Women’s advocates fear some family violence perpetrators are reverting to psychological and economic abuse, rather than physical blows, to reduce the risk of getting caught.
With Attorney-General Vanessa Goodwin considering recommendations following a 10-year review of Tasmania’s groundbreaking Safe at Home legislation, fewer cases of domestic violence have been reported.
Tasmania Police responded to about 2,300 family violence incidents last financial year, 800 fewer than five years ago.
But those figures do not tell the whole story, according to Susan Fahey from Women’s Legal Service.
Ms Fahey said psychological and economic abuse of women, rather than physical blows, was on the rise to minimise the risk of getting caught.
“We’ve definitely found people have become a little more clever about how they can control people,” she said.
“Lots of little jibes and insults that makes someone’s self-worth go down. We’re seeing a lot more of that.”
Merits of Tasmania’s landmark law contested
One woman who did not want to be named said her ex-partner’s abuse included restricting her outings and contact with her mother and racking up huge debts in her name.
“It’s the emotional scars that scar the worst, more so than physical violence,” she said.
“It’s a horrible feeling. It takes your self-esteem away. From then on I started to self-question me.”
Persons who would normally be given bail, would spend days, if not weeks, if not months in jail.
The introduction of 2004’s Safe At Home legislation, which mapped out an integrated response to domestic violence, dramatically changed the way police handled the issue.
Ms Fahey said it was a landmark policy that had real impact.
“Safe at Home was groundbreaking in that it was really the first lot of legislation that sought to directly tackle family violence,” she said.
“Things like intimidation and threatening behaviour and psychological abuse are all things that we can take into account that we couldn’t do beforehand.
But criminal lawyer Evan Hughes said the Safe at Home legislation was too inflexible, leading to delays in the courts and offenders unable to get bail.
“It can cause unjust results,” he said.
“Persons who are held in custody who don’t have access to a legal practitioner, who would normally be given bail, would spend days, if not weeks, if not months in jail.”
More support wanted for perpetrators seeking help
The Government plans to implement reforms to the family violence legislation in the second half of the year.
There was hope that increased resources would be provided to support services not just victims, but perpetrators wanting help.
Wayne Wright, who runs Centacare’s Challenging Abusive Behaviours program, the state’s only counselling service open to abusive men seeking help, he said some perpetrators want to break their cycle of violence.
“They’re repeating the behaviours they were brought up with and they’re suddenly realising that it’s just not working and they don’t want to see their children repeating the same behaviours,” he said.
Mr Wright said places in his program were limited by a lack of funding.
He said the majority of his clients had grown up with violence and did not want to continue the cycle.
“It’s a hugely courageous thing for a man to do,” he said.
We have sourced information from the relevant statutory instruments, from much legal literature for this article including from ABC News.
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