An oft-quoted statistic from police is they respond to a family violence incident every seven minutes.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Following the Royal Commission into Family Violence, that number is the focus for many working in the sector, who know what the epidemic looks like.
Ballarat will host a multi-disciplinary training day on Thursday, which will bring together police and the judiciary, as well support services and Legal Aid, to discuss responding to family violence incidents, and making sure victims are looked after.
The seminar, supported by the Judicial College of Victoria, is part of the Royal Commission's recommendation for a more therapeutic response to family violence, which includes specialist courts.
Workshops will focus on gender inequality and how it leads to family violence, risk assessment and management, how to communicate with offenders, and a panel discussion facilitated by former commissioner Marcia Neave on what happens in court.
Senior Ballarat crime lawyer Scott Belcher will be one of the panellists, as well as Magistrate Noreen Toohey.
"The Judicial College of Victoria family violence seminar is a fantastic chance for local lawyers, court staff, police, child safety community organisations, and victims groups to engage with the only organisation that provides ongoing professional development, and education to magistrates and judges," he said.
"Domestic violence and ice are the 2 biggest modern day challenges in any court list around Victoria.
"These two areas of law are highly emotional, or volatile, at times when parents' and kids' lives are destroyed, or damaged by these crimes."
He noted that Ballarat will soon have one of these specialist courts, with additional police resources and detectives adding to the well-established network of support resources in town.
One of those support agencies is Centacare, which looks after victims of family violence and their children.
Victim's assistance program and youth services manager Benita Marson said the organisation often received referrals from police, so it was important to make sure everyone was on the same page.
"(We're) supporting victims through an integrated service response, so for all staff working in the family violence sector, it's really important they're all up to date on what services are available," she said.
"It ensures a coordinated care approach."
The seminar is the first of three planned for the year, which will encourage connections.
"We work closely with WRISC, Berry Street, the courts, and any other service within the community where we may need to provide a referral for any of our victims of family violence to receive support, and that's why it's so important to have an integrated response," she said.
Mr Belcher said bringing additional resources and attention to Ballarat was a positive, but there was always more work to be done.
"The key change I'd like to see from the courts is a greater emphasis on an objective and neutral tone in which the court's message is delivered to the parties," he said.
"There also needs to be much more work done on how to include the perpetrator in the court process beyond punishment or rehabilitation.
"The current adversarial criminal justice system, or the civil jurisdiction model does little to promote speedy outcomes given the inevitable conflict at the bar table."
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.
