The Legal System Of Domestic Violence

The legal system has been moderately effective in protecting victims of domestic violence. The law no longer sees domestic violence as a private matter and has attempted to provide protections for victims of domestic violence. The growing recognition of domestic violence is reflected in the law through recent reforms, which seek to better reflect the values and ethics of society through providing an efficient and enforceable response, however it has not yet fully reached this goal. The legal system has attempted to protect victims of domestic violence through legal mechanisms, which attempt to achieve justice, such as the development of legislation and the introduction of concepts, such as apprehension of fear and battered women syndrome in order to protect victims from domestic violence.

Many legal measures have been implemented in order to achieve justice in response to the increasing amounts of domestic violence and they have been moderately effective in doing so. Over time the Commonwealth has become increasingly aware of the scope of family violence and the law has been amended in order to better protect the victims of violence. The Family Law Legislation (Family Violence and Other Measures) Amendment Act 2011 (Cth) was introduced to improve the legal systems response to family violence by providing protections for victims in order to achieve a just outcome. The Act is highly effective as it placed emphasis on the protection from harm principle, as evidenced in the case of Uysal & Mardine 2014, in order to protect children and it widened the definition of abuse to include being exposed to violence. The Act was also effective as it ensured that the courts had access to evidence relating to abuse so that it could make a just...

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...tricter rules for battered women syndrome claimants, to ensure the law achieves justice for not only victims, but society, as highlighted in the article “Battered ex spared jail for killing” (DT, 2015). Hence, whilst the law has been somewhat effective in achieving justice for domestic violence victims through creating the defence of battered women syndrome, however recent reforms have ensured that a just outcome is achieved.

In closing, the legal system has been moderately effective in achieving a just outcome for victims of domestic violence, despite it attempts to protect victims and reflect the values and ethics of society. Ultimately, further reforms are required in order to deal with domestic violence as statistics show that domestic violence rates are increasing, however, the legal system has endeavored to reduce the impacts of domestic violence on victims.