Legal processes and gendered violence: cross-applications for domestic violence protection orders

Official statistics consistently demonstrate the gendered nature of domestic violence ('DV'). A recent report states that violence against women affected one in three Australian women and cost the economy around $13.6 billion in 2009 with women being most harmed. Over the past two decades, the legal response to DV has been increasingly focused on civil domestic violence protection order legislation in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Domestic violence protection orders ('DVPOs') are now the most common legal remedy sought by, or on behalf of, women experiencing DV. In all Australian states a civil DVPO can be made by the lower courts to restrict and prohibit a perpetrator of DV (a respondent) from committing further acts of violence against a person (an aggrieved). While in the vast majority of these cases, applications are lodged by or on behalf of one partner (typically a female) against the other partner (typically a male), in a smaller proportion of cases both partners seek protection orders against each other. In some cases these 'cross-applications' will result in 'cross-orders', or mutual protection orders being made by the court resulting in a DVPO against both parties. In the event of a cross-order, there are conditions attached to each partner's DVPO. In Queensland, all DVPOs will include a condition that the party be of good behaviour toward the aggrieved and individual DVPOs may also include other conditions, for example, a person may be prohibited from making contact with the aggrieved and from entering specified premises