Dr Elena Marchetti
Sentencing Indigenous offenders of partner violence: A comparative analysis of Indigenous sentencing courts and specialist family violence courts
Abstract:
One of the most common forms of violence in Indigenous communities is violence between intimate partners. Indigenous sentencing courts and specialist family violence courts (as well as mainstream courts) are used in Australia to sentence Indigenous partner violence offenders. I (together with Professor Kathleen Daly and Dr Jackie Huggins) have recently been awarded funding from the Australian Research Council to conduct research on finding (1) what unique contribution Indigenous sentencing courts make in addressing Indigenous partner violence that may not be present in specialist family violence courts; and (2) what each type of court process can learn from the other. The project is due to start in 2009 and will run for five years. My presentation will focus on aspects of this project. I will start by briefly outlining the different processes used by Indigenous sentencing and family violence courts in Australia, and the theoretical frameworks underpinning each type of specialist court. I will then discuss the debates which exist between and among feminist and Indigenous groups about whether informal justice processes, including Indigenous sentencing courts, are appropriate in responding to family, sexual, and partner violence. Although I will not be able to provide, at this point, any answers to the questions that typically surround the debates in this area, I will be seeking to clarify the issues raised and to discuss how the research project will be endeavouring to answer some of those key issues.
Speaker profile:
Dr Elena Marchetti is a Senior Lecturer in Law and Australian Research Fellow at the Griffith University Law School. Her research interests focus on Indigenous and feminist critiques of criminal justice processes, and access to justice for minority groups. She has extensive knowledge of speciality courts, particularly those involving Indigenous offenders. She co-authored (with Professor Kathleen Daly) the first published overview of Indigenous sentencing courts in Australia. Her PhD research, completed in 2005, considered whether the Australian Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody took an intersectional race and gender approach in its analysis. Elena is currently working on a funded project that looks at what unique contribution Indigenous sentencing courts make in addressing Indigenous partner violence that may not be present in specialist family violence courts or mainstream criminal courts.