Calls for Domestic Violence Reform Continue
Thursday 5 June 2014 @ 10.54 a.m. | Crime
A recent series of high-profile cases of domestic violence in the news have led to calls from supporters and advocate groups for governments to do more work to combat the problem, which they say has grown to "epidemic proportions". ABC News has reported that:
“[d]omestic violence is the leading cause of death and injury in women under 45, with more than one woman murdered by her current or former partner every week.”
ABC News also put the cost to the economy of dealing with domestic violence at $13.6 billion per year, taking up 40 per cent of police time. The Australian Bureau of Statistics found in 2012 that 17 per cent of women and 5 per cent of men had experienced physical or sexual violence from a partner, and 25 per cent of women and 14 per cent of men had experienced emotional abuse.
Various measures have been suggested to deal with the issue, including further education and a national summit of stakeholders. Two of the most prominent suggestions are the Victorian Labor Party’s recent election promise of a Royal Commission into Family Violence and more general calls to establish domestic violence as a stand-alone criminal offence.
The Proposed Victorian Royal Commission
Victorian Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews has promised to establish a royal commission into family violence if the Labor Party wins the upcoming Victorian election. Mr Andrews called family violence “a national emergency” and said he would never forget meeting the mother of 11 year old Luke Batty, who was killed by his father at a cricket ground earlier this year. Mr Andrews said:
“Awareness means little, if the system is broken. And our system is… It doesn’t protect the vulnerable. It doesn’t punish the guilty. It doesn’t save enough lives. It’s failing.”
Mr Andrews also said that 15 children known to the Department of Human Services have died this year, and that family violence “was a factor” in 12 of those incidents. The Family Violence Royal Commission would look at the whole of the system, including criminal law, corrections and the courts, support services, refuges, housing, education and alcohol and drug treatment, and could start as early as next year.
Former BRW columnist Leo D’Angelo Fisher has called for the inquiry to be broadened to a national level in a strongly-worded blog, saying:
“A national royal commission into institutional responses to violence against women is the best hope of achieving meaningful systemic change across all jurisdictions and instrumentalities.”
Domestic Violence As A Criminal Offence
Some advocates argue that Australia needs to introduce a specific offence for domestic abuse, similar to the ones being considered in the UK. According to ABC News, the Domestic Violence (Legal Framework) Bill 2014 (UK) would “allow courts to consider patterns of abuse rather than just focussing on specific incidents”. The Bill’s sponsor, Welsh politician Elfyn Llwyd,said:
“The absence of an offence of coercive control is a contributing factor to the low rates of reporting, arrests and convictions in domestic violence cases… At present, our criminal system is perhaps too focused on the physical evidence of violent crimes committed against a victim. Coercive control, on the other hand, does not leave scars or bruises, but is every bit as debilitating.”
The chief executive officer of DVConnect, a Queensland telephone service for domestic violence victims, is one of the advocates of reform. She told ABC News that:
“You need to say to children growing up, just as robbing a bank is a crime, domestic violence is a crime”.
However, critics have raised concerns about the practical difficulties of implementing a specific domestic violence offence. When the Australian Law Reform Commission investigated the subject in 2010, the report found it was premature to recommend implementing any new offences, highlighting stakeholder’s concerns about the difficulties that would be involved:
“The Local Court of NSW commented that it would be difficult to conceptualise the elements of the offence ‘given the spectrum of criminality of conduct that may amount to family violence”.
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