Domestic and family violence

Intimate partner violence

Intimate partner homicide

Adolescent family violence

Gender-based violence

Desistance

Criminal careers

Restorative justice

Dr Hayley Boxall is criminologist who has been undertaking research on domestic and family violence (including intimate partner violence) for 13 years. She has published extensively on these topics, and been a primary investigator on a number of projects focused on criminal justice responses to DFV (including restorative justice processes), pathways/trajectories into DFV offending and intimate partner femicide, offending and reoffending patterns of DFV perpetrators and the exploring the nature and prevalence of different forms of DFV and sexual violence.

Hayley has extensive experience collecting and analysing quantitative datasets, including the analysis of criminal justice administrative datasets, child protection administrative data and large-scale surveys of people in Australia. However, Hayley has also a proven track-record of engaging with vulnerable people as part of interviews and other qualitative research methods. This includes children and parents involved in child protection systems, young people who use violence in the home, and women with lived experience of sexual violence and intimate partner violence.

Prior to joining the ANU, Hayley was the Manager of the Australian Institute of Criminology’s Violence against Women and Children Research Program, and was a Course Convenor at the University of Sydney and Griffith University.

Dr Boxall's publications include a book published in 2023, and over 30 refereed journal articles, book chapters and conference papers. Hayley has a strong focus on policy and practice focused research, and has prepared consultancy reports for a range of state/territory and Commonwealth entities. This includes the ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate, NSW Families and Community Services, the Attorney General's Department, and the Department of Social Services.

Recent and current projects include:

• The ACT Government's Reducing Recidivism Research Collaboration (2023 - 2024)

• The role of victims-survivors in the desistance of male-perpetrated IPV (2018 - 2023) - involved the analysis of interviews conducted with 40 women who self-identified as experiencing IPV

• The Pathways into Intimate Partner Homicide project - involved the analysis of approximately 200 cases of male-perpetrated intimate partner homicide in Australia to identify trajectories that led to the lethal incident (2019-2022)

• Evaluation of Phase 3 of the Restorative Justice Scheme in the ACT - evaluation of the use of restorative justice processes for domestic and family violence and sexual violence cases reported in the ACT (2019-2023)

• The use of mobile dating apps and websites to facilitate crime - involved the analysis of a survey administered to 10,000 people living in Australia who had used dating platforms in the past five years. Respondents were asked about their experiences of sexual violence, being groomed to provide abuse materials of children in their care as well as labour exploitation. 

• The support needs of victims-survivors of sexual servitude in Australia (2018 - 2023) - involved the analysis of case files and interviews with support workers for 50 victims-survivors of sexual exploitation in Australia. 

• The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on intimate partner violence among women living in Australia (2020 - 2022) - involved the analysis of two surveys administered to women living in Australia during different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (partially funded by ANROWS)

• Economic insecurity and intimate partner violence among women living in Australia  (2020 - 2022) - involved the analysis of survey data collected from 10,000 women living in Australia to explore the role of economic factors in IPV (funded by ANROWS)

• The Adolescent Family Violence in Australia project (2021 - 2022) - involved the analysis of a survey of 5,000 young people in Australia who were asked about their use of violence in the home (funded by ANROWS)

• Adolescent family violence targeted at older carers (2020 - 2023) - involved conducting and anlaysing interviews conducted with older carers who had been subjected to violence perpetrated by young people in their care (in partnership with the Youth Coalition of the ACT)

• Links between adolescent violence in the home and IPV during young adulthood (2019-2021) - involved the analysis of criminal offence data extracted for all young people proceeded against for any offence by NSW Police who were then followed to age 23. 

• Exposure to IPV and the physical and emotional abuse of children (2022) - involved the analysis of a survey of 3,000 female carers in Australia who were asked about child abuse perpetrated against children in their care.

Books and book chapters (past 5 years)

• Boxall, H. (2023b). Reimagining Desistance from Male-Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence: The Role and Experiences of Female Victim-Survivors. Springer Nature. 

• Boxall, H., Meyer, S., Bartels, L., & Fitz-Gibbon, K. (forthcoming). Chapter 20. Conducting research with, and on perpetrators of domestic and family violence: Insights from Australian research. In Fieldwork Experiences in Criminology and Security: Methods, Ethics, and Emotions. Springer Nature.

• Dowling, C., Boxall, H., & Morgan, A. (2020). Policing domestic and family violence. In P. Birch, M. Kennedy, & E. Kruger (Eds.), Australian Policing: Critical Issues in 21st Century Police Practice (pp. 443–459). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003028918-32

Peer-reviewed publications (past 5 years)

Hayley is available for supervision of honours and postgraduate projects