Alison Evans: We must focus on the bigger picture if we truly want to address domestic violence crisis

Post separation is a particularly dangerous time for victim-survivors. A victim-survivor can feel terrified that her ex-partner who has been released on bail or back into the community will turn up at her house and seriously harm her, or her children, or continue to stalk them. It’s critical that we protect and support victims wherever they live in the State. Electronic monitoring (EM) can give victims comfort that the perpetrator of the abuse is being monitored, but only if the scheme is managed properly and able to assess risk “in real time”, such that we can take immediate measures if conditions are breached to ensure victim safety. People who choose to use violence must be held accountable, and our police and court systems are a crucial part of that — as are interventions that bring about long-term behaviour change. Longer-term reduction in recidivism and increased safety and wellbeing requires effective offender rehabilitation. Effective rehabilitation connects offenders to social and cultural norms that reinforce non-offending behaviour for long-term reform. The determination of some perpetrators to “punish” their ex-partner means that they will stop at nothing, including EM, to attack the victim-survivor. They represent an unacceptable risk to the safety and wellbeing of their ex-partners and are not suitable for EM as an alternative to incarceration. However, perpetrators deemed an acceptable risk may be released on bail, serve a community-based sentence, or be released on parole with EM, reducing acceptable risk to negligible risk and so increasing victim-survivor safety. Due to the potential lethality of domestic and family violence, continuity of monitoring and sufficient time to act in the event of a breach is critical. This requires state-of-the-art hardware and software and around the clock human resources. Alongside this, specialist family and domestic violence services must be adequately funded to support women and children with safety planning. The information gathered through this can also inform risk assessment and support greater accuracy of the assessment. For far too long, there has been a piecemeal approach to this issue, with our responses not being implemented properly as funding has never matched the scale of the crisis. Our “reforms” have been at times superficial, rushed with inadequate money to support proper implementation. The issue with electronic monitoring is further evidence of this problem. It’s the bigger picture that we must keep focused on if we are truly to address the family and domestic violence crisis in our community. And this bigger picture looks like a number of things. It looks like available and accessible crisis accommodation to escape violence and long-term housing options to heal. It looks like services funded to provide advocacy, counselling and support to all victim-survivors. It looks like evidence-based, long-term perpetrator interventions to address violence and prevent it happening in the future. It looks like policing and justice systems that protect victim-survivors and focus on the person choosing to use violence. It looks like funding for the highly specialised services and workforce who keep victim-survivors safe and perpetrators accountable. Alison Evans is CEO of the Centre for Women’s Safety & Wellbeing