Domestic violence could become a specific crime under government review
DOMESTIC violence could become a specific crime under proposals being investigated by the State Government that could change how the offence is recorded and affects South Australians.
DOMESTIC violence could become a specific crime under proposals being investigated by the State Government that may also change how the offence is recorded.
Ministers are facing growing pressure from crisis centre workers, academics and within their own ranks to more specifically label domestic and family violence offences.
Advocates want the change to make it easier to track the problem and improve policy and frontline responses.
The Victorian Labor Government recently proposed creating a tough new domestic violence offence to send a stronger message to abusers.
Premier Jay Weatherill has said he is “prepared to look at” making changes, adding that data collection was “a powerful tool” in tackling the problem. But he remains to be convinced of the need for specific offences.
The Advertiser understands officers from the Attorney-General’s department are in the early stages of canvassing a range of options.
These could include creating new offences or changing processes to better record which existing offences are committed in a domestic violence context.
It appears unlikely the Government would increase or create new penalties.
Currently domestic violence incidents are recorded by police as aggravated assaults but authorities had been unable to provide accurate data easily on the number committed each year.
The Sunday Mail yesterday revealed police data which showed, for the first time, that about 6300 aggravated assault charges each year, or about 40 per cent, are domestic-violence related.
The data had to be manually searched.
Labor backbencher Lee Odenwalder is urging his government to consider creating specific criminal offences within the Criminal Law Consolidation Act.
Domestic assault would cover patterns of intimidation or violence. Domestic abuse would cover non-physical behaviours like financial or emotional control.
“I know that there are a lot of ideas in the mix,” Mr Odenwalder said.
“As policy makers it is difficult to deal with a problem which we know is huge but cannot easily and properly quantify.”
Mr Weatherill said SA law “already provides very significant penalties” for DV offences.
“I don’t want to rule (changes) out but I also don’t want to give people the impression that this is necessarily going to advance the cause,” he said.
“It’s really a name change for something that is already in existence.”
Assistant Commissioner Paul Dickson recently told a parliamentary inquiry that SA police “don’t want … to have two categories of assault” to single out domestic violence.
“It’s about the assault, that’s the important aspect of it,” he said.
But his boss, Police Commissioner Gary Burns, has said police are considering ways that “clearly identify which assaults are related to family violence”.
“There would have to be some IT changes to achieve it,” he said.
For advice or support phone
Victim Support Service on 8231 5626 or 1800 182 368
Domestic Violence Crisis Service on 1300 782 200
Domestic Violence Gateway Service on 1800 800 098
National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800 RESPECT
In an emergency, dial SA Police on 000