Sexual Violence Research Project

Kia ora, and welcome to the Sexual Violence Research Project.

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs, in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and the New Zealand Police, is undertaking a two-year research project into sexual violence against adults in New Zealand.

The research will identify:

• New Zealand’s sexual violence conviction rate
• the key points at which, and reasons why, different groups of victims opt in and out of the criminal justice system
• the basis for victims’ decisions about accessing non-criminal justice services such as counselling or other support
• the key points at which government and non-government intervention and support is most effective
• ways to improve the likelihood of victims making formal complaints, where appropriate, and persisting through the criminal justice process
• options to improve service delivery within the criminal justice system.

• young women
  
• New Zealand European
• Māori
• Pacific
• ethnic, migrant and refugee
• people with disabilities
• rural
• male
  
• others.

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Stakeholder engagement

From August to December 2007, the research unit was holding meetings and workshops with different groups to assist in scoping the project.

An introductory workshop with some of MWA’s key stakeholders was held on 23 August 2007 in Wellington. To read the report from this workshop, please click here for a PDF or HTML.

Furthermore, the following workshops took place from October to December 2007:

• People with disabilities, Wellington: 18 October 2007 (click here for the PDF or HTML report)
• Pacific Island stakeholders, Manukau City: 7 November 2007 (click here for the PDF or HTML report)
• Ethnic, Migrant & Refugee stakeholders, Auckland: 8 November 2007 (click here for the PDF or HTML report)
• Auckland Service Providers, Mt Eden: 9 November 2007 (click here for the PDF or HTML report)
• Ethnic, Migrant & Refugee stakeholders, Wellington: 26 November 2007 (click here for the PDF or the HTML report)
• Māori practitioners, Whangarei: 13 December 2007(click here for the PDF or the HTML)
• Māori practitioners, Hamilton: 14 December 2007 (click here for the PDF or the HTML)
• Interview with David Hillman and Maqueenie Tait (click here for the PDF or the HTML).

In anticipation of the need for collaboration between researchers for the sexual violence research project, MWA held a researcher forum for interested researchers at the Kingsgate Portland Hotel in Wellington on 1 February 2008. Those who were unable to attend the forum can access the MWA presentation by clicking here (PDF version) or here (html version).

Research work streams

The Ministry of Women's Affairs sexual violence research consists of the following four work streams:

1. an environmental scan of agencies and key informants that respond to victims/survivors, focusing on systemic, organisational and other contextual factors that influence systems and agency responses, including case studies in three socially and geographically diverse areas

2. a study of pathways from crisis to recovery, targeting individuals who have experienced sexual violence as adults and focusing on their experiences with a variety of support sources

3. a retrospective analysis of attrition and conviction rates, and factors associated with case outcomes, for specified sexual violation incidents recorded by Police between July 2005 and December 2007

4. a critical literature review outlining international and New Zealand perspectives on best practice in service delivery for victims, as well as challenges to implementing best practice in New Zealand.

The research unit

The two-person sexual violence research unit is led by Dr Denise Lievore. Before coming to MWA, Denise worked for the Crime and Justice Centre at Victoria University where she was a Senior Research Fellow working on a range of applied projects in the justice area, including some on family and domestic violence. Other experience includes field work in Kiribati and in the Cook Islands and three years at the Australian Institute of Criminology conducting research on criminal justice responses to adult sexual assault.

The second member of the team is Nicole Benkert who completed her Masters Degree in International Studies at Otago University. Nicole worked in the area of government advocacy at Amnesty International before joining MWA in August 2007.

Contact us

If you have any questions/comments on the research project, please contact the team at:

Denise Lievore

Research Manager

Phone: 04 916 5830

Fax: 04 916 1604

Nicole Benkert

Research Co-ordinator

Phone: 04 916 5841

Fax: 04 916 1604