By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
THE region’s top cop has warned that police are taking a hard line on the “arseholes” who afflict family violence.
Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius, who heads the southern metropolitan police area, told a family-violence debate in Dandenong last Thursday that he wanted to hold perpetrators accountable for a societal “cancer” where many women were objectified and subject to violence, abuse and control.
Mr Cornelius said he was determined to tackle a 68 per cent recidivism rate among family-violence offenders in Greater Dandenong last year.
So far this year there has been a 6 per cent drop in the rate – though there has been still more than 400 recidivist offenders.
He said the reduction was achieved by “holding these arseholes accountable”.
“It’s police practice now to arrest perpetrators on their first offence and force them to endure at least four hours in police cells.
“We take away that sense of empowerment and control and authority, and give them a clear taste of the consequences.”
Mr Cornelius said a new agreement with Dandenong Magistrates’ Court fast-tracked recidivist offenders’ cases to be heard within a week, not up to 18 weeks.
“We won’t allow their feet to touch the ground.”
Dr Chris Atmore, senior policy adviser for Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria, said there was a need for “smart justice” rather than a “lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key mentality”.
The latter approach had, in any case, only jailed 11 per cent of perpetrators, she said. Those jailed were locked up for an average of less than three months.
Dr Atmore said greater spending on prisons meant less to spend on men’s behaviour change programs and safe refuge housing for women and children.
She called for more consideration of why men were violent.
Maya Avdibegovic of the InTouch Multicultural Centre of Family Violence said the state’s network of support agencies “works perfectly” but was struggling to keep up with demand.
Men’s behaviour change programs could only help about 20 per cent of men-in-need of intervention, she said.
Domestic Violence Victoria chief executive Fiona McCormack said: “We have to be tougher on the men (perpetrators) but we also have to be smarter.”
She said a coalition of agencies had made 25 ‘key asks’ as part of a No More Deaths campaign ahead of the state election.
Other speakers included magistrate Pauline Spencer and Women with Disabilities Victoria chief executive Keran Howe who have featured in the Journal this month.
