacity and how teachings and experience for children lead to trauma and prevention or perpetration of violence;
  
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  effective programs and service delivery in rural and remote communities;
  
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  effective perpetrator targeted programs;
  
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  elderly, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people (particularly women) with a disability, CALD communities and youth leaders, migrant communities, women on temporary visas, International students;
  
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  trafficking, ‘revenge pornography’, sexual harassment and sexual objectification of women;
  
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  embedding early preventative education programs into the curriculum for primary and high schools; and
  
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  collaboration between service providers and the judiciary system.
  

Stakeholders indicated that there is a need for ANROWS research to be better utilised in the design of new services and programs. It was also suggested by stakeholders that case studies from ’the frontline’ could be used by ANROWS and the Australian Government to inform ‘best practice’ policy.

State Case Study – QLD Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research, QLD Since 2002, the primary purpose of the QLD Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research has been to create and distribute knowledge to influence policy and practice in the field of domestic and family violence prevention. The QLD Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research has been funded by the QLD Government as a resource for the domestic and family violence prevention sector, including those in direct service delivery and policy roles. In 2013, this role was extended to include sexual violence.

Action 25

Measure the prevalence of violence against women and their children and community attitudes towards violence through national surveys.

89.Intention and government commitment

The intention of Action 25 is to build an understanding of the magnitude of violence against women and their children and understand whether or not there has been a change in community attitudes towards violence.

The Australian Government funded the ABS to conduct the PSS every four years over the life of the National Plan, in 2012, 2016 and 2020.

The Australian Government also committed funding for VicHealth to conduct the NCAS regularly over the life of the National Plan.⁴²

90.

91.Completeness of Action 25

Action 25 was achieved with the NCAS which has provided insight into the changes in community attitudes since the last survey in 2009 and also the community’s understanding of gender roles.

92.Effectiveness of Action 25

Most survey respondents (80 per cent) reported that measuring the prevalence of violence against women and their children was a somewhat effective, very or extremely effective action towards continually building the evidence base. Similarly, most of the survey respondents (81 per cent) reported that measuring community attitudes towards violence through national surveys was a somewhat effective, very or extremely effective action towards continually building the evidence base. A more detailed assessment of the content of the NCAS is provided in Section 3 of the report.

“As violence against women remains hugely under reported, measuring the prevalence of violence against women and their children is very difficult.” – Survey respondent

“…very effective…Again, though, measuring the prevalence of violence against women can create too much of a focus on physical violence and sexual assault without looking at the broader pattern and impact of coercive control.” – Survey respondents

Action 26

Build the National Data Collection and Reporting Framework.

93.Intention and government commitment

Currently, policing, justice, corrections, health and community services across jurisdictions are siloed in their collection and reporting of administrative data. This is a problem because administrative data on domestic violence cannot be meaningfully compared to determine the most effective way of preventing violence against women and their children. Also, it prevents continuous and coordinated tracking of victimised women and their children across the system. Action 26 intended to solve these problems by making administrative data on domestic violence comparable across jurisdictions.

94.

95.

96.Completeness of Action 26

Action 26 was achieved following the development of the National Data Collection and Reporting Framework (DCRF). The DCRF lays the foundation for working across states and territories to build a coordinated and consolidated approach to data collection on women’s safety.

97.Effectiveness of Action 26

While the DCRF has informed a coordinated and consolidated approach to data collection on women’s safety, it will not be fully implemented until 2022. Until then, it is difficult to determine the impact or effectiveness of the DCRF. That aside, stakeholders were generally positive about the potential of the DCRF and consider the DCRF a major step forward. Survey results show that 67 per cent of survey respondents reported that building the DCRF was a somewhat, very or extremely effective action towards continuing to build the evidence base.

However, government service providers commented that the DCRF for Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence did not effectively capture Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations and needs more emphasis on children and CALD communities. Some government service providers are disappointed by the lack of structure in the DCRF. Many service providers believe that the data collection would benefit from having one custodian. There was also feedback around the lack of data availability and dissemination of research. Service providers generally agreed that having an operational DCRF by 2022 is a worthwhile objective but it is “a really big job” that requires the full 12 year lead up in order to properly develop and test data definitions as well as integrate the myriad of systems including court and police systems.

“I wasn't aware of the National Data Collection and Reporting Framework but will now try to find out more.” – Survey respondent

“There needs to be much better communication about the progress on building the national data collection and reporting framework” – Survey respondent