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WA domestic violence crisis: Magistrate courts overwhelmed with record number of cases

WA’s magistrates courts are being overwhelmed with family and domestic violence cases at record levels, with the number of cases lodged doubling in the past three years. The West Australian can exclusively reveal that between January 1 and November 30 this year, 14,096 cases were filed with magistrates courts across the State – a rate of about 42 a day. That is nearly twice as many cases as just three years ago (7077 cases) and a 20 per cent increase on last year when 11,798 cases were lodged. There has been a steady rise in the number of cases every year since 2018 when 7187 cases were recorded, with 6540 lodged in 2019, 6646 in 2020, 7077 in 2021 and 9257 in 2022. Cases can include one charge, such as an assault or breach of a restraining order, or several. Any new charges for the same accused lodged in the magistrates court on a different day are considered a different case. Patricia Giles Centre for Non-Violence chief executive Debbie Cameron said the record court cases for domestic violence did not surprise her. “But they do disappoint me,” she said. “In terms of getting the magistrate court appearances down, we need to reduce the number of perpetrators inflicting abuse on their partners. “We need to increase the penalties for those who do and offer more behavioural change programs to try and break the cycle. “We need good people to stand up and say ‘enough is enough’ and call out bad behaviour. “FDV is a whole-of-community issue and it requires a whole-of-community response. “Whilst we will do everything we can to support someone who is experiencing FDV, we need the community to look at stopping the violence before it happens.” The record court figures follow The West Australian revealing in October that the State was set for a record number of protective order breaches in 2024. And earlier this month, The West revealed how almost 1300 domestic violence victims were turned away from just four WA refuges in the first half of the year. “Unfortunately we do have to turn women and children away from our refuges as we can only provide refuge support proportionate to the number of beds we have,” Ms Cameron said. “In terms of unmet demand, we would receive at least 20 calls a day that we are unable to accommodate but we try to refer to outreach services that may be available as much as possible. Patricia Giles Centre for Non-Violence has 33 bedrooms in total across its refuges and in the last year provided accommodation to 209 women and 290 children. “Our Safe at Home and outreach services continue to be in high demand, particularly as women and children are unable to access safe accommodation in refuges. In the last 12 months, our team supported 472 women and children. “We supported 36 families in our Housing Support program last year with the biggest challenge being finding affordable accommodation for the women and children we work with.” Ms Cameron called for more funding, including in outreach and counselling. “More funding would lead to more service delivery,” she said. “The State Government has recently announced an uplift in refuge funding, which is greatly appreciated. “However additional funding in the outreach and counselling areas would also assist in providing additional services. “We would always welcome support from the community in terms of donations which allows us to provide additional supports to the women and children we work with.” Ms Cameron said their counselling services for adults and children “generally have a waitlist”.

The West Australian exclusiveWA domestic violence crisis: Magistrate courts overwhelmed with record number of cases

exclusive
WA domestic violence crisis: Magistrate courts overwhelmed with record number of cases