Our focus
The UTS Research Community on Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence is designing effective prevention strategies, enhancing responses to victimisation and perpetration, improving service delivery, and informing policy development.
Building on decades of combined knowledge, our current research is incredibly diverse and includes interdisciplinary expertise in business, law, health, architecture, design, communications and engineering.
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Designing effective domestic, family, and sexual violence prevention strategies
Researchers in transdisciplinary, design and health faculties bring together expertise from across the university to develop evidence-based approaches that inform policy, practice, education, community-led prevention initiatives. Researchers in the school of architecture and built environment lead trauma-informed design and housing equity design research projects.
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Enhancing responses to victimisation and perpetration
Academics in the disciplines of finance and economics have examined victims’ experiences of intimate partner financial abuse and explored effective ways to both detect and prevent financial abuse.
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Improving service delivery
Working with Mudgin-Gal Aboriginal Women’s Corporation in Redfern on a community-led co-designed research project, our community explored urban Aboriginal women’s experiences of the domestic, family, and sexual violence service delivery system. Other research is focused on improving the design of women’s refuges, as well as preventing burnout and turnover in the specialist workforce by designing better workspaces and protocols.
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Informing policy development
Our research on effectively engaging people in policy development who have lived experience of domestic violence received commendation in the NSW Parliament Legislative Council. In other policy research, our researchers in the management discipline are exploring how organisations are implementing statutory family and domestic violence leave entitlements, and those at the UTS Business School are quantifying how domestic violence affects education and employment outcomes.
Our impact
The Research Community builds on the extensive research and relationships built by UTS researchers over the past decade. Our research is delivering genuine impact for communities across Australia.
Some of our achievements include:
- Research in The Choice report on the high rates of domestic violence amongst women who have become single mothers influenced government to make changes to the payment system to enable people to remain on the parenting payment until their youngest child reaches age 14.
- As a result of our design guide for 75 new women’s refuges, we have been consulted by many architectural firms wanting advice on how they can better address the needs of people with DFV experiences.
- We have evaluated pilots for Legal Aid NSW, demonstrating the need for ongoing court support for women victims whose matters have gone to a full hearing.
- Our ongoing relationships with Indigenous groups and workers in the sector mean that our latest research is being applied quickly where it is needed.
And our expertise is often called upon by mainstream media to inform the public on the latest accurate information and research about DFV, particularly in regards to current issues such as financial and tech-facilitated abuse.