Report finds judges taking domestic violence seriously, but prison terms unchanged

Prison terms for perpetrators of domestic violence have stayed the same despite a range of reforms on the back of a landmark inquiry into how the justice system handled crimes against women.

But Queensland judges and magistrates are taking sentencing more seriously with an increase in the number of custodial punishments given to those convicted of domestic violence offences.

The findings were revealed in a Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council report made public on Monday, after being handed to Attorney-General Deb Frecklington late last month.

QSAC council chair and former judge Kerry O’Brien AM said Queensland had already undertaken significant work to curb the blight of domestic violence in society.

O’Brien, who was the longest serving judge of the District Court, said the research found sentencing practices had shifted towards treating domestic violence offending more seriously than other crimes.

“We are seeing a greater use of custodial and supervised orders, including imprisonment, for contravening a domestic violence order,” he wrote.

“However, the length of custodial sentences have not changed.”

The report found the breadth of reform and systemic changes meant it was not possible to identify what was driving sentencing trends.

The report features more than a year of research into the former Labor government’s reforms in the maximum penalty for DVO breaches and the introduction of domestic violence as an aggravating factor for the purpose of sentencing.

The research found while sentencing was being treated more seriously, there were two non-DV offences – acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm, and burglary and commit an indictable offence – that did not follow that trend.

“Our research suggests this was due to important case differences between those offences sentenced as DV offences and those that were not,” the report said.

The report said the number of sentenced DVO breaches had increased by 258 per cent from 2013-14 to 2024-24.

In the 2024-25 period, two thirds of breach offences were aggravated, with charges increasing.

The research also found offences committed in other jurisdictions or states were not consistently recorded as domestic violence offences, which could impact sentencing practices.

The increase in the seriousness of penalty outcomes for DV offending and order breaches correlated with the introduction of the two reforms.

However, because the reforms occurred during a period of significant change, the council could not definitively determine if the reforms were the cause.

The report also said the types of conditions that were breached on DVOs or the breach conduct could not be determined from administrative data.

The council made 12 findings and seven observations about sentencing reforms, including improved data capture to support better understanding of the amount of actual time spent in custody, and the development of standardised linked data sets for better research efforts.

In the report, O’Brien said the council’s work confirmed the need for improving systems and evidence bases across the system.

“We cannot assess nor can government change what cannot be seen. Improving data systems in Queensland is urgent,” he said.

“More comprehensive data must be captured and linked at a charge level to enable the impacts of criminal justice reforms to be properly understood.”

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