New plan to tackle domestic violence

AUSTRALIA is being urged to adopt a new approach to domestic violence that would see high risk offenders targeted by “any legal means available”.

The “focused deterrence approach” would also mobilise community leaders to personally confront prolific DV offenders.

The recommendations comes just weeks after the murder of Brisbane’s Hannah Clarke and her three children by husband Rowan Baxter in a car fire that shook the nation.

The Australia Institute of Criminology paper, released yesterday, said despite significant investment aimed at reducing domestic violence it remained “unacceptably high”.

Currently one woman is killed every nine days by their partner in Australia and there are more than 320,000 victims of domestic violence a year.

Police across the country respond to a DV incident every two minutes on average.

“Unfortunately, interventions designed to reduce domestic violence in the short term have been found to have limited effectiveness,” the paper said.

It recommends Australia trial a focused deterrence approach, a method first pioneered to deter gangs in the United States but which has since been expanded to include domestic violence.

A key part of the approach is a “call-in” where prominent community members confront offenders over their behaviour in a forum.

High risk offenders are targeted by “any legal means possible” which could mean charging them with non-DV offences if it produced more effective sanctions.

For a domestic violence incident that doesn’t result in arrest, the offender receives a letter detailing close police monitoring and consequences of further offending. Victims are also strongly supported.

Women’s Legal Service Queensland CEO Angela Lynch said she would be supportive of a trial.