This book addresses the intersection of two current major concerns in
Australia: law and justice responses to domestic violence - including
harsher punitive measures - and the over-representation of Indigenous
Australians in the criminal justice system, which are similar concerns
in New Zealand, Canada and the US. Nancarrow re-conceptualises
typologies of violence and provides a means of understanding and
explaining female use of violence without undermining the hard-won gains
of the women's movement. It does, however, argue for a paradigm shift,
which has implications for every aspect of the system we have built to
stop men's violence against women (law, police policy and practice,
counselling and advocacy for victims, and interventions for those who
perpetrate violence). The book is based on quantitative and qualitative
research and explores the nature of Indigenous intimate partner violence
and the types of violence that domestic violence law sought to address.