RATES of domestic violence applications making it to court are declining despite calls for awareness classes on the topic in primary schools growing louder.
Ipswich Magistrates Court ranks fourth in Queensland for applications of domestic violence orders, although the figures for the region do represent a decline.
This year, 475 applications were lodged compared with 1536 the year prior, but the most applications for the past five years was in 2022-23 with 1756 applications lodged.
Police represent 84.6% of lodging applicants, with 14.8% private or individual lodgements.
The gender of the application lodger is predominantly female, representing 79.1%, with 72% of cases being between intimate partners, followed by family relationship (27.7%) and unknown previously (0.03%).
With these released figures showing a positive decline, the recommendation of primary school classes continues to be raised, including last week by Charles Darwin University lecturer in early childhood Toni McCallum.
Dr McCallum’s suggestion focuses on the effect of complex trauma on children exposed to domestic and family violence and recommendations from the coroner’s department.
“Young children spend a huge part of their lives at school,” Dr McCallum said.
“Evidence suggests that early intervention is crucial in DFSV prevention.
“We should be starting at primary school with five-year-olds, building resilience in young children and teaching them tools to stand up to coercive and abusive adults in their lives.
“We need to work with local families and communities of schools to raise community awareness of DFSV and start to call out the behaviours of violence.”
To specifically combat domestic and family violence rates in Ipswich, Operation Shield was launched earlier this year.
Targeting the region’s most high-risk and high-harm domestic and family violence offenders, Operation Shield utilised the knowledge and understanding of local officers.
In the first month of the operation, police arrested and charged 14 high-risk domestic violence offenders with a string of serious offences.
