Evaluating the Effectiveness of Domestic Violence Laws in Australia

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Recommended: Domestic violence and its effects

Good morning Minister of the Families I am Juliet and I will be your consultant for today. I will be outlining the aspects of the law of Domestic and family violence that has a flaw in society. I will be analysing the current laws, evaluating the effectiveness of the law, comparing these laws, making recommendations for changes in the law and justifying how the proposed changes adequately address the needs of the Australian society. Domestic violence is a violent or aggressive behaviour within the home, typically involving the violent of a spouse or partner. Domestic violence in Australia occurs in the privacy of people’s homes and it is mostly upon women that are disadvantaged.

The law regarding Domestic and Family abuse states that an Act to provide for protection of a person against violence committed or threatened by someone else if a relevant relationship exists between the persons, and to make amendments to the Criminal Code, the Evidence Act 1977, the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000 and the Police Powers and Responsibilities Regulation 2000 for particular purposes, and to make minor or consequential amendments to this Act and other legislation as stated in a schedule which was assented on 17 February 2012. In division 2 of the Domestic and Family Violence Act 2012 Section 8, Domestic Violence is defined as behaviour by a first person (the first person) towards another person (the second person) with whom the first person is in a relevant relationship that –

a) Is physically or sexually abusive; or

b) Is emotionally or psychologically abusive; or

c) Is economically abusive; or

d) Is threatening, or

e) Is coercive, or

f) In any other way controls or dominates the second person and causes the second person...

... middle of paper ...

...of statistics conducted a Personal Safety Survey in 2005 had questioned 16,400 individuals either the age of 18 and over. The findings had showed that 73.7% of women had said that the abuser in the relationship was of a male character, 81.1% of women did not report that they had been sexually abused to the police, 64% of women some form of physical abuse. 13.6 billion dollars per year has been the estimated amount by the Queensland Government that has been spent towards Domestic and Family Violence. By sharing the estimation using the population in Queensland, Queensland has the inferred the cost of 2.7 to 3.2 billion dollars.

The changes needed for the Australian society to be adequately addressed is not the law itself but the consequences in regarding the law because if they were effective than there would be less violence happening but that is not the case.

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