Victoria Police members have issued almost 130 Safety Notices to family violence perpetrators since new powers to protect victims were introduced one month ago, statistics released reveal.
The Family Violence Safety Notices were launched on December 8 2008 as part of the new Family Violence Protection Act.
The notices have a similar protective effect to an intervention order and enable police to immediately prohibit a perpetrator from contacting, verbally abusing, threatening or assaulting their victim or damaging property. The breaching of a Safety Notice is a criminal offence.
Police issued 128 Family Violence Safety Notices from December 8 to January 4 this year. Ninety per cent of those issued with a Safety Notice were male.
Of the 128 Family Violence Safety Notices issued over the one month period, 83 of those were issued on weekends and public holidays when courts were closed, with the highest number of notices issued on Friday, December 26.
Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland said the notices helped protect victims when courts were not in session and when they were at their most vulnerable.
"Women and children have a right to feel safe in their own home and it is our responsibility to protect the victim from further harm by removing the perpetrator. The Safety Notices allows us to take this sort of action," Mr Overland said.
"We understand that women are often fearful of the perpetrator and they believe family violence should be something that should be resolved within the privacy of their home.
"But one of the biggest myths surrounding family violence is that it will go away or that it will get better, when in fact it doesn’t. In many cases, it only gets worse."
Mr Overland’s comments coincide with the release of family violence figures for the recent Christmas and New Year’s period.
The statistics show the number of family violence incidents during the Christmas week period were down from last year with police responding to 906 family violence incidents from Christmas to New Years Day. This was 85 less than the previous year.
Mr Overland said although the number of incidences was down from last year, more needed to be done to help tackle family violence.
"Victoria Police is committed to the fight against family violence and we will continue to raise awareness of this crime in the community while encouraging people to report incidents to us so that we can respond appropriately," he said.
The Department of Justice last month launched a state-wide campaign, "Family Violence. Victoria has had Enough" to help promote the new laws and raises public awareness of family violence.
