Media Release
For immediate release 8 a.m. (AEDT) Friday 20 October 2017
A report released today by the Sentencing Advisory Council calls for a stronger response by Victoria’s courts and corrections systems to family violence offenders.
The report recommends a range of reforms to increase the accountability of family violence offenders who breach a community correction order or who are identified as having an increased risk of a breach. But the Council has rejected the adoption of an American sentencing model known as ‘swift, certain and fair’, which has been used in sentencing and managing drug offenders in some parts of the United States.
Following a recommendation by the Royal Commission into Family Violence, the Council was asked by the Attorney-General to examine the ‘swift, certain and fair’ approach (SCF approach).
Council researchers examined all available evidence on the effectiveness of SCF approaches overseas and consulted widely with criminal justice stakeholders, victims’ groups and other members of the community in Victoria.
The Council’s conclusion that an SCF approach would not be effective or appropriate in sentencing or managing family violence offenders in Victoria was based on factors including:
- the lack of any evidence for the effectiveness of SCF approaches to sentencing and managing family violence offenders
- the potential risks SCF approaches pose to family violence victim survivors and affected family members
- the limited effectiveness of short terms of imprisonment in preventing reoffending and a lack of capacity to house such offenders in Victoria
- the likelihood that certain types or groups of offenders would be disproportionately affected by SCF approaches
- near-unanimous stakeholder opposition.
Council Chair Professor Arie Freiberg said the American model for managing sentenced drug offenders was ‘not appropriate for family violence offenders in Victoria, and could have serious unintended consequences’.
To better achieve the outcomes sought from SCF approaches, the Council has recommended a range of reforms that would increase the accountability of family violence offenders sentenced to a community correction order, including:
- fast tracking the prosecution of community correction order breaches by family violence offenders in the Magistrates’ Court
- encouraging greater use of judicial monitoring of family violence offenders (bringing offenders back to court to monitor their progress)
- monitoring family violence offenders earlier in the term of their community correction order
- allowing Corrections Victoria to respond to any identified increase in the risk of an offender breaching their community correction order, by directing them to attend judicial monitoring
- improving the quality of information provided to the court at a judicial monitoring hearing
- judicial education and training on the use of judicial monitoring of family violence offenders.
‘The Council has recommended practical reforms that will increase the accountability of family violence offenders sentenced to community correction orders and strengthen the system’s response to changes in family violence risk, even where no breach has yet occurred’ said Professor Freiberg. ‘These recommended reforms are one part of the broader criminal justice and community response needed to reduce family violence’.
