Apprehended Domestic Violence Against Children

988 Words4 Pages
Domestic violence refers to any act, whether verbal or physical, of a violent or abusive nature that takes place within a domestic relationship. Whilst in 2011 the New South Wales Police recorded over 25,000 cases of domestic violence, it is estimated that these cases only represent 37% of the total number of incidences. Legal responses such as the creation of Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders (ADVOs) and mandatory reporting of abuse have had mixed levels of effectiveness, whilst the non-legal response of the creation of women’s refuges have been extremely effective, yet have struggled due to funding issues. The implementation of Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders has only been effective to an extent, as it gives victims little real protection,…show more content…
Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child requires that signatories must legislate to protect children from “all forms of physical or mental violence”, and New South Wales has attempted to accomplish this through the legislation of mandatory reporting. The Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW) ss 24-27 directed that certain professions must report to Community Services if they suspect that a child is being abused. Whilst this legislation admirably intended to ensure that authorities noticed all abused children, the sheer number of reports has created too much work for Community Services to handle. Currently, it is estimated that one in three children have been reported to Community Services at least once. “Statistics, Lies and DocS” (ABC News, July 2010) revealed that following the implementation of mandatory reporting, the total number of reports of abuse has tripled, but the number of reports of serious cases has remained constant. This means that Community Services’ limited resources are not being utilized efficiently, because they are being wasted on less serious cases. As such, the abolition of Mandatory Reporting would maximize the resource efficiency of Community Services by allowing them focusing…show more content…
Charity-operated women’s refuges offer a variety of services to 20,000 victims of domestic violence each year. One service that could be provided by these refuges is legal assistance to women applying for ADVOs. Currently, the private sector is not able to supplement the government’s legal aid system in a significant way due to lack of funding. The inadequacy of the current legal aid system is clearly illustrated by Alice Winston’s difficulties in 2004. After fleeing her abusive husband to a women’s refuge, Alice was not able to access free legal aid as it was means tested and she partly owned her marital property, which her husband refused to sell. Unfortunately, such circumstances are not uncommon, with the Australian Law Reform Commission estimating that 46% of women living in refuges are unable to access legal representation. Given that domestic violence results in $1.5 billion productivity losses to the economy yearly, we believe greater funding to charities such as The Benevolent Society would be an efficient allocation of resources, as they resolve domestic situations quickly and
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