Impact News: Evaluation of the Southport Specialist Domestic Violence Court Justice Response
Since 2019, ARTD has been working with the Department of Justice and Attorney–General to evaluate the Southport Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Court Justice Response (SSDFVCJR). SSDFVCJR was established as a coordinated, respectful, and fair court-based justice response to domestic and family violence (DFV) that prioritises victim safety, holds perpetrators accountable and promotes innovation and continuous improvement.
Our outcomes evaluation was recently cited by the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce’s Hear Her Voice Report, which made 89 recommendations to further reform the domestic and family violence specialist service systems to ensure they keep victims safe and hold perpetrators accountable.
In a landmark decision, the Queensland Government announced its in principle support for all the recommendations. This means the government will, using the evidence presented in our final evaluation, continue to roll out specialist domestic and family violence courts across Queensland.
Today, Attorney-General of Queensland, Shannon Fentiman welcomed the findings of the evaluation report, and noted the recommendations from the report will be considered as the operations of Southport’s specialist response are strengthened, and may inform improvements to other Queensland courts. The outcomes and process evaluation reports are now published on the Queensland Courts website.
We are delighted that our work is contributing to this key area of reform.
