Living at the Cutting Edge: Women's Experiences of Protection Orders

27 August 2007

Information on accessing the report
The Government's response to the report's recommendations
Links to information on protection orders, including how to apply

This report by the University of Waikato was commissioned by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

At the heart of the report are 43 case studies of a diverse group of women who have experienced domestic violence, their experiences of seeking or not seeking protection orders, their experiences of breaches and enforcement of their order, what helped and what hindered them in their challenge to achieve safety and live free from violence. The case studies are based on interviews with the women, and supplemented where possible with documentation such as affidavits and interviews with case study informants such as the women’s lawyers.

The report also includes key informant discussions which were conducted throughout the country. Interviewees included women’s refuge advocates, police officers, lawyers, social workers and so forth. The authors also undertook a literature review of international and local research on women’s experiences of male partner violence and on women’s interactions with various agencies that comprise the justice system. This included an analysis of decided family law cases and also existing statistical data.

The report contains more than 40 recommendations on ways to improve the effectiveness of protection orders.  The government has referred the report to the Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families and will ask the Taskforce to consider and report on the recommendations within three months.

The full report is available at http://research.waikato.ac.nz/CuttingEdge/. Note that the report is only available in PDF at that site (though the Executive Summary and Recommendations are available in HTML). As the report is over 500 pages long, the files are large and may take some time to download.

For the government’s response to the report recommendations see:

• Minister of Women's Affairs Media Release 
  
• Table of initial responses to recommendations PDF
• Taskforce Media Release PDF
  
• Family Violence Addendum PDF
  

For other information on protection orders see:

• New Zealand Police - 'How to' information
• Ministry of Health -  Family Violence Information
• Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families