Domestic Violence Essay PDF

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Domestic Violence essay - Includes updated statistics and current outcomes as of 2020....

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Evaluate the effectiveness of the law in protecting victims of domestic violence  The laws in Australia have had a moderate amount of effectiveness in protecting the victims of domestic violence. It is becoming ever more apparent that the protection of victims in domestic violence disputes is the paramount consideration in enacting new legislation, especially women and children. Domestic violence is defined as any act, whether verbal physical, of a violent or abusive nature that takes place within a domestic relationship, including heterosexual and same-sex relationships, child and family member, or any other domestic relationship. Domestic Violence has become a major issue in the Australian Community with one in six Australian women, and one in 20 Australian men have, since the age of 15, experienced physical or sexual violence from a partner they have lived with (ABS 2013). Law’s surrounding the Children’s Court, ADVOs, and the NSW Domestic Violence Blueprint for Reform 2016-21 have been formed in response to this large scale issue, but have had a moderate amount of effectiveness in protecting victims.  Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders (ADVO) have had a moderate amount of effectiveness in protecting victims of domestic violence. It was introduced under the C  rimes (Domestic Violence) Amendment Act 1983 (NSW). ADVOs are a court order that aims to protect the applicant from violence and other forms of intimidation or abuse by a family member by restricting or prohibiting them from threatening, harassing or stalking the victim, and breach of an ADVO can result in up to two years imprisonment. Previously though, ADVOs lacked effectiveness as they required defendants to wait at the scene, leaving the victim under threat. These conditions gave rise to reform and the act was amended after the passing of the C  riminal Procedure Amendment (Domestic Violence Complainants) Act 2014 (NSW). An effective aspect of these new ADVO laws is that they are readily accessible, police ranked Sergeant and higher authorities are able to issue on the spot ADVOs, instead of the long waiting period for court approval, prior the reforms. ADVOs carry the full weight of the criminal law if they are breached, however, it has been argued that only people who are normally law-abiding will comply and that these orders do little to deter persistent offenders. In addition, protection orders can only be effective if they are policed. The case of Rosie Batty exemplifies this lack of protection, where her son was beaten to death by his father at cricket training, highlighting that even when people obtain an ADVO, this does not mean that the order will be effective. “Many orders are breached, often multiple times, and in this case, ended in the tragic death of a child.” (TheConversation, 2014)  Domestic violence also can have a large impact on children, there have been various smaller scale amendments such as reforms to protect children which have had a moderate amount of effectiveness in protecting victims. The largest proportion of domestic violence cases are between a man & woman partner, however, children can also be the victims, or offenders of domestic violence. Statistics surrounding the number of Australian children affected by domestic violence are limited. However, available data shows a widespread and severe problem that has affected more than one million Australian children by 2005 ( Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006). The Children Legislation Amendment (Wood Inquiry Recommendations) Act 2009 (NSW) introduced the concept of ‘significant harm’, which simplified the Children’s Court processes and established Child Wellbeing Units (CWUs) in government agencies that deal with children, including the Department of Human Services, education and training, etc. Less serious cases report to Community Services are referred to these Children Wellbeing Units. These create resources efficiency as the courts are

able to deal with more domestic violence cases involving children, as less serious cases aren’t able to clog up the Children’s Court which deals with serious cases of domestic violence involving children. However, despite the increased resource efficiency in the court system, the levels of domestic violence involving children has barely decreased, showing a lack of protection for children, highlighted by the ABS 2012 Personal Safety Survey, showing that rates of domestic violence against children has only decreased by 2.5% from 2005 to 2012. This demonstrates that although the introduction of laws has seen an improvement in rates, the result has only been small and doesn’t meet the expectations of society, indicating that the law has only been moderately effective in protecting children  The New South Wales Domestic Violence Blueprint for Reform 2016-2021 was released by the NSW government in 2016, aimed at “setting out the direction for a domestic violence system for the next five years that will prevent violence, intervene early with vulnerable communities, support victims, hold perpetrators accountable... “ (NSW DV Blueprint). Despite this, the blueprint has only had a moderate amount of effectiveness in protecting victims of domestic violence. The blueprint has achieved some successes though, outlined in its Annual report card 2018 released in December 2019, such as; making available 10 days of paid domestic and family violence leave each year for NSW Government employees, expanding the Staying Home Leaving Violence program to support victims in maintaining safe and stable accommodation of their choice, and various other accomplishments. However, although there has been multiple accomplishments since the implementation of the blueprint for reform, there are still extremely high numbers of domestic violence in Australia. This is especially true since the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen the increased social isolation and decreased social movement, leading to more time being spent between violent family members and victims, thus restricting avenues for victims to seek help. Recent figures released from a report; “Statistical Bulletin 28” from the Australian Institute of Criminology 2020 found that from 10,000 respondents aged 18 and over, 6.1% experienced some form of domestic violence in the last three months. This high number represents that domestic violence is still extremely prevalent in recent years, even after the introduction of the DV Blueprint for reform. The NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian also had set up goals to reduce the number of domestic violence reoffenders by 25% by 2021, however, the AIC report only displays a 4% reduction in reoffending rates. This highlights that the blueprint has been moderately effective but clearly not enough as goals are not being met, this limits the overall effectiveness of the blueprint, but is not entirely ineffective.  Ultimately, the laws in place to protect victims from domestic violence have had a moderate amount of effectiveness as the issue still remains extremely prevalent in our current day society, especially as of the COVID-19 virus creating numerous issues for households, such as the stress it puts on people financially and psychologically. Laws including the Child Legislation Amendment (Wood Inquiry), ADVOs and the NSW Domestic Violence Blueprint for Reform although having had some small successes in their own area, on a whole they have had limited amounts of effectiveness as seen by the high statistics published in the Statistical Bulletin 28 from the Australian Institute of Criminology 2020, demonstrating that despite the various reforms and laws in place, Domestic Violence is still a pressing issue and laws have had moderate amount of effectiveness in protecting victims....