Defence families and children wellbeing: Missing voices within the DFV in military families literature

Following the end of World War 1, Australia witnessed a rise in cases of domestic violence perpetrated by returned servicemen. In the years since, Australia’s military forces have continued to recruit, train, and deploy personnel to many wars and conflicts while continuing to ignore the long history of family violence within Australia’s military families. This is mirrored within the research context, as Australian military and academic institutions have largely remained silent on the issue. This paper presents the results of a systematic scoping review of the DFV in military families literature, which included an examination of the dominant research paradigms within the literature and analysis of how these privilege particular power structures, knowledges and discourses, and marginalise or silence others. This paper highlights the gaps, marginalised voices, and missing perspectives within the existing literature, including the paucity of civilian partner, child and LGBTQI+ focused research internationally, and the dearth of any primary Australian-based research. This paper advocates for the necessity of future Australian-based, feminist informed, victim-survivor focused research, to ensure that evidence-based policy and practice decisions are contextually appropriate and informed by the understanding and experiences of those most impacted, predominantly civilian partners and children of military members. Audience members will gain insights into how research paradigms construct and position the issue of DFV, the interventions or responses that fall out of these constructs and how these impact on the safety of DFV victim-survivors.