Call for DV law reform after report exposes victim-blaming attitudes in police service

A damning new review into 12 “distressing” murders and suicides has found authorities failed to realise the victims were in need of protection before their deaths and exposed “many instances of victim-blaming”.

Women are being murdered and are suiciding after authorities refuse to believe they need protecting from violent partners who are instead painting them as the aggressor.

The Palaszczuk Government will consider law changes after an in-depth review by the state’s domestic violence death review board into 12 “challenging and distressing” murders and suicides that found authorities failed to realise they were actually the person in need of protection before their deaths.

In some examples, women were murdered or suicided after police refused to believe them over their partners because they were “more intoxicated”, because she had “clenched her fists”, or “pushed her partner in the chest”, the report reveals.

The Board found “many instances of victim-blaming attitudes across its case reviews”, that “victim resistance is often overlooked or misunderstood” and that “to effectively respond, services need to understand the gendered nature” of domestic violence and “consider women’s use of physical violence in that context”.

In some examples, women were murdered or suicided after police refused to believe them over their partners because they were “more intoxicated”, the report reveals.

“In each case, regardless of the death type, this occurred when the primary female victim had used resistive violence in self-defence or for self-protection,” the Queensland Domestic and Family Violence Death Review and Advisory Board found.

“This demonstrates the ongoing need for greater awareness and understanding of how, when and why women may use violence in intimate partner relationships and that it is critically important that the person most in need of protection is correctly identified at every point of contact with services who are in position to respond.”

The report shows that between 1 July 2006 and 30 June 2021, there were 93 intimate partner homicides where a female was killed and 30 where a male was killed.

Just one case involved a woman who was the primary perpetrator of violence, and in that case, she was ultimately killed by her partner.

The panel recommended the Palaszczuk Government create clear guidelines and policies for police and courts on how to identify the person most in need of protection, suggesting legislative amendments are necessary.

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The report also recommends the government better inform judges presiding over complex, high risk cases, and those that involve cross applications for protection orders at Magistrates and District Courts with all relevant background information, not just what police have seen at the most recent event.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said she would carefully consider the recommendations, alongside those from Justice Margaret McMurdo’s Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce.

“Tragically, we know that cross-applications are a common tactic used by perpetrators to punish, silence or control their victim,” Attorney-General said.

The panel’s findings have also been passed to Ms McMurdo.

DEADLY TOLL

CASE 1: ‘Sanda’ died of apparent suicide. She attempted to get help from police and her GP after partner ‘James’ strangled her. When James threatened to kill her again, he denied it and said Sandra had clenched her fists at him. Despite having a protection order against James, police recorded her as the aggressor. She told police she may harm herself because they weren’t helping. She died the next day.

CASE 2: ‘Melanie’ ended a violent relationship with ’Mitch’, who retaliated by taking their children and pets interstate without her permission. While both parties used violence, Mitch was the main perpetrator, with Melanie’s mostly related to verbal abuse around the children’s welfare. Mitch antagonised Melanie and filmed her lunging at him. She died by suicide after Mitch refused to let her see the children for months.

CASE 3: A woman pushed her partner in the chest after he repeatedly accused her of infidelity. The perpetrator then threatened her with a knife, and repeatedly punched the victim‘s mother in the head when she tried to intervene. Police made applications for cross protection orders because both parties had used physical violence, even though he had a documented history of physical and sexual violence towards the victim. He later killed her.