Leading crime experts will gather at a one-day Griffith University symposium on intimate partner violence and homicide in Brisbane on Thursday, May 3.

The symposium aims to promote awareness among researchers, policy-makers, practitioners and community representatives in working towards tangible solutions to prevent intimate partner violence.

Griffith University Violence Research and Prevention Program Director Professor Paul Mazerolle said intimate partner violence affected many families and communities in Australia and overseas.

“The challenges and consequences of intimate partner violence are significant and require effective responses from government and non-government sectors,” he said.

“This event is an opportunity to be informed about current and emerging research on intimate partner violence, as well as some of the strategies and responses currently in place.”

Keynote speaker Associate Professor Myrna Dawson from the University of Guelph will discuss the trends and patterns in domestic homicide in Canada, and the findings of the Ontario Domestic Violence Death Review Committee.

Associate Professor Dawson is Research Chair in Public Policy in Criminal Justice at the University of Guelph, Canada.

She is a member of Ontario’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee, a Research Associate in the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women & Children. Her most recent projects examine intimacy, violence and the law in the international context.

Other symposium speakers include:

– Dr Holly Johnson: University of Ottawa

Lethal and non-lethal violence aginst female partners: What are the similarities?

– Professor Heather Douglas: University of Queensland

Domestic violence protection orders: Cross orders in Queensland courts

– Heather Nancarrow: Queensland Centre for Domestic & Family Violence Research

Exploring gender and race in civil domestic violence law: Work in progress

– Robyn Holder: Australian National University

Exploring gender and race in civil domestic violence law: Work in Progress

– Dr Shannon Spriggs: Griffith University

”Mentors in Violence Prevention: An effective bystander intervention strategy

for Intimate Partner Violence”

– Steve Sellers: Griffith University

Exploring police attitudes to Intimate Partner Homicide: Continuity or change?