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Join a stellar panel of experts in this WEBINAR presented by CEVAW

TOPIC: Stalking as part of a pattern of power and control

Stalking is a gendered crime of power and control. It is a course of action directed at an individual that causes the victim to fear for their safety, and often includes repeated nonconsensual communication, repeated proximity both physical and virtual, and verbal, written, or implied threats. It is frequently perpetrated by men against women. In all states and territories it is recognised as a criminal offence but it can be difficult to prove, once proven, appropriate sentences are important. Research has demonstrated the breadth of behaviours, including systems abuse, that underpin stalking. Increasingly researchers are finding that it is a precursor to domestic homicide.

EVENT DETAILS

DATE: Thursday 27th March 2025
TIME: 4.00pm (AEDT) start, finishing at 5:00pm
DURATION: 60 minutes (incl Q&A)
LOCATION: Online - a link will be emailed to you with the viewing details

PANELLISTS

Magistrate Therese McCarthy, Magistrates’ Court of Victoria

Therese was appointed a magistrate of the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria in 2017. She was appointed to the Board of the Victoria Law Foundation as the representative of Victorian Courts’ Council in 2021. In 2022-2024, she was the Supervising Magistrate, Family Violence and Personal Safety Intervention Orders. In this role, Magistrate McCarthy had oversight of the implementation of the court's work to enhance service delivery to the Victorian community through the Specialist Family Violence Courts programs at all headquarter courts.

Yvette Cehtel, Chief Executive Officer, Women's Legal Service Tasmania

Yvette Cehtel is the CEO of Women’s Legal Service Tasmania, having been appointed in 2019. Yvette is committed to systems reform to improve the rights of those who experience structural barriers to achieving equality and accessing justice. Yvette has decades of experience as a lawyer and a barrister and has also held roles with Relationships Australia, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre and the Tasmanian Legal Aid Commission. Yvette is a spokesperson for Women’s Legal Services Australia.

Dr Freya McLachlan, Research Fellow, Centre of Excellence for The Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW)

Freya is a criminologist with a focus on intimate partner femicide and has a PhD from QUT (2023) entitled Intimate partner femicide: Risk factors and the heterogeneity of male-perpetrated IPF in Queensland. Freya's areas of interest include interventions with perpetrators and bystanders of intimate partner violence, domestic homicide and femicide, and feminist approaches to ending violence against women. She is located at Griffith University Node for CEVAW.

MODERATOR

This event is moderated by Professor Heather Douglas from the Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne, and Deputy Director (Interdisciplinary and Translation) and Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women (CEVAW).

Heather leads the Responses Pillar and the Legal Responses workstream and supports knowledge translation and engagement for CEVAW. Heather has researched legal responses to violence against women for many years and coordinates Australia’s National Domestic and Family Violence Bench Book. Heather’s recent work has explored the legal response to strangulation both in the context of family violence and in consensual sex.

ABOUT CEVAW

The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW) is the world's first Centre to address the full range of forms of violence against women in Australia and the Indo-Pacific region.

Headquartered at Monash University, the CEVAW network comprises 13 Chief Investigators from six Australian universities, and 45 Australian and international partner organisations.

With a $35M investment from the ARC (Australian Research Council), CEVAW is poised to make significant global impact by examining the structural drivers that cause and compound violence against women, and pioneering new, evidence-based approaches to radically improve policy and practice across Australia and the Indo-Pacific.

The Centre mobilises survivor-centric and Indigenous approaches, interdisciplinary collaborations, and Indo-Pacific partnerships to deliver scalable approaches to eliminate violence against women across the legal, security, economic, health, and political systems of Australia and the region.

This Centre is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council.