Kate Fitz-Gibbon honoured in 100 Women of Influence awards
Deakin lecturer and researcher Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon has joined a legion of laudable professionals honoured in the illustrious Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards. At just 27, Dr Fitz-Gibbon features in the Young Leaders category, stamping her authority as a passionate advocate for the rights of victims whose killers have argued provocation or defensive homicide to escape the full weight of the law.
Recognition among Australia’s Women of Influence is another coup for Dr Fitz-Gibbon who has already earned academic accolades as a researcher and is an emerging expert on international law reforms covering crimes of domestic violence resulting in homicide.
Her advice at government level has led to sweeping legal changes in New South Wales and Victoria, with both states removing the rights of killers to claim the partial defence of provocation or the offence of defensive homicide to attract more lenient sentences in homicide cases. Dr Fitz-Gibbon’s submissions to government bodies nationally and her advocacy for homicide victims have helped shape new criminal justice policies in Victoria and New South Wales.
Deputy Chair of the Barwon Centre against Sexual Assault and a winner of the New Scholars Prize by the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology last year, Dr Fitz-Gibbon is a sought-after speaker and advisor at law reform discussions and conferences nationally. Dr Fitz-Gibbon has helped shape criminal justice policy in Australia and is active as a mainstream media commentator to ensure the community engages in legal reform in the interest of justice.
“I strongly believe that knowledge is power and that my research has helped secure me a place at the table in state law reform discussions. As an advocate for law reform I am willing to network extensively with researchers and lawmakers both domestically and internationally to engender change,’’ Dr Fitz-Gibbon said.
The Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards highlights women’s leadership in Australia, marking the important contribution they make in creating a bold and diverse future for Australia.
Dr Fitz-Gibbon welcomed her inclusion in the awards as recognition of her commitment and dedication to her work.
“Every week in Australia, at least one woman is killed by an intimate partner,’’ Dr Fitz-Gibbon said. While practices are improving and such violence is increasingly being recognised by the community, domestic violence, its prevention and the law’s response to lethal cases marks an important area where I believe my generation can have an important influence.
“As a young female criminologist there have certainly been challenges in seeking to influence law. These mostly relate to my youth and a perception that I was not yet ready to participate at a government level. But persistence and dedication have helped me achieve a credible voice which has in turn helped influence reform to the laws of homicide.’’
Dr Fitz-Gibbon chose to specialise as a criminologist in the aftermath of the sensational Victorian Supreme Court trial of Melbourne businessman James Ramage who was charged with the 2003 killing of his wife Julie. Ramage was the last person in Victoria who successfully used the partial defence of provocation when he argued that his wife had provoked him by terminating their 23-year marriage and was instead convicted of manslaughter.
The use of provocation as a partial defence was abolished in Victoria soon after.
“I felt naïve at the time and I thought that something had gone wrong in our courts,’’ Dr Fitz-Gibbon said. “The legal process appeared to be skewed so that Julie was put on trial and I wanted to understand how that could happen.’’
The 100 Women of Influence will be feted at a gala dinner later this month. Dr Fitz-Gibbon said she hoped her nomination would encourage others to make their own impact in their areas of interest.
“For me, influence has taken the form of law reform and advocating for a change in legislation, but influence can take many forms and it is important that the next generation of women are influential in shaping all areas of Australian life.’’
Her research has taken her to courtrooms across Australia and overseas, and to judges’ chambers in Australia, the Old Bailey in London and the Royal Courts of Justice in England.
“All the cases are tragedies and some hit harder than others,” she said. “It is sometimes hard to leave work, to shut the door and to forget about what you hear and read.”
Dr Fitz-Gibbon lectures first and second year criminology undergraduate students at Deakin University while continuing her research.
Her second book, Homicide Law Reform, Gender and the Provocation Defence, has recently been published. It is a definitive look at the injustices that flow from the operation of the partial defence of provocation and offers lessons to legal experts on the law’s response to lethal violence.
This post first appeared on the Deakin University News site on 2 October 2014.