A Critical Frame Analysis of Victoria's Royal Commission Into Family
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A critical frame analysis of Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence Sophie Yates A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Social Sciences Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences November 2018 Thesis/Dissertation Sheet Surname/Family Name : Yates Given Name/s : Sophie Abbreviation for degree as given in the University calendar : PhD Faculty : Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences School : School of Social Sciences Thesis Title : A critical frame analysis of Victoria’s Royal Commission into Family Violence Abstract 350 words maximum: (PLEASE TYPE) The 2015-16 Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence was an important site for contestation over the framing of domestic and family violence (DFV). It had a powerful effect on DFV policy in Victoria; the Government accepted all 227 recommendations and has committed significant funding to implementing them. In this thesis, I employ a feminist interpretive approach, drawing on critical frame analysis to uncover the role of gender in problem framing at the Commission. In the context of fierce public and scholarly debate about the problem definition and appropriate policy prescriptions, my research considers: how did key policy actors frame the problem of DFV in their contributions to the Commission? How did the Commission frame the problem in its report and recommendations? What understanding of gender seemed to predominate? I focus on ‘key themes’ of alcohol and other drugs, mental illness, children, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, as they concern individual risk factors or particular population groups. These themes raise intersectional concerns and complicate a traditional gender power analysis of DFV. My findings indicate that the Commission and most contributors to it framed DFV as largely a problem of male perpetrators and female victims. However, structural gender inequality framing was rare in my dataset. Further, an awareness of gender asymmetry in perpetration often occurred as part of a women-centred problem framing that did not explicitly interrogate the gendered conditions underlying DFV. I suggest that an understanding of gender as process rather than just as category could be more useful in a ‘family violence’ policy environment where the problem diagnosis includes violence between all family members. This is firstly because gender as process retains a gendered analysis without only signifying men and women and the power imbalances between them, and secondly because intersectionality, which is crucial to a rich understanding of the way that multiple inequalities affect the perpetration and experience of violence, requires a structural rather than a categorical understanding of gender. I conclude with a visual model of an intersectional approach to gender, power and family violence. 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Name Signature Date (dd/mm/yy) i Acknowledgements To my supervisors Professor Louise Chappell and Associate Professor Jan Breckenridge: I very much benefited from your intellectual rigour and deep knowledge of your fields, and your ability to both praise and push were crucial in keeping me on track during the doctoral process. It was so important for me to have two such committed yet critical feminists guide me through this work. To Professor John Alford, my ‘boss’ for a decade, my colleague, mentor and co- author: more than anyone else, you made it possible for me to be where I am today. I dedicate this thesis to you. To my employer the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, and Deans Gary Banks and Ken Smith, Deputy Dean Catherine Althaus, and General Manager Glenn Campbell: no staff member could have asked for better professional development than you have allowed me. I am very grateful for your flexible and unfailing support. To the 20 busy professionals who gave their time to talk to me about the Royal Commission into Family Violence: your insights and knowledge were invaluable, and the generosity of people like you is what enables the progress and development of social science research. To the many scholars who have been kind to me or given useful advice along the way, including but not limited to Gemma Carey, Fiona Buick, Ellie Malbon, Helen Dickinson, Lisa Carson, Natalie Galea, Helen Berents, my external panellist kylie valentine, and especially Angel Woman Janine O’Flynn: you proved that the ‘circle of niceness’ is real and powerful. To my dear friends Aris, Whim, Liz, Martin, Clare, Kat, Tom, and Treens: thank you for giving support and advice when I needed it, and contriving to check on how I was doing without asking the dreaded question “how’s the thesis going?” To my feminist mother Lynda Yates, who gave me her name, and my feminist father Dai Harris, who didn’t give me his: you set the standard for the way things should and can be, and showed up the inequality elsewhere by contrast. 1 To James, my dream feminist partner: I can’t believe how lucky I am to have you. Thank you for the tea, coffee, cleaning, pep talks, hugs, proofreading, word slaying, formatting, reference checking and the general unfaltering rock-like character of your belief and support through this and all of life’s other trials.