The geography of reported domestic violence in Brisbane: a social justice perspective

Police call data and court data are used to map the incidence of reported d omestic violence in Brisbane. These data are correlated with low family inc ome, unemployment and a measure of multiple disadvantage (an Index of Relat ive Socio-Economic Disadvantage) for each Statistical Local Area (suburb) i n Brisbane. Only the Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage is a sta tistically significant predictor of reported domestic violence. The finding of a significantly higher incidence of reported domestic violence among re latively worse-off families is investigated within a social justice context . A measure of multiple relative disadvantage is shown to better reflect th e negative impacts of structural inequalities on families in explaining the reported occurrence of domestic violence.