Push to make specific domestic violence offences denied

ATTORNEY-General John Rau has rejected the need for more specific domestic violence offences but wants authorities to “tag” abusive incidents in criminal records to better understand the extent of the problem.

Abused woman hiding in dark

• Push to make domestic violence specific crime
• Rising shame: More than 6000 domestic violence reports in one year

ATTORNEY-General John Rau has rejected calls for more specific domestic violence offences but wants authorities to “tag” abusive incidents in criminal records to better understand the extent of the problem.

The State Government has faced growing pressure from crisis centre workers, academics and from within its own ranks to more specifically label domestic and family violence offences.

The Victorian Labor Government last year proposed creating a tough new domestic violence offence to send a stronger message to abusers.

However, Mr Rau has concerns that introducing new offences could create confusion and potentially lead to abusers getting off charges if police or prosecutors chose the wrong option.

Instead, he is investigating ways to “tag” domestic violence offences in police and court records to make it easier to track the problem and improve policy and frontline responses.

It would require developing a definition of a domestic violence offence.

It appears unlikely the Government would increase or create new penalties, as Mr Rau said existing laws already held serious consequences for assault charges.

“We want objective, reliable data collection ... rather than creating a new offence which may create a whole bunch of unintended consequences,” Mr Rau said.

“My interest is in making sure that these (abusive) people are going to be charged and not getting off on technicalities. I’m interested in how do you do that with the least risk of unintended consequences.”

Domestic violence incidents are recorded by police as aggravated assaults but authorities are unable to easily and quickly provide accurate data on the number committed each year.

The Sunday Mail last year revealed police data which showed, for the first time, that about 6300 aggravated assault charges each year, or about 40 per cent, are related to domestic violence.

The data had to be manually searched.

Opposition Deputy Leader Vickie Chapman agreed that introducing a new offence was “not the answer”.

She said all aggravated assaults should be treated with the same seriousness.

Labor backbencher Lee Odenwalder has previously urged his Government to consider creating specific criminal offences, as NSW has.

Domestic assault would cover patterns of intimidation or violence.

Domestic abuse would cover non-physical behaviour like financial or emotional control.

Mr Odenwalder said that whatever form a new “tagging” system took, it should “clearly identify instances of coercive and controlling behaviour, as well as offences of physical violence”.

“I would like to see any reform to the system which gives frontline police all the information they need on first response ... (and) services and policymakers access to timely and accurate data about the scale and nature of the problem,” Mr Odenwalder said.

For help phone 1800 RESPECT