Spatial Diversity and Injustice: Intimate Partner Violence Beyond the Cityscape

• In Event: Global Perspectives on Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Traditionally, intimate partner violence has been characterised in terms of place; in the ‘private’ and ‘domestic’ sphere. Yet while scholarship recognises that women’s risk of violence is socially situated and contextualised in regards to private/public discourse, there has been little investigation in regards to space; that is comparing violence in regional and rural as opposed to urban settings. The geographic and ideological features of non-urban locations result in unique experiences and outcomes for, and responses to victim/survivors. It is imperative that both spatial diversity and spatial inequality across geographical locations are recognised: the discrepancies in justice system resources and services exacerbate barriers that victim/survivors encounter beyond the cityscape. Technology offers spaceless avenues to overcome such challenges as well as distance and isolation, providing mechanisms to connect with formal and informal supports. However it also offers opportunities for perpetrators to abuse and stalk their victims, which pose greater consequences and dangers in non-urban zones. Drawing on interviews with victim/survivors and government and non-government agencies in Australia, and with an American comparison, this paper advocates for the importance of adopting a spatial lens to investigate intimate partner violence, and access to justice and security.

Author

• Bridget Harris, University of New England