DEALING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Can include:   Social (not letting your partner see/talk to their friends/family) Economic (not letting your partner work as much as they want; not letting them have money) Physical (physical violence, slapping punching, using a weapon) Sexual abuse (“rape”, accusing them wildly of cheating) Psychological (threats and creating fear; emotional and verbal abuse and taunts which hurt their self-esteem) That’s right… Just keep looking at the puppy… Forget ALL ABOUT the domestic violence…

DEALING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE The main CRIMINAL law that deals with domestic violence is the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW). This is a STAND-ALONE law (NOT just part of the Crimes Act). This means that it’s put on the offender’s record that it was a domestic violence offence. But this doesn’t mean that they’re sentenced differently, it’s not taken into account that an attack by someone who knows you might be different from a random attack by a stranger.

DEALING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Law reform in this area is generally pissweak and probably reflects the number of men in parliament who have never suffered through domestic violence. EXAMPLE 1: This was demonstrated when the government quickly passed the Crimes and Other Legislation (Assault and Intoxication) Amendment Act 2014 after the death of Thomas Kelly, but it doesn’t seem so urgent when one woman dies every single week from a domestic violence attack. Minor changes to the law haven’t been much of a deterrent. Domestic violence was one of only two crimes in 2014 where the crime rate actually increased (and it wasn’t just because more people reported it, the statistics included incidents leading to hospital admissions, which are reported by the hospital staff). Assault rate rises in NSW homes, SMH (2014)

DEALING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Law reform in this area is generally pissweak and probably reflects the number of men in parliament who have never suffered through domestic violence. EXAMPLE 2: Every year there seems to be a new government plan to fix everything. In 2014, it was called ‘It Stops Here’. It just meant that the police will now have to complete a ‘common risk identification tool’ (just an online form) whenever they respond to a domestic violence report, which then goes to a ‘Central Referral Point’ to see what further action will be taken. The agencies are then supposed to be better at communicating with each other. I don’t reckon it’ll stop here though… It’s like the sign in Mt Druitt that says “Mt Druitt says no to domestic violence” – problem solved. ‘It stops here’: Domestic violence strategy revealed, The Australian (2014)

DEALING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ADVOs – Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders “Feared” An ADVO is a court order that aims to protect a person by restricting or prohibiting another person from doing specified things. ADVOs are based on the protected person’s fear of experiencing unwanted conduct from the defendant in the future – conduct such as physical violence, intimidation, stalking, harassment or threats. An ADVO is NOT a criminal charge or conviction. It is just an ORDER. However, breaching/breaking and ADVO IS a crime. The maximum penalty is imprisonment for 2 years or 50 penalty units (currently $5,500), or both.

DEALING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ADVOs are sometimes called ‘restraining orders’ because an ADVO cannot make a defendant do something (just stop them). For example, an ADVO cannot order a defendant to attend an anger management course, or drug or alcohol rehabilitation. Instead, an ADVO can prohibit a defendant from doing something – such as assaulting, intimidating, harassing or threatening the protected person or excluding the defendant from premises where the protected person may reside or work.

DEALING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Most ADVOs aren’t breached (or at least aren’t REPORTED as being breached…) and about 45,000 ADVOs were issued last year. New police powers allow on-the-spot AVOs in NSW domestic violence cases, ABC News (2014) BUT THERE HAVE BEEN SOME PROBLEMS… 1. A big issue with the ADVO system was that, even when police decided to apply for an order, it had to be served on the defendant. This usually involved going back to the police station and leaving the abuser with the victim in the house. Since 2013, police can also issue provisional ADVOs without having to apply. On-the-spot ADVOs to protect women, SMH (2012)

DEALING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 2. The police can now also direct alleged perpetrators to leave the family home and hold the person for up to two hours to serve them with an on-the-spot AVO. There’s a bit of a problem, though, because it’s not always clear who the victim actually is (sometimes the violent person pretends that they’re the victim, which is difficult for the police to work out when the victim has an intellectual disability, mental health issues or is LGBTIQetc). So the police need a lot more training in order to deal with these issues (or maybe someone trained in the area could go with them, but this is unlikely to get funded by the government). New police powers allow on-the-spot AVOs in NSW domestic violence cases, ABC News (2014)

DEALING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 3. ADVOs have always been a state government issue. This means that perpetrators often leave the state (sometimes following the victim) and the ADVO doesn’t apply anymore. The government has announced that it will be bringing in a national ADVO system to combat this problem. National domestic violence orders would leave perpetrators with 'nowhere to hide', Government says, ABC News (2014)

DEALING WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE And remember that other than the criminal side of things, the Family Violence Act 2011 helped prioritise the safety of children in divorce cases so as to protect them as much as possible from domestic violence (e.g. Uysal & Mardine (2014)). But there are still problems with this that might not be able to be solved through legal measures. For example, when there IS NO CASE in the Family Court, then judges can’t make an order about it (e.g. if a woman divorces a violent man and then has an informal parenting plan, it never goes to court for the judge to use the changes made by the Family Violence Act to protect the children).

Questions Domestic violence is not only physical. What are the other forms of it? (slide 1) Legislation that deals with Domestic Violence is not Family legislation but Crime legislation. Cite this legislation. (slide 2) The statement is made that law reform regarding domestic violence is ‘pissweak’. Why is this statement made? Relate this to statistics. (slide 3) Research the “It Stops Here” program referred to in slide 4. Were there any programs that the government implemented and how successful were they in curbing the problem of domestic violence? (slide 4) What is a ‘common risk identification tool’? (see slide 4 but research this yourself too) As a whole, ADVO’s would be said to be an effective aspect of Family Law in that it protects people. How is this so? (see slide 5-7) What are some problems related to ADVOs? (slide 8-9) What is meant by the statement that when there IS NO CASE in the Family Court, then judges can’t make an order about it? (slide 10) This is an example of how crime legislation and family legislation interact in the sphere of family law. Ask Mr Aziz about this if it doesn’t make sense.