No abstract

The misidentification of women as predominant aggressors has emerged as a topical issue in family violence research, with feminist scholarship suggesting that such trends may be attributed to a range of factors, including incident-based policing and a misunderstanding of the ways in which women use violence against their partners. Where existing research has primarily focused on policing practices in relation to misidentification, this article explores the impacts of misidentification on the lives of women victim–survivors of family violence in Victoria (Australia), a jurisdiction that has recently seen significant reforms to family violence systems in the wake of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence (2016). Using data from interviews with 32 system stakeholders and survey responses from 11 women who have experienced misidentification in Victoria, this study explores misidentification within the family violence intervention order system. It demonstrates that being misidentified as a predominant aggressor on a family violence intervention order can have a significant impact on women’s lives and their access to safety, highlighting the need for improved policing and court responses to the issue beyond existing reforms.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) on average affects one in four women, with the majority of victim survivors identifying as mothers in national survey data. Children experiencing parental IPV are now equally understood as victims. Extensive research documents the short‐ and long‐term impacts of children's experiences of IPV on their safety and wellbeing. More recently, research has started to examine adolescent children's use of violence in the home as adolescent family violence (AFV). Contributing to this emerging body of research, we draw on narrative interview data from mothers who participated in a larger study on IPV, help‐seeking and the perceived impact on children to better understand how mothers make sense of children's use of violence in the home. Mothers identified an emergence of AFV in male children with childhood experiences of adult IPV. Although mothers' experiences of adult and adolescent violence highlight their dual victimisation, mothers frame their abusive children as victims rather than perpetrators. Implications for future research, policy and trauma‐informed practice are discussed.

Crime and deviance can have a significant and long-lasting effect on victims. While the literature on victim impact from traditional types of crime like robbery or assault is well established, much smaller scholarship examines the impact of online forms of deviance with only a handful of studies focusing on the experiences of adult victims. The current paper analyses the data from a sample of the U.S. adults (N= 746) using mixed methods to examine the perceived impact from different types of cyber abuse. A thematic analysis of open-ended responses identified five main types of victim impact: psychological, emotional, social, financial and positive. We also found that females, victims, who were abused by someone they knew, and who experienced multiple methods of abuse tended to experience higher impact. Besides, some methods of abuse appeared to affect victims more than others. Findings from this study contribute to our understanding of cyber abuse as a type of deviant behavior and help inform policy responses to the needs of cyber abuse victims.