Academy Fellow

I am an internationally recognised interdisciplinary social sciences scholar in areas of gendered violence, and my research and engagement activities are oriented towards maximum impact in innovative social policy development, best practice service provision and outcome measurement of effectiveness. My research delivers academic excellence by combining the goals of quality and impact enacted through extensive engagement activities to create a more just society and produce demonstrable social benefits.

I have held an ongoing commitment to research, advocacy and developing best practice responses and innovative policy responses and knowledge exchange in all areas of gendered violence. I am a thought leader and have demonstrated outstanding research leadership by facilitating original initiatives to support and extend the research efforts of others.

I am an invited Research Fellow of the Research Center on Violence at the University of West Virginia, USA (2015- Current) by Professor Walter De Keseredy, Anna Deane Carlson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences, Director of the Research Center on Violence, and Professor of Sociology at West Virginia University. I am also a founding member of the International Research Consortium on Financial Abuse including scholars from Rutgers and Maryland Universities and the Women and Child Abuse Studies Unit at North London University.

I currently lead the UNSW Gendered Violence Research Network’s knowledge exchange stream ‘Gendered Violence and Organisations’ through which we have engaged with over 60 corporate, government and third sector partners as well as select Australian universities. These engagements have included undertaking research and developing tailored staff training and e-learning modules, policy review and co-design of organisational response frameworks for domestic and family violence (employees and customers) and sexual assault and sexual harassment.

Building on research and engagement activities in the areas of employment and housing, I have undertaken ground-breaking research in the areas of economic and financial abuse. This reflects my fundamental conviction that for a person to leave and remain separate from a violent and abusive relationship, financial security is critical. It is also the case that 90% of adults who experience physical, sexual and psychological violence and abuse also experience financial abuse. Poverty, financial insecurity and precarious employment and housing all force dependence on the perpetrator(s) and are effective tactics of coercive control. Frequently, economic and financial abuse are effective ‘red flags’ that other forms of DFV are being perpetrated.

An early international collaboration providing global identification based on multi-country research in the area of financial abuse in 2018 led to the establishment of an International Financial Abuse Network of scholars in the US, Great Britain and Australia. Since 2019 GVRN have partnered with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) CommBank Next Chapter – a bank-wide commitment to help end financial abuse and support select projects that aim to enhance long-term financial independence. GVRN was commissioned to provide the evidence base for each of the funded Next Chapter projects. We produced a compendium of 5 evidence reviews (and accompanying plain English community resources) and a collaborative paper with a specialist community Legal Centre focused on perpetrators’ use of legal processes to further abuse their partners, ex-partners and family members.

The hallmark of my impact is my capacity to partner with a range of different organisations and specific population groups to embed evidence in practice. I frequently partner with organisations on multiple projects and over long periods of time. For me, partnerships are the foundation of effective knowledge exchange and real-world change.

Head of School of Social Sciences, UNSW

2022 - Dean’s Excellence Award for Research Leadership 

2019 - Dean’s Excellence Award for Achievements in Impact and Engagement 

2016 - The Women’s Electoral Lobby Edna Ryan Achievement Award for Services to Education 

2016 – Arc Commendation for Postgraduate Research Supervision 

2015 - UNSW Staff Excellence Award for Occupational Safety 

2014 – Dean’s Award for Achievements in Research Leadership 

2010 – UNSW Staff Excellence Award for Excellence in Community Engagement 

2007 – Cerebral Palsy Alliance Recognition Award for Services to Children with a Disability 

1988 - Commonwealth Postgraduate Scholarship (Australian Postgraduate Award - APA) 

Postmus, J., Hoge, G., Breckenridge, J., Sharp-Jeffs, N. and Chung, D. (2018) Economic Abuse as an Invisible Form of Domestic Violence: A Multi-country Review, Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, doi: 10.1177/1524838018764160.  

Breckenridge, J. (60%), Yang, T. (20%) and Poon, W.C. (20%) (2018) Is Gender Important? Victimisation and Perpetration of Intimate Partner Violence in Mainland China, Health and Social Care in the Community, doi: 10.1111/hsc.12572.  

Breckenridge J., Lyons. G., Singh, S, and Suchting, M. (2022) Compendium of Evidence – Financial Abuse and the Financial Sector Response. Research funded by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia as part of their Next Chapter Initiative. Available at: CommBank Next Chapter 

MacGinley, M., Breckenridge, J. and Mowll, J. (2019) A scoping review of adult survivors’ experiences of shame following sexual abuse in childhood, Health and Social Care in the Community, v.27, n.5, p 1135-1146. 

Kayis-Kumar, A., Lim, Y., Noone, J., Walpole, M., Breckenridge, J., & Book, L. (2023) Identifying and supporting financially vulnerable women experiencing economic abuse: a grounded theory approach. eJournal of Tax Research. 21(2), 173-202. 

Bennett Moses, L., Breckenridge, J., Gibson, J. and Lyons, G. (2022) Technology-facilitated domestic and family violence: Protecting the privacy and safety of victim-survivors, v.4, n.1, p 1-17