Prosecuting Domestic Violence Cases

Abstract

This chapter begins by reviewing the role of the criminal law in responding to domestic violence. It identifies that the criminal justice system plays two “vitally” important roles in the domestic violence sphere. The first is “symbolic” - that the justice system as a social institution sets the limits of acceptable behaviour and criminalisation may convey that the activity is taken seriously by government. The second role is “real” in that the effects of the prosecution and sentencing are experienced by both perpetrators and victims of domestic violence. The main reason identified for the under-prosecution of domestic violence offences in Australia is the victim’s lack of cooperation, and prosecutorial guidelines have attempted to address this concern in a range of ways. Victims of domestic violence are regularly pressured or threatened, or may be encouraged by the accused as part of the ongoing and controlling dynamics of domestic violence, to withdraw their complaint or give false evidence.