Domestic Violence in Australia: Laws, Implications for Health Workers and Patient Care

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Introduction:
Domestic violence is a sequence of conducts which comprises of spoken, physical, sexual,
economic, and psychological abuse by instilling fear in an attempt by the guilty party to gain and
retain supremacy over the other. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation maintains that
Domestic violence is immoral and criminal behavior. Domestic Violence harms the mental and
physical health along with the future life prospects of victims. Any physical or mental traumatic
behavior is to be blamed on the culprit and not the victim. Trigger influences, for instance, drug
and alcohol misuse, anxiety, emotional disturbance or incitement by the victim does not
rationalize the violent behavior. The investigation into the violence, and provision of culprit
plans are supported, these should not be done at the expenditure of services or means of victims
of domestic violence.
Family Law Act of 1975 in Australia describes domestic violence as violent, intimidating or
other activities by an individual that intimidates, controls or frightens the member of individual’s
family. The Act mentions deeds of violence that takes place amongst people who were or are in a
familiar relationship in household backgrounds. Domestic violence likewise comprises violence
amongst companions of both genders, as well as same-sex affairs. Nevertheless, the word can be
transformed by each state's law and can widen the range of domestic violence, for example in
Victoria family violence is defined as seeing any sort of violence in the household in the
relationship which lived like a family. Between 2010 and 2012, at an average every 10 days a
man died because of family violence, with an aggregate of 75 between the duration. Whereas in
2015, women were nearly 65% of all fatalities in family domestic violence connected murder in
Australia which amounted to 103 dead. In the middle of 2014 to 2016, 264,028 domestic
violence cases were informed and documented. As per the research , it has been found that 80%
of women and 95% of men didn’t seek any assistance even after being abused by their existing
partner.. The anticipation of more violence, fear of retaliation from the existing partner,
emotional attachment, disbelief, embarrassment or shame et cetera was cited as the most shared
reason for not taking the help of a law enforcement agency. 560 men and 2,800 women during
2014-2015 were admitted in hospital because of the assault of a partner or spouse. It is also seen
that one out three women and one out of five men experiences violence through existing or
former inmate after the age of 15.

Legislation & Codes:
There are several laws, act, codes, etc. to report any issues of domestic or family violence. As per the
studies, it has been found that every one woman out of three experiences certain kind of physical
violence at least once in their lifetime throughout Australia. In order to control and address this
issue, there are several domestic or family violence laws differing from state to state. In other
words, there are separate set of laws and systems to address domestic violence in each territories
and state forming a diverse legal rule throughout the country (Swannell, 2015). There are several
forms of domestic violence that comes under criminal offences. The victims of these issues
inducing child, family members witness etc. in extreme scenario can lead to death, long term
mental problems, psychological issues or serious physical injury (AVERT Family Violence:
Collaborative Responses in the Family Law System, n.d.). Thus, the legal system plays a vital
role in the society or community in terms of preventing and addressing these issues. However,
there is not a particular or single national legislation which targets domestic violence but there
are in total 8 different territories and state legal schemes enabling victims of domestic violence to
seek protection through courts and police. Additionally, even commonwealth laws form
domestic violence provisions (Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012, 2017). The
way these laws provisions and policy interact or operate have major impact on the well being and
safety of the victims. There are 5 common areas of low that was developed in response to
domestic violence:
1. Protection Order: this varies from state or territories
2. Criminal law- these includes law of stalking and assaulting.
3. Child protection law: this varies includes abuses against the children and the effect of
domestic violence upon their life.
4. Family Law: This includes parenting orders related to the safety of the children from
domestic or family violence as one of them from state to territories.
5. Compensation Legislation against criminal injustice: this provides avenues to the victims
to request compensation against the issues which varies from state and territories.