CREATING a family violence offender register could help to address the problem of perpetrators abusing partner after partner, says Bendigo police Sergeant Marg Singe.
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Sergeant Singe said it was a scenario seen in Bendigo all too often.
"People who are going into a relationship don't know the full history of their partner and we see ongoing violence perpetuated against their next partner," she said.
"If people have the facility to check that, it may not stop them from entering that relationship but at least they go into it knowing the facts."
Centre for Non-Violence chief executive officer Margaret Augerinos said she had reservations about how the scheme would work, given many abusive partners monitored their victims’ internet use.
"At the moment there are significant risks for women accessing information through technology," she said.
Ms Augerinos said the the primary focus of police and family violence services needed to be on prevention and support for victims.
Similar problems could arise from the online case tracking service suggested in Victoria Police's submission. Ms Augerinos said such a scheme could be vulnerable to exploitation by the intended users’ abusive partners. Privacy concerns were also an issue around the submission's suggested data-sharing arrangement between police and service providers.
"Though it can be useful to access that information, particularly around our higher risk clients, the concern for us would be that it's not always necessary for service providers to know absolutely everything about their clients. Any sharing needs to be for a specific purpose," Ms Augerinos said.
Sergeant Singe said a shared data set would give service providers a clearer idea of victims’ situations.
"One of the issues we have at the moment is that DHS runs its own systems and in our area the Centre for Non-Violence has its own system, we have a system and unless we sit down and discuss clients together, we may not get the full picture," she said.
The recommendation to establish specialist family violence ticks won Ms Augerinos’ tick of approval.
"That's something we've been arguing for for a while. We know specialist courts improve outcomes for victims and we'd certainly look forward to that," she said.
Sergeant Singe agreed specialist courts would make a significant difference.
"Specialist courts have been shown in other parts of the state to get better penalties and give better support for victims," she said.
Sergeant Singe said magistrates at specialist family violence courts were able to get a better understanding of victims' plights.
"They're more likely to impose conditions on orders we may not get otherwise because they're able to develop expertise," she said.
Providing police with power to issue intervention orders in the field would benefit police, courts and victims, she said.