Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council (QSAC) research reveals almost half of the individuals sentenced for contravening a domestic violence order reoffended.
QSAC released a Sentencing Spotlight on contravention of a domestic violence order (CDVO) on Friday ahead of its final report on domestic and family violence sentencing reforms.
Council Chair, the Honourable Ann Lyons AM acknowledged the high number of repeat offenders and said it raised questions about the effectiveness of the current deterrent and rehabilitation efforts.
QSAC Chair Ann Lyons AM.
“A reoffending rate of almost 45 per cent among those previously punished points to a significant presence of recidivism,” she said.
“That’s why it is important that both sentencing reforms and sentencing options are appropriately targeted to reduce the likelihood of reoffending and promote victim safety.
“As the council moves into the public consultation phase for the terms of reference on domestic and family violence sentencing reforms in Queensland, a key focus will be on whether the more serious treatment of these offences is translating into better outcomes, as well as the impact of the ‘aggravating factor’ that applies to other forms of domestic violence offending.”
The Sentencing Spotlight focused on cases where CDVO was the most serious offence sentenced. It showed offending patterns, the sentences they received and how often people reoffended.
Ann said the data revealed a difference in how the justice system responded to first-time offenders compared to repeat offenders.
“Over the eight years leading up to 30 June 2024, a monetary penalty was the most common outcome for first-time DV offenders sentenced for CDVO, accounting for 52.9 per cent of cases. However, this percentage significantly decreased to 27.4 per cent when the individual had a prior conviction for a
DV offence,” she said.
“Only a small fraction – 6.1 per cent – of first-time DV offenders who breach DV orders receive imprisonment. However, this changed dramatically if they had prior DV offences, with 30.9 per cent resulting in imprisonment.
“It’s interesting to see the shift in punishment from a fine for the first-time offence to imprisonment for a second or subsequent offence in recognition of the increased seriousness when there is a previous history of DV offending and the higher maximum penalty that applies.
“It underscores why understanding the effectiveness of sentencing responses is crucial and why it’s so important to do the research and gather the evidence to confirm if sentencing reforms are working and achieving their intended purpose.”
A significant portion, 82.2 per cent, of all adults sentenced for contravention that received imprisonment, received a term of less than 12 months, with the average length of imprisonment across all cases being 6.7 months.
The data indicated men were disproportionately represented among those sentenced for contravention, accounting for 84 per cent. This is higher than the rates observed across all offences, where 75.7 per cent of people sentenced were male.
Read the Sentencing Spotlight on CDVO and view the consultation paper – Assessing the impacts of domestic and family violence sentencing reforms in Queensland.
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