Introduction Family violence is a pervasive issue that affects individuals across various demographics and social strata. It encompasses a range of abusive behaviors, including physical, emotional, sexual, and economic abuse, often perpetrated by a family member or intimate partner. The legal framework addressing family violence aims to protect victims, prevent further harm, and hold perpetrators accountable. One critical aspect of this legal framework is the confidentiality of victims' information within legal proceedings. This essay examines the issue of confidentiality in the context of family violence, focusing on the legal measures in place to protect victims' privacy, the challenges in balancing confidentiality with the rights of the …show more content…
The rights of the accused to a fair trial and the public interest in open justice are important considerations. Courts must navigate these competing interests, often by implementing measures such as closed courtrooms, pseudonyms for parties, and limited access to sensitive documents. The challenge lies in ensuring that these measures do not undermine the accused's ability to defend themselves while adequately protecting the victim's …show more content…
Legal frameworks include provisions that allow for the disclosure of confidential information in the interest of public safety. For example, the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) allows for the disclosure of information to law enforcement agencies if it is necessary to prevent a serious threat to an individual's life, health, or safety. Legal practitioners must be aware of these provisions and understand their responsibilities in situations where public safety is at risk. c) Balancing Interests Balancing the confidentiality of victims with the safety of the public requires careful consideration and judgement. Courts and legal practitioners must weigh the potential harm to the victim from disclosing information against the potential threat to public safety. Measures such as limited disclosure, anonymization of sensitive details, and closed court sessions can help mitigate the impact on the victim while addressing public safety concerns. d) Case Law and Examples Cases such as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) v Smith (1991) demonstrate the courts' approach to balancing these interests. In this case, the court considered whether to allow the disclosure of confidential information that could help prevent further violence. The decision underscored the need for a nuanced approach that takes into account both the rights of the victim and the broader public
3. The court stated: "We conclude that when the ground for asserting privilege as to subpoenaed materials sought for use in criminal trial is based only on the generalized interest in confidentiality, it cannot prevail over the fundamental demands of due process of law in the fair administration of justice. The generalized assertion of privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial.
In these instances, there have been different and conflicting decisions reached by the courts when determining the best protection for confidential and privileged communication. Some of the decisions have caused innocent people like Alton Logan to suffer for 26yrs for a crime he did not commit, on the other hand, the United States judicial system offers a strong defense as one of its basic tenets. This paper will review the attorney-client privilege and provide arguments for and against the continuation of such privilege. Attorney-client privilege is communication by a client to an attorney. However, utterance by an attorney does not make communication privileged, just as an attorney’s presence does not make communication in a room privileged.
“Domestic violence is an emotional, physical, psychological, or sexual abuse perpetrated against a person by a person's spouse, former spouse, partner, former partner or by the other parent of a minor child” (McCue 2). While it is these things, the violence is also considered a pattern of demeanor used to establish power and control over another person with whom an intimate relationship is or has been shared through fear and intimidation (“Domestic Violence Sourcebook” 9). It has many names, including spouse abuse, domestic abuse, domestic assault, battering, partner abuse, marital strife, marital dispute, wife-beating, marital discord, woman abuse, dysfunctional relationship, intimate fighting, mate beating, and so on (2). Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Accommodations, believes that domestic violence is “terrorism in the home” (2). This type of abuse involves threats, harm, injury, harassment, control, terrorism, or damage to living beings/property (2). It isn't only in relationships with spouses, it also occurs within family, elderly, and children (9).
“Most Supreme Court Cases regarding criminal justice try to strike a balance between the rights of the individual and the rights of the society. The Supreme Court has the difficult task of bringing balance between these two often conflicting goals.” (POLICE, 2011, p.181).
The issue of pretrial publicity is a maze of overlapping attentions and interwoven interests. Lawyers decry pretrial publicity while simultaneously raising their own career stock and hourly fee by accumulating more if it. The media both perpetrate and comment on the frenzy -- newspapers and television stations generate the publicity in the first place and then actively comment on the likely effect that the coverage will have on the trial. When a high profile case is brought to trial, many media outlets report not only on the details of the trial, but also details about the persons involved, in particular the defendant. Much of the information reported regarding the case is released before the trial starts. Furthermore, media outlets may not only report facts, but also present the information in a way that projects the culpability of the defendant. By allowing pretrial publicity of court cases, potential jurors are given information that could sway their opinion of the defendant even before the trial begins, and how they interpret the evidence given during the trial. The right of a criminal defendant to receive a fair trial is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The right of the press, print and electronic media, to publish information about the defendant and the alleged criminal acts is guaranteed by the First Amendment. These two constitutional safeguards come into conflict when pretrial publicity threatens to deprive the defendant of an impartial jury. However, there is a compromise between these two Constitutional rights, which would allow for the selection of an impartial jury and allow the media to report on the details of the case. The media should only be able to report information once the trial has...
Alyssa Chamberlain Bloomsburg University Family Violence 23 November 2015 It’s a Friday night, you are tucked away in your bed sleeping when all of a sudden you hear the front door slam. Your father comes stumbling in screaming for your mother and other profanities. You hear your mother try to calm him down, and then she screams and starts crying. Your father tells her to shut up, calls her horrible names, and a loud sound, then he stumbles drunkenly to bed and forgets everything the next day, but you didn’t, this wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. What happens to those children that lay scared in their rooms that they might be next?
How battered women are socially stuck in an abusive relationship and how this affects the way they are treated through the criminal justice system.
Domestic violence occurs in many different ways. Domestic violence can be sexual, physical, emotional, mental, and psychological. All domestic violence cases are different, but have the same pattern. According to The United States Department of Justice, domestic violence is “any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone”. In other words, people show domestic violence in different ways, they can physically or mentally try to hurt or harm their partners. Most people who was experiencing domestic violence kept it a secret, because they were ashamed. However, nowadays people are becoming more vocal about the issue and they are defending themselves by speaking
Physical Violence is classified as an act of intentional violence that involves the use of force which could possibly result in physical harm, disability, or even death to the victim. According to Loveisrespect.org, “examples of physical abuse include hitting, scratching, shoving, grabbing, biting, throwing, choking, shaking, kicking, burning, physical restraint, use of a weapon, or otherwise causing intentional physical injury to the victim”
Unmistakably, domestic violence is a major issue in modern society, not only to the affected persons, but also to the entire community. Failure by the government to adequately address this aspect is most likely to expose more citizens to greater danger, which could include death. In view of this, Congress and other political leaders should adopt strict policies on domestic violence, because most citizens are suffering in one way or another from the effects of domestic violence. This is ostensibly because the current legal system does not sufficiently provide for the required protection, when it comes to domestic violence, and the situation at the moment is critical (Shipway, 20). This essay paper analyses some of the appropriate policy measures that the government, through congress should consider to make sure human rights are upheld.
No matter what the situation or the circumstance between two people, domestic violence will always be illegal. The definition for domestic violence could be ‘Domestic and family violence occurs when someone tries to control their partner or other family members in ways that intimidate or oppress them. Controlling behaviours can include threats, humiliation (‘put downs’), emotional abuse, physical assault, sexual abuse, financial exploitation and social isolations, such as not allowing contact with family or friends’ ("Definition of family violence | ALRC", 2016). Forms of physical assault would be pushing, grabbing, slapping and kicking. Sexual abuse would include sexual assault and sexual acts carried out against a person’s will. Different types of psychological abuse would include
Domestic abuse and child abuse have widespread social and emotional costs. Family violence affects all segments of the family. The impact of violence on childrens' lives appears to be far more substantial than the impact on adults lives(Family, Pg. 1). In most cases of family violence the family has conformed to a pattern in which the line of family violence started generations ago. This pattern must be broken before more children growup and live in a family that resorts to violence. But there are also children who live in loving families who do not resort to violence and as these children mature they start resorting to violence to help solve and deal with their problems. Studies show that physical punishment could cause aggression in children, but other studies show that even abusive parental violence does not always lead to an increase in children's aggression. Only by recognizing and addressing the multifactorial roots of violence in our society can we move closer to living in peace.
Family and Domestic Violence has many stereotypes that we perceive as normal, such as women and children are the primary victims, and males are the primary perpetrators. However, as much as that might be true, some male victims and female perpetrators exist. Family and Domestic Violence occurs all over the world and is affecting millions of women, males and children (Phillips, Dunkley, Muller, & Lorimer, 2015). Because of this, there are policies in Australia that are meant to stop Family and Domestic Violence before it is too late. There will be a discussion on what is the worthiness of these policies, do they work and what could be improved.
Gender-based violence has been recognized as a large public health problem as well as a violation of human rights worldwide. One out of three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in another way at least once in her life (www.infoforhealth.org). The abuser is usually a member of the family, introducing the difficult problem in that the abuse usually happens behind closed doors, and is often viewed by cultural norms and legal systems as a family matter rather than a crime.
“Domestic violence is a violent confrontation between family or household members involving physical harm, sexual assault, or fear of physical harm” (Stewart & Croudep, 1998-2012). In most places domestic violence is looked on as one of the higher priorities when trying to stop crime. Domestic Violence cases are thought to be influenced by the use of alcohol, drugs, stress or anger but in reality, they are just learned behaviors by the batterer. These habits can be stopped as long as one seeks help (Stewart & Croudep, 1998-2012). For instance, a child is brought up in a household that is constantly involved in criminal acts. As this child grows up, the criminal lifestyle will be synonymous with his/her behavior. With that being said, it is also a given fact that if a household and its members are surrounded with violence, the relationships between one another will be strained. Eventually this will end up in a divorce or even worse, death, depending on how far the violence goes. If there is violence in a family, then the ones who are affected by it may feel like they deserve it because of what the batterer is accusing them of doing. Battering occurs among people of all races, ages, socio-economic classes, religious affiliations, occupations, and educational backgrounds (Stewart & Croudep, 1998-2012). Domestic violence can affect families in more aspects than one; the husband-wife relationship, the children, and also the financial stability.