Deakin University criminologist Kate Fitz-Gibbon wields a pen over a sword to protect women victims of violent crime

A new book by influential Deakin University criminologist Dr Kate Fitz-Gibbon is set to put further pressure on calls to tighten up laws covering crimes of domestic violence that result in homicide.

The young lecturer and author has already made significant inroads with her advice to various governments leading to sweeping legal changes in several Australian states.

In her latest book, the emerging expert on legal reform calls for further changes to rebalance the scales of justice for victims of violent crime by tightening archaic loopholes that allow men accused of "crimes of passion'' to escape the full weight of the law.

Homicide Law Reform, Gender and the Provocation Defence looks at the injustices that flow from the operation of the partial defence of provocation in murder cases and offers lessons to legal experts on the law's response to lethal violence in Australia and the United Kingdom.

"Every week in Australia, at least one woman is killed by an intimate partner,'' Dr Fitz-Gibbon said.

"While legal responses are improving, it is essential that the law's response to lethal domestic violence does not serve to blame the victim and excuse the actions of the offender. I have long held a concern that the partial defence of provocation does exactly that and this book documents the many injustices of its operation and the need for meaningful change.''

The book draws heavily on interviews conducted by Dr Fitz-Gibbon with 101 members of the Victorian, New South Wales and English criminal justice systems.

"By drawing on the voices of those engaged in the daily operation of the law, the research reveals how the provocation defence is viewed by those in the system and what appetite for law reform exists among legal practitioners" she said.

Capturing the problem at the heart of the provocation defence, the book opens with the high profile Victorian case of James Ramage who controversially claimed that his wife had provoked him and was subsequently convicted of her manslaughter as opposed to murder.

Dr Fitz-Gibbon said she was as appalled as the general community that Ramage was able to benefit from the availability of a provocation defence.

"The case illustrates the dangers of a partial defence of provocation when used by men who kill wives who have threatened to leave them or are alleged to have been unfaithful. In the Ramage case the law's response meant that it was Julie Ramage, not her undisputed killer husband that was put on trial.

"Importantly, and what my research revealed, is that the Ramage case is not a one-off injustice of the provocation defence. These cases are unfortunately littered throughout Australian case law.

"Through the operation of the provocation defence, the criminal law has too readily partially excused the contexts within which men kill while simultaneously failing to understand the contexts within which women kill an abusive intimate partner. This is unsatisfactory.

"It is essential that our courts send a clear message of the unacceptability of lethal domestic violence and do not promote victim blaming narratives that act to partially excuse the use of lethal violence in response to relationship separation or infidelity."

In the ten years since the Ramage case, Dr Fitz-Gibbon has committed to the study of homicide laws and has emerged as a passionate voice for victims of lethal violence.

While the provocation defence was abolished in Victoria in 2005, it is still available in several Australian states and territories and in comparable jurisdictions internationally.

"This book urges Australian and international jurisdictions to rethink the partial defence of provocation. We must continue to seek a criminal justice system that provides a more just response to the range of persons who come before it. It is my argument that a partial defence of provocation does not have a place within any such system," Dr Fitz-Gibbon said.

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'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.

Earlier this year, in line with the recommendations of her research, the Victorian Government removed the rights of killers to access the offence of defensive homicide and introduced evidence reform to address victim blaming during homicide trials.

"In 2014, NSW implemented a range of reforms to rename the defence 'the partial defence of extreme provocation' and to significantly restrict the circumstances within which provocation can give rise to a partial defence. Only time will tell how the new partial defence will operate in practice, but it is certainly a step in the right direction to bring the law in line with community expectations of justice,'' she said.

Homicide law reform in Victoria and NSW are both key focuses of her new book.

Most recently, Dr Fitz-Gibbon was honoured by being named in The Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards in the Young Leaders category for her contribution to law reform debates and community dialogue about lethal domestic violence.

Homicide Law Reform, Gender and the Provocation Defence is published by Palgrave MacMillan. It will be launched at 6pm on Wednesday, November 12, by Supreme Court Judge Her Honour Justice Marcia Neave AO at the Deakin Melbourne City Centre.