Gendered violence is ‘one of the most significant issues to be addressed in our time’ (United Nations 2015). Yet, there are huge gaps in the knowledge base as around 75% of research on gendered violence focuses largely on the Global North (Arango, et al., 2014: 1). Framed by southern theory, this project addresses this knowledge gap by aiming to discover innovative approaches to policing gendered violence inspired by concepts, knowledge and practices based on new evidence collected from the Global South.
Despite decades of policing reform, Pacific Island women have continued to report lifetime prevalence rates of violence between 60 per cent and 80 per cent (UNICEF 2017). A new approach is needed to investigate solutions to this endemic and persistent problem. This project will be the first to investigate the potential for innovations including women’s police stations, women’s justice centres, multi-disciplinary centres, specialised police units, mobile units and transport patrols to reduce and prevent gender violence in culturally complex contexts in Pacific Island communities of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It will test the hypothesis that female police officers, situated as strangers within, are uniquely placed to respond more effectively to gender violence than male police officers in culturally complex contexts, where customary, state based, ethnic, faith-based and patriarchal powers intersect.
This project builds on the research developed by the ARC Discovery Project ‘Preventing Gender Violence: Lessons from the Global South‘.
Chief Investigators
Queensland University of Technology
University of Queensland
Partner Investigator
Funding / Grants
- Australian Research Council Discovery Project
