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Clues sought on family murders

Melissa Fyfe
November 23, 2008

DEATHS caused by family members will be examined in an Australian-first coronial review designed to reduce domestic violence murders.

Attorney-General Rob Hulls will today announce the review, to be led by the new Coroner's Prevention Unit. He is concerned deaths from family violence have remained static while overall homicide rates have dropped by a third in the past seven years.

Mr Hulls wants the deaths scrutinised as a category for clues on how to stop domestic violence escalating to murder. He also wants to find ways the State Government can intervene and assist women and children who are victims of violence. In Victoria, more than 40 per cent of homicides are related to family violence.

About 30,000 incidents of family violence are reported in the state each year. Around 24 of these involve deaths and 80 per cent of victims are women. Nationally about 25 children are killed each year by a parent.

Mr Hulls says similar reviews overseas had been successful in finding strategies to reduce domestic violence death rates and improved the practices of agencies working with families caught in domestic violence.

Such reviews also collected valuable and detailed data and raised awareness of family violence, which is the biggest contributor to the preventable death, disability and illness of women under the age of 45.

"The review will complement new laws in Victoria that better protect victims of family violence, help prevent family violence and hold perpetrators to account for their actions," Mr Hulls says. The new laws come into effect next month and make it easier for victims of family violence to remain in the family home.

In July this year, Victoria Police deputy commissioner Simon Overland spoke to The Sunday Age of his concern about family violence after a spate of domestic incidents over a fortnight that claimed the lives of 10 people including five children.

He said despite police and legal measures since 2004, community attitudes towards domestic abuse had remained largely unchanged.

Mr Hulls was to make the announcement ahead of White Ribbon Day on Tuesday, the international day for the elimination of violence against women.

"White Ribbon Day on Tuesday is a timely reminder that family violence should not, and will not, be tolerated in our community, and women and children are entitled to be protected," he says.

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