Tasmanian police and family violence orders

[geoffjennings79]

Hey Kurve - hope this is ok, thought it deserved it's own dedicated thread/discussion.

The article posted yesterday on the ABC was disturbing in itself, but the comments from the Assistant Commissioner of Tas police were just flabbergasting. If he actually believes them, he is not only in the wrong role, he should re-think his career choice.

Anna called police to report an assault, but it backfired and she lost her home

Tasmania Police's power to issue final family violence orders is exacerbating the problem of victim misidentification, experts say, making it difficult to correct cases where officers have made the wrong call and upending the lives of potentially hundreds of women every year.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Kurve]

Hey Kurve - hope this is ok, thought it deserved it's own dedicated thread/discussion.

The article posted yesterday on the ABC was disturbing in itself, but the comments from the Assistant Commissioner of Tas police were just flabbergasting. If he actually believes them, he is not only in the wrong role, he should re-think his career choice.

Anna called police to report an assault, but it backfired and she lost her home

Tasmania Police's power to issue final family violence orders is exacerbating the problem of victim misidentification, experts say, making it difficult to correct cases where officers have made the wrong call and upending the lives of potentially hundreds of women every year.

www.abc.net.au

View attachment 1622711

MRAs showing them how to get away with it likely. I've seen a 6'3" man with a history of violence cry victim, quite successfully actually because even the cops were scared of him and witnesses who knew the reality, had sudden amnesia.

 

[Kurve]

For years domestic violence workers around Australia have been warning of a growing misidentification crisis: of mounting cases where police have mistaken the victim for the perpetrator and taken out an intervention order against them or charged them with criminal offences. Often it's because female victims have presented as "hostile" or "hysterical" — or because they've fought back or defended themselves — and police haven't gathered all the facts, or dug into the couple's history of coercive control, or realised an abuser is trying to manipulate the system.

Anna called police to report an assault, but it backfired and she lost her home

Tasmania Police's power to issue final family violence orders is exacerbating the problem of victim misidentification, experts say, making it difficult to correct cases where officers have made the wrong call and upending the lives of potentially hundreds of women every year.

www.abc.net.au

 

[geoffjennings79]

For years domestic violence workers around Australia have been warning of a growing misidentification crisis: of mounting cases where police have mistaken the victim for the perpetrator and taken out an intervention order against them or charged them with criminal offences. Often it's because female victims have presented as "hostile" or "hysterical" — or because they've fought back or defended themselves — and police haven't gathered all the facts, or dug into the couple's history of coercive control, or realised an abuser is trying to manipulate the system.

Anna called police to report an assault, but it backfired and she lost her home

Tasmania Police's power to issue final family violence orders is exacerbating the problem of victim misidentification, experts say, making it difficult to correct cases where officers have made the wrong call and upending the lives of potentially hundreds of women every year.

www.abc.net.au

Yeah, that feeds into the quote from the Tas Assistant Commissioner I highlighted in the OP. It just beggars belief in 2023 that either of those perspectives are considered over and above the overwhelming facts and statistics in domestic (and sexual) abuse in Australia, which point to the exact opposite of the extracts you and I have taken from the article. Yet here we are.

 

[owen87]

Yeah, that feeds into the quote from the Tas Assistant Commissioner I highlighted in the OP. It just beggars belief in 2023 that either of those perspectives are considered over and above the overwhelming facts and statistics in domestic (and sexual) abuse in Australia, which point to the exact opposite of the extracts you and I have taken from the article. Yet here we are.

I don't think it's right to simply rely on averages in this case, because it would lead to a scenario where the police go 'well it's mostly men being abusive, so in this case it's probably the guy, let's name him as a perpetrator' which causes a lot of issues.

They should be doing some proper investigation in to any previous incidents or records, and talking to people outside of the initial situation.

Seems like a thing where they need officers with appropriate training to manage these situations and make these decisions.

 

[Kurve]

I don't think it's right to simply rely on averages in this case, because it would lead to a scenario where the police go 'well it's mostly men being abusive, so in this case it's probably the guy, let's name him as a perpetrator' which causes a lot of issues.

The situation here is in Tasmania where women are being named by the police as 'respondents' through the courts when the apprehended violence order is processed, they're not always charged as offenders. That means the cops have decided the female is the aggressor and they have final say.

The police go in to a situation without the right skills to adequately assess the situation, or it's the 12th domestic they've attended that shift and the first party that admits to smashing a teacup or 'hitting' even if it's in self defence, gets tagged as the respondent.

That's not to say women can't be aggressive, violent or manipulative because they can. Women just aren't killing men at the same rate yet.

 

[owen87]

The situation here is in Tasmania where women are being named by the police as 'respondents' through the courts when the apprehended violence order is processed, they're not always charged as offenders. That means the cops have decided the female is the aggressor and they have final say.

The police go in to a situation without the right skills to adequately assess the situation, or it's the 12th domestic they've attended that shift and the first party that admits to smashing a teacup or 'hitting' even if it's in self defence, gets tagged as the respondent.

That's not to say women can't be aggressive, violent or manipulative because they can. Women just aren't killing men at the same rate yet.

As I said;

Seems like a thing where they need officers with appropriate training to manage these situations and make these decisions.

Relying on averages for individual situations is just as poor as making a decision on the spot without all the information that has implications for court proceedings.

 

[Kurve]

As I said;



Relying on averages for individual situations is just as poor as making a decision on the spot without all the information that has implications for court proceedings.

I'm agreeing with you, if I might suggest that cops can also be lazy, time pressed and/or bias who could accurately assess a situation as one of coercive control yet go ahead and misidentify the female as the aggressor anyway.

 

[owen87]

I'm agreeing with you, if I might suggest that cops can also be lazy, time pressed and/or bias who could accurately assess a situation as one of coercive control yet go ahead and misidentify the female as the aggressor anyway.

I assume this is a problem everywhere, but there certainly appears to be a lack of suitable training down in Tassie for officers making these decisions. Surely there should be someone back at the office with more time and not a first responder that can check through and validate these things.

 

[geoffjennings79]

I don't think it's right to simply rely on averages in this case, because it would lead to a scenario where the police go 'well it's mostly men being abusive, so in this case it's probably the guy, let's name him as a perpetrator' which causes a lot of issues.

They should be doing some proper investigation in to any previous incidents or records, and talking to people outside of the initial situation.

Seems like a thing where they need officers with appropriate training to manage these situations and make these decisions.

I didn't suggest relying on averages. But given the statistics across the nation, unless Tasmania was an outlier by a fair margin, they would be broadly in the range of the rest of Australia. I was suggesting the Tasmanian Assistant Commissioner's comments show he has no idea what he is talking about - he says it "could be due to a range of reasons", then "perhaps" there are more male victims and more female perpetrators.

Leaving aside any actual numbers, these comments are laughable in their ignorance, naivety or stupidity - "perhaps" all three.