The project addresses a significant gap in an under-researched area of criminal justice policy on an emerging criminal justice and policy issue that is of growing importance both nationally and internationally. It will generate new knowledge on the current pathways to justice and safety for women experiencing coercive control within intimate relationships in the Australian context. It draws on the vital practice-based knowledge of support services workers regarding the challenges victims/survivors face in seeking help when experiencing technology-facilitated coercive control, including what resources they need to respond to the unique challenges created by this form of abuse.
Technology-facilitated coercive control (TFCC) is a term that has received increasing attention in recent years as a way to define when an abuser uses technology to exert and take control over another person. It often, although not exclusively, occurs in domestic and family violence (DFV) contexts between current or former intimate partners. Coercive control is not a new phenomenon, nor are technology-facilitated forms of coercive control. Instead, TFCC is a term that captures some of the patterns of controlling, monitoring, stalking and emotionally abusive behaviours in intimate partner DFV contexts, when technology is used to enable or facilitate that abuse. For example, through monitoring communications, geo-location tracking tools, controlling passwords and access to digital technologies.
Research suggests that perpetrators of DFV are increasingly making use of advancements in technologies to commit abuse, with higher rates of technology-facilitated abuse being experienced in intimate partner contexts (Flynn, Hindes & Powell 2022; Powell & Flynn 2023). Research has further found that rates of DFV, including TFCC, have increased during crises such as the Australian bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic (Boxall, Morgan & Brown 2021; Flynn, Powell & Hindes 2021; Morgan & Boxall 2020; Pfitzner, Fitz-Gibbon & True 2020). Recent quantitative surveys of Australian DFV and legal service providers have illustrated two critical criminal justice and policy concerns regarding TFCC (see Flynn, Powell & Hindes 2021; Woodlock et al. 2020a). First, technologies are an ever-present feature of contemporary DFV, which are constantly advancing in their capacity to cause harm. Second, many specialist DFV workers rate frontline responders, including police, courts and support services, as ill-equipped to respond to increasingly sophisticated forms of TFCC, leaving gaps in service provision for women. This study focuses on these gaps, providing the first national qualitative study to examine women’s pathways to safety and justice as they navigate the service system in response to their experiences of TFCC.
Aims
- Identify what pathways to justice and safety exist for women who experience TFCC at the hands of an abusive intimate partner.
- Document the pathways and navigation journeys of those using and providing support services and justice provisions.
- Identify barriers and gaps in response pathways towards justice and safety in cases of TFCC, including in the context of COVID-19.
- Develop recommendations to improve women’s journeys towards safety and justice.
