Re-Imagining the Policing of Gender Violence: Lessons from the Global South

The global organisation of knowledgeprivileges research about crime, lawand policingwith a selective focus on the metropolis of the Global North.Framedby southernperspectives in criminology our research reversed the notion thatnovel ideas or practices could only emanate from the ‘developed’ anglophonecountries of the global north. Instead,we looked to Latin America forinspiration to reimagine the policing of gender violence in the 21stcentury from the victim-centred women-led police stations that emergedin Latin America in the 1980s. These stations employ multi-disciplinary teams of police, social workers, counsellors and lawyers offer victims/survivors a gateway to a range of supports instead of just funnelling them into the criminal justice system.In the process, victims/survivors retain their autonomy from the state, side-stepping some of the serious unintended consequences of the criminalisation of domestic violence, such as the misidentification of victims as perpetrators, siding with perpetrators or not believing victims. As a by-product police who work in these specialised stations in Latin America have access to careers in a predominantly women-ledpolicing hierarchy that challenges the masculinist culture of front-line policing, at its institutional roots. Our research team then conducted surveys in Australia and Canada to assess what aspects of these specialised police stations had prospects for police reform elsewhere in the world.This presentation discusses the results of this internationally comparative research.

The presentation will last 40 minutes and will be followed by a 20-30-minute audience-led Q&A

Special acknowledgements are given to the following team members:Prof Maximo Sozzo, Universidad Nacional deLitoral, Argentina, Prof Myrna Dawson, University of Guelph, Canada, Vanessa Ryan and Maria Puyol, research assistants, University of Sunshine Coast.