ABSTRACT
The last four decades have seen considerable developments in our understanding of intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) between heterosexual couples, more typically described as domestic violence or violence against women. The prior focus on this configuration of partner violence, and specifically of men’s perpetration of violence against women, is not surprising given that attention was first drawn to it by feminist advocates who identified that a proportion of married women were seeking assistance to leave their husbands due to their experiences of violence and abuse (Bowen, 2011). This attention has led to considerable legislative and legal reform that has raised the profile of domestic violence as a serious social issue that demands effective responses. Feminist, ‘violence against women’ theorists proposed that male violence towards women was a systemic issue that was rooted within patriarchal social systems (e.g. Dobash & Dobash, 1979). Consequently, partner violence was characterised as a heterosexist problem (Russell, 2015). This characterisation has subsequently determined the focus that research, policy and practice has taken with regard to responding to the issue of partner violence (Brown, 2008).
