‘The QUT Centre for Justice Briefing Paper Series provides short accounts of topics and issues related to justice. These papers are research based and have been used to translate research into user-friendly content for use by academics, industry and policy makers.
We have recently released a new stream of papers titled, QUT Centre for Justice Briefing Paper Series – Practitioner and Event Papers.
Practitioner Papers are written by practitioners and focus on the applied aspects of justice initiatives and innovations. They provide an opportunity to build on existing knowledge and practice.
Event Papers are an opportunity to report on key event outcomes and future actions.
As part of Queensland Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month 2025, QUT Centre for Justice is pleased to release its first Practitioner Paper titled, “Proving a ‘pattern of behaviour’: Queensland’s coercive control (civil protection) reforms in practice”, written by Leanne Collingburn, Courtney Thorne and Isabelle Delabbio from Hopgood Ganim Lawyers.
On 1 August 2023, changes to the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 (Qld) (DFVP Act) came into effect in Queensland, including the introduction of ‘pattern of behaviour’ into the meaning of domestic violence (DV). This change was implemented as a result of systemwide recommendations made by the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce in the Hear Her Voice – Report 1 to address coercive control and domestic and family violence (DFV) in Queensland. One recommendation included the need for police, lawyers and the courts to better understand DFV as a pattern of behaviour that occurs over time in the context of a relationship as a whole (Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce, 2021). The inclusion of a ‘pattern of behaviour’ in the DFVP Act means that victimsurvivors (survivors) of DFV can seek protection from the compounding behaviours of an abusive partner, family member or informal carer (users of violence1) under Queensland’s civil protection regime. Rather than rely on single incidents of abuse (such as physical violence) to demonstrate DFV, survivors can point to an accumulation of behaviours that seek to abuse, threaten, coerce or cause them to be fearful. However, proving a ‘pattern of behaviour’ can be complex, requires time and may come at a
cost (both financial and emotional) to survivors.
This practitioner paper explores these issues in the context of our practical experience assisting survivors of DFV with private applications for protection orders within the DV civil protection regime in Queensland.
Read the full paper here.
If you are interested in finding out more about QUT Centre for Justice Briefing Paper Series – Practitioner and Event Papers please contact qutc4j@qut.edu.au
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