Type:	Conference Paper
Title:	Toward praxis in Wagga Wagga: New South Wales legal responses to family violence
Other Titles:	WOW, Wellbeing of Women conference proceedings : research and practice
Authors:	Moore, Elizabeth
Keywords:	Protection orders;Interagency work;Criminal justice responses;Measurement;Statistics;Regional rural and remote areas
Year:	2004
Publisher:	Community of Scholars, Gender Woman and Social Policy, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga
Notes:	Conference held at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga NSW on 10 December 2003. This paper provides an overview of evidence (data and statistics) on family violence nationally and regionally. It summarises legislative efforts to address women’s safety and examines New South Wales’ legal protection through the Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) Scheme, with a comparison of other jurisdictions (Queensland, New Zealand, ACT). It highlights the lack of standardised data collections to enable inter-jurisdictional comparisons of rates of reporting, decisions of justice personnel and legal outcomes. It points out that there is a lack of published data to support evaluation and monitoring of the justice responses to family violence, especially the connection between criminal and civil justice responses and the experience of applicants who were not granted an AVO, as well as the lack of metropolitan and regional comparisons in NSW. It discusses how the NSW data collections do not provide a basis on which to compare across time or locations, nor the incidence or prevalence of family violence, the rate of applications or the proportion of applications that result in final orders. Without these data and additional information to measure compliance and breach of orders, this paper argues, it is not possible to assess the effectiveness of the AVO Scheme. The ACT Family Violence Intervention Program appears to be the only one that has routine collection of data that can measure criminal and civil proceedings and outcomes. It discusses data on domestic violence and AVOs in rural regional area of Wagga Wagga, and the need for local initiatives and partnerships between state and local levels. It critically argues that, in the absence of separate legislation to respond to family violence, rehabilitative provisions within civil law, social service providers within a multidisciplinary court team, the potential for local initiative is limited. It suggests increased use of criminal law in the police response to pave the way for the court to use remand and sentencing in order to require offenders to participate in assessment and rehabilitation. It further suggests that for therapeutic jurisprudence to be effective, it needs to be locally owned and driven, along with legislation, resources and data collection.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/20866
ISBN:	9781864671520
Appears in Collections:	Conference Papers

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