Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Waikato, 2007

This thesis evaluated the Hamilton Family Safety Team - a collaborative intervention to address family violence in New Zealand with a particular focus on agencies in the justice system. One of the aims of the evaluation was to assess the extent to which the Team had improved the ability of agencies to enhance the safety and autonomy of battered women and hold offenders accountable. Data was collected through interviews with Team members and others directly involved with the project, observation of Team meetings, a focus group with battered women, and archival research using police family violence files. The evaluation found that the Team has enhanced the autonomy of women in three ways: improving police attitude, improving responses that were already available, and by re-instating court advocate positions. Participants in the evaluation also identified improvements the Family Safety Team had made in the justice system's ability to hold offenders accountable. Based on this and other reported findings, the author concluded that the structure of the Hamilton Family Safety Team supports delivery of an effective systematic response. The research found that overall the people involved were very positive about the Team and describes reasons for this. The thesis notes some limitations of the model related to Team members having dual accountabilities and facing potential isolation from their parent agency.

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