Experts call for specialist violence courts to combat rising caseloads, where Barwon South West among the worst

A report into family violence has revealed the need for a specialised court in the region.

Sentencing Victoria has revealed an increasing demand for more specialist violence courts across the state, including in Barwon South West.

In its latest report on family violence breaches, Sentencing Victoria said the region recorded 25,701 family violence intervention order (FVIO) applications, 15,216 interim orders and 22,158 final FVIOs between 2011 to 2020.

The report also showed children living in rural and regional Victoria were more than twice as likely to be a respondent to a FVIO, especially in Barwon South West.

There are currently only five specialist family violence courts in operation in Victoria – three in Greater Melbourne at Frankston, Heidelberg, and Moorabbin, one in Shepparton and one in Ballarat.

During the 10-year period there were 373,100 applications for FVIOs and 295,000 final FVIOs issued across the state.

The number of safety notices issued by police each year increased from about 5100 to 13,200, causing a subsequent increase in applications for FVIOs in the Magistrates’ Court, with one in 11 sentenced cases now involving a breach in a family violence-related offence.

Council chair Arie Freiberg said the report suggested Victorian police were becoming increasingly responsive to family violence.

“They are attending more family incidents, issuing more safety notices, recording more breach offences, and laying more charges for breach offending,” he said.

“The decade to 2020 was a transformational period for Victoria, including the landmark 2016 Royal Commission into Family Violence report.

One in 11 sentenced cases in Victoria now involve a breach in a family violence-related offence.

“We hope the findings of this report provide some measure of confidence that change is happening, and that family violence in all its forms is being taken seriously by the justice system.”

A key finding in the report showed that the rate of imprisonment for breaches of family violence orders tripled over the 10 years, from 14.4 per cent of cases resulting in a jail term in 2011 to 40.4 per cent in 2020.

According to the report, a driving factor of this increase was the implementation of shorter prison sentences.

As of 2020, more than 80 per cent of people who received a prison term for breaching an order served six months or less compared with 55 per cent in 2011.

“There are more people ­receiving prison sentences each year, but fewer people serving prison sentences at any given time,” Professor Freiberg said.

“The findings of this report suggest this is at least partly because courts are imposing more short prison sentences, especially for people who have been held on remand.

“This is very likely linked to changes to Victoria’s bail laws, meaning many more people are held in custody while awaiting trial, it also invariably causes more churn of people cycling in and out of prisons.”

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Originally published as Experts call for specialist violence courts to combat rising caseloads, where Barwon South West among the worst