Economic abuse

Family violence is defined as one person in a family exercising undue power and control over another.

It can therefore be manifested in a variety of subtle and complex ways far beyond physical violence. It can involve emotional abuse, intimidation, manipulation, mind games, or keeping someone isolated from friends and family.

Another way in which people (usually men) exercise power and control over other family members (usually women) is through the exploitation of economic resources. Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service, in partnership with Kildonan Uniting Care, is currently researching this issue with a view to raising awareness of its existence.

"Economic abuse has been a hidden problem for too long," says Dr Kathy Landvogt from Good Shepherd Youth & Family Service's Social Policy and Research Unit. "This research grew from observations that economic violence was increasingly coming up as an issue, and we realised we needed a greater understanding in order to address it more effectively."

Creating better systems

Money and financial matters are intimately entangled with all the structures that govern our everyday lives. A key aim of the research is therefore to provide guidance for institutions like government departments, the courts, banks, utility companies and community organisations to provide support for women experiencing economic abuse.

"A key objective of the research is to produce recommendations to improve the systems we encounter as we move through life to prevent economic abuse from happening, or address it more effectively when it happens," says Dr Landvogt.

Our research will focus several key areas of economic abuse including a man denying a woman the accumulation of personal assets or eroding those assets; manipulating credit and debt to the women's disadvantage; and blocking access to her social and economic participation.

This exciting and extremely important research will call upon existing literature on the subject of economic abuse before engaging with key experts from the community, corporate and government sectors in round table forums. The findings from these talks will be published in a final report document.

We remain grateful to the Alfred Felton Bequest for their kind support of this project.