Indigenous women and intimate partner homicide in Australia: confronting the impunity of policing failures

Abstract

In Australia, Indigenous women experience disproportionate levels of violence compared to others in our society. Recent, horrific examples of Indigenous women's deaths have come to light through coronial courts' public inquests. This article examined 151 Australian coronial court investigations and inquests over a 20-year period (2000-2020), analysing them thematically. The analysis highlighted the vulnerability of Indigenous women to intimate partner homicides, noting that the women's deaths, in most instances, were entirely preventable. This article explores specifically the actions of police, given they are often the first responders to these situations. The findings of this study concur with a coroner who labelled the actions and inactions of police as being akin to systemic racism, or at the very least, lazy policing. The profound system failings at the intersections of law, policy and practice have arguably in some of these cases contributed to these women having lost their lives. This article explores firstly, the nuances of the coronial findings, secondly, it interrogates policing practices and processes. It concludes critically reflecting on ‘systemic racism', coroners’ recommendations for addressing this problem and the significance of this issue in the broader context of a recent Queensland inquiry into policing that affirms similar findings.