Domestic violence being treated more seriously in sentencing

The Council released its final report, The Tangled Web: Examining domestic and family violence sentencing reforms which reviewed the impact of two specific sentencing reforms.

The Tangled Web is a culmination of more than a year of research looking at the increase in the maximum penalty for contravening a domestic violence order and the introduction of domestic violence as an aggravating factor for the purpose of sentencing.

Council chair Kerry O’Brien said the review looked at what the sentencing reforms meant for victim-survivors, perpetrator accountability, and the broader justice system.

“Queensland has already undertaken a lot of work to help curb the blight of domestic violence on all aspects of our society,” Mr O’Brien said.

“Our findings in The Tangled Web revealed sentencing practices have shifted towards treating domestic and family violence related offending more seriously than other offending.

“We are seeing a greater use of custodial and supervised orders, including imprisonment, for contravening a domestic violence order, however, the length of custodial sentences have not changed.”

In relation to other domestic violence related offences our research found that in both the Magistrates and higher courts domestic violence offences were more likely to receive a custodial penalty and a longer median custodial sentence than non-domestic violence related offences.

The Tangled Web includes two recommendations, 12 findings and seven observations about the sentencing reforms.

The recommendations include improved data capture to support better understanding of the amount of actual time spent in custody and the development of standardised linked data sets to better support research and evaluation efforts.

Read the full report.

Read our supporting research brief.