Leaving violent relationships and avoiding homelessness – providing a choice for women and their children

Jan Breckenridge; Jane Mulroney

doi:10.1071/NB07064

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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Leaving violent relationships and avoiding homelessness – providing a choice for women and their children

Jan Breckenridge ^A ^B ^D and Jane Mulroney ^C

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A School of Social Sciences and International Studies, University of New South Wales

^B Centre for Gender-Related Violence Studies, University of New South Wales

^C Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse, University of New South Wales

^D Corresponding author. Email: j.breckenridge@unsw.edu.au

NSW Public Health Bulletin 18(6) 90-93 https://doi.org/10.1071/NB07064
Published: 25 July 2007

Abstract

The report Staying Home/Leaving Violence describes a research study that explores how women, leaving a relationship where they experience domestic violence, can remain safely in their own homes with their children, with the violent offender being removed. In this qualitative study, 29 women were interviewed about their experiences of leaving a violent relationship. Of these 29 women, nine remained in their own home. This article describes the factors that enabled these nine women to remain in their homes and comments on the policy and practice implications for health workers.

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