Community Responses to Family Violence Policy : A Public Sector Collaboration

In 2015–2016, the state government of Victoria, Australia, mounted a high-profile public inquiry into family violence, seeking input from various stakeholders with the aim of guiding policy reform and widespread systemic and social change. In subsequent years, the government sought to use innovative data science methods to evaluate the impact and outcomes of the inquiry and of family violence policy interventions. This chapter reports on a collaboration between an interdisciplinary team of social and data science researchers and public sector stakeholders using innovative digital methods and natural language processing techniques to provide evidence of public responses to family violence policy. It explains the opportunities, processes, and challenges involved in a collaborative public sector social data project.