Prof. Myrna Dawson, director of U of G’s Centre for the Study of Social and Legal Responses to Violence, spoke to the Toronto Star about the proposal of creating women’s police stations for victims of domestic violence.

Such stations have already been adopted in communities across Africa and Central and South America, with research suggesting they help prevent violence against girls and women. The stations are focused on helping victims, not receiving offenders, and include social workers, lawyers and psychologists alongside officers.

The stations are for women but not necessarily staffed only by women, Dawson told the Star.

“You cannot just ‘add women’ and hope to transform a masculine, patriarchal institutions,” she said.

A Canada Research Chair in Public Policy in Criminal Justice, Dawson studies trends in and social and legal responses to violence, particularly violence against women and femicide. She is also the director of the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability.