Our research

Awareness and understanding of family violence has increased substantially in recent years. Research into areas of family violence that have historically been pushed to the margins, such as perpetrator interventions, has also expanded significantly. Much of the research into perpetrator programs has focused on theoretical frameworks, program design and evaluation of program effectiveness. What is missing, however, is a detailed exploration of the engagement techniques that practitioners employ, and intake and assessment practices more broadly. The research undertaken through this Practice Inquiry attends to this knowledge gap.

Read the Findings at a Glance → Start of change: Mapping engagement with male perpetrators of violence — Findings at a Glance

Read the report → Start of change: Mapping engagement with male perpetrators of violence — Practice Inquiry 2018

The "Putting Women at the Centre: A Policy Forum" was held in Melbourne on 16 August 2016. Presented by the Women’s Policy Action Tank, the forum brought together policy makers, advocates, practitioners and researchers from multiple sectors to cast a gender lens over policy design and implementation. Panels explored themes of rights, justice, distribution and economic security as they manifest for women.

2016 Women’s Policy Action Tank’s Putting Women at the Centre: A Policy Forum -  Evaluation Report

We are participants in three major studies conducted by the Law School of the University of Melbourne. One is surveying Australia’s bankruptcy laws and analysing their effectiveness in responding to financial crises. The second is exploring experiences of financial hardship. The third is a study of harmful financial products. The WRAP Centre is able to provide expertise on economic abuse and other gendered financial experiences as well as support the research through access to financial counsellors.

This report is based on a review of recent literature and policy relating to the middle years cohort (which, in this report, is defined as spanning a period from eight to 12 years of age). Based on this evidence, the report has developed a set of key findings about the middle years.

Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, with the support of the Con Irwin sub-fund of the Victorian Women’s Trust, reviewed literature about economic security and domestic and family violence and conducted a review in order to develop a definition of economic security that reflected its individual and structural elements. From there, a range of potential indicators with which to measure the economic security for survivors were scoped. A measurement tool was also piloted with the support of the Australia Institute.

Read Economic Security for Survivors of Domestic and Family Violence: Understanding and Measuring the Impact

Based on 25 case studies of family violence survivors, this research has been welcomed as a significant contribution to our knowledge of economic abuse, which is the least understood type of family violence. This report proposes a number of strategies which services, corporations and government can adopt to prevent, interrupt, and assist recovery from economic abuse. This action research report was a joint project with Western Community Legal Centre (formerly Wyndham Legal Service).

Read Restoring Financial Safety: Legal Responses to Economic Abuse

This action research project takes a fresh approach to parent engagement in children’s learning in a school where parental participation in school activities has been low. It places parents at the centre of the process, listening to their voice, viewpoint and vision. It discovers that with the simple, cost-effective and skilful process documented in the report, parents can turn disengagement into both personal agency and collective advocacy on behalf of their children.

Read Uplift: An Empowerment Approach to Parent Engagement in Schools

Forced marriage is an emerging issue in Australia. To date, the key response to forced marriage in this country has been a legal one and very little research has been conducted. The report presents the findings of a literature review and analyses the data gathered in a forum of experts. It contains a number of powerful case studies illustrating the diversity and complexity of forced marriage in Australia, and suggests ways to prevent and address it through public education, service responses and further research.

Read:

The Right to Refuse: Examining Forced Marriage in Australia

Right to Refuse: fact sheet

This groundbreaking research report reveals that, just like other forms of family violence, economic abuse can have devastating and long term impacts for women and children. Recommendations to come out of the project include a public education campaign to tackle commonly held views that men should be in charge of family finances, that women lack financial nous, and that economic issues within relationships and society should remain secretive. The research reveals that since power, control and coercion are at the heart of economic abuse, it is crucial to give women the capacity to resist their partners' attempts to control their finances.

Economic Abuse: Searching for Solutions. A Spotlight on Economic Abuse Research Project

This research report found that people on the poverty line are good money managers but must constantly juggle finances to make ends meet. People interviewed for the research reported that getting a small loan gave them the confidence and breathing space to embark on a course of education, training and employment or simply look after the needs of their family. Microfinance therefore functions as an important stepping stone in people overcoming financial hardship. But it is most effective as one element of a multi-dimensional response to poverty and financial inequality.

Microfinance and the Household Economy