Domestic violence

Press, 24 February 1987, Page 20

Domestic violence

Sir,— I applaud the Police Commissioner’s positive consideration towards adopting a sterner approach to “home assault” (February 6). However, I question the likelihood of preventing family violence by attempting to criminalise the perpetrator.

The Domestic Protection Act (1982) empowers the police to arrest a perpetrator (subject to a non-violence court order) and detain him for 24 hours. Although this arrest measure only applies when a non-violence order has been issued, it can be of assistance to the victims most at risk.

Through your columns may I ask the Commissioner of Police how many arrests under a nonviolence order have been made each year since the Domestic Protection Act was, passed? To what extent is this existing legislation being used by the police, and how well has it been tried? A problem with criminalising family violence is that victims may become even more afraid than they are at present to ask the police for help.—Yours, etc., PHILIP CLEARWATER. February 9, 1987.

[Commissioner M. T. Churches replies: “The police attend violent domestic disputes when called by the victim, a family member or some other person — usually a neighbour. The changes proposed — to increase the arrest option — from Sergeant Greg Ford’s report on domestic violence will give the courts the ability to sentence an aggressor to some type of counselling. This may help in modifying his violent behaviour. In the Hamilton

research there was no evidence that increased police action reduced the number of calls to the police. Victims said that they were better off under the new system. Your correspondent asks how often arrests have been made under a non-violence

order. Unfortunately, we do not ' keep statistics on this particular aspect. An arrest under a nonviolence order as outlined in the Domestic Protection Act allows the police to detain the person

for up to 24 hours without charging. This is used as a ‘cooling-off’ period. A breach of a nonmolestation order is, on the other hand, an offence which is liable to three months imprisonment or a $5OO fine, and such a person must be charged and brought before the court. Our latest statistics for domestic affairs breaches (which include nonmolestation orders) total 582 breaches for 1985. Of these 248 (43 per cent) resulted -in a prosection, 113 (19 per cent) offenders were warned, 123 (21 per cent) were cleared as no offence disclosed and 98 (17 per cent) were not solved. The police can only act if there are orders in existence. In most cases where police attend violent disputes it has been found that no court orders are in force.”]