SHIFT FOCUS TO HELP FEMALE VICTIMS

POLICE Commissioner Katarina Carroll and Police Minister Mark Bailey touted a decrease in some crime statistics with the release of the Queensland crime report for 2020-21. They say there’s fewer unique offenders, including youth offenders, and fewer offences committed.

Bond University criminologist and former detective Terry Goldsworthy said the data was released too late to be of any use, and decreases in some crimes were expected because everyone was home during Covid.

In Cairns, which has the fourth highest crime rate in the state, assault was up by 16.5 per cent, serious assault up by 10.3 per cent, common assault up by 27.9 per cent, sexual offences up by 23.8 per cent, rape and attempted rape up by 8.1 per cent, and other sexual offences by 29.9 per cent. Statewide, the number of domestic violence offences has also increased by 18 per cent, from 35,000 to more than 41,000 – a figure Ms Carroll says indicates more victims are coming forward. In Cairns, a concerning statistic is the offence of breaching a domestic violence order, up by 19.3 per cent with 3088 offences reported.

Women’s advocates – and in 75 per cent of cases of physical and sexual violence by a current or former partner, victims report the perpetrator is male – caution us that behind the bland statistics are real women and children in crisis. Local frontline workers question why it is the victim, and children, who are forced to leave the home, rather than the perpetrator. It’s a good question. A defendant who breaches a domestic violence order is liable to up to three years in prison or a fine of $14,136.

Local advocates say it is time perpetrators were held accountable, that the onus to ensure safety was shifted from the victim. Perhaps resources need to be devoted to compulsory residential behavioural programs for perpetrators – and penalties need to be much stiffer.