Web resource:	http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/51914/20050815-0000/family_violence_court_final_report.pdf
Type:	Report
Title:	Joondalup Family Violence Court : final report
Authors:	Court Services Division - Department of Justice / Crime Prevention and Community Support Division - West Australian Police Service
Keywords:	Criminal justice responses;Risk assessment;Legal issues;Statistics;Measurement;Perpetrators;Perpetrator programs;Interagency work
Year:	2002
Publisher:	Government of Western Australia
Notes:	Since its establishment in December 1999, the Joondalup Family Violence Court (JFVC) project aimed: to improve the criminal justice response to family violence; to make perpetrators accountable for their behaviour; to support victims in the criminal justice system and ensure their safety; and to reduce the incidence of family violence in the Joondalup district. The JFVC utilised an interagency and alternative sentencing approach for dealing with the civil matters of Violence and Misconduct Restraining Orders, and all criminal matters related to family violence. This final report provides an overview of the JFVC’s effectiveness in achieving its stated aims and key information regarding the profile of domestic violence in Joondalup and other nominated locations. A critical aspect of the evaluation methodology was the use of a control group for comparison. Two risk assessment tools were used in the pilot: the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment (SARA) and the Danger Assessment Scale (DAS). Both of these were found to be valid and appeared to identify varying degrees of risk. The outcomes of the control group, comprising individuals attending two other Courts of Petty Sessions, were compared with the outcomes of individuals attending the JFVC. Offenders in the control courts were more likely to have substantial criminal histories for a variety of offences, while offenders in the JFVC were more likely to be specific domestic violence perpetrators. Individuals in the control courts were more likely to be referred to a range of other programmes apart from domestic violence perpetrator programmes than offenders in Joondalup. Offenders in Joondalup were more likely to breach their orders than offenders in the control court, put down to the increased supervision at JFVC, and highlights the need to have ongoing communication with victims and other agencies when supervising domestic violence offenders. The costs of the JFVC are relatively high in comparison to other courts, primarily due to dedicated staffing at the court, lost or delayed resolutions and associated programmatic interventions. The critical success factors identified in the JFVC were: the clear identification of prosecution matters related to domestic violence; the use of affidavit-assisted restraining order applications; the identification on listings of domestic-related restraining orders; the use of a single day for the hearing of criminal matters; the use of inter-agency information in the development of pre-sentence reports; the use of case management techniques for the supervision of offenders; the use of the SARA and the DAS as valid risk assessment tools; and the provision of support for victims attending court for domestic violence-related matters. From these findings, a number of recommendations were developed, providing a rationale and guidelines for a proposed future family violence court model for Western Australia.
Contents:	Executive Summary Recommendations Section 1: Introduction Section 2: Evaluation Section 3: Western Australia Police Service Section 4: Domestic Violence Incident Unit Section 5: Restraining Order Matters –Comparison with Control courts Section 6: Restraining Order Outcomes – JFVC Section 7: Criminal matters Comparison between Courts Section 8: Criminal Matters – JFVC Section 9: Risk Assessment Section 10: Victim Support Area Section 11: Costs Associated with the JFVC Section 12: Conclusion Section 13: Data Integrity and IT issues Appendices
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/19146
Physical description:	131 p.
Appears in Collections:	Reports

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