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Following is a question by Dr Hon Helena Wong and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (January 9):
Question:
Quite a number of organisations which provide services to victims of family violence have relayed to me that, albeit the frequent occurrence of family violence incidents, the number of criminal cases relating to family violence as published by the Police has been on the low side, and the authorities' support for victims of family violence is also inadequate. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the criteria used by the Police for determining whether individual cases should be regarded as "family violence" or "family dispute" and the ranks of the police officers who make such determinations; of the respective numbers of these two categories of cases handled by the Police in the past five years; given that the aforesaid organisations have pointed out that the criteria adopted by the Police are ambiguous, resulting in incorrect assessment of the situation faced by victims of family violence, whether the Police will conduct a review in this regard; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) of the respective measures taken by the authorities to help victims of family violence and persons involved in family disputes;
(c) given that the aforesaid organisations have pointed out that the time for family violence cases set down for hearings by the Family Court is too long, rendering the victims unable to receive support expeditiously, whether the authorities will allocate additional resources to the Family Court to enable it to deal with family violence cases and family dispute cases separately, so as to shorten the set-down time; and
(d) whether the authorities will consider setting up an "alimony council" to assist victims of family violence in recovering alimony payments from their ex-spouses who had used violence against them; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to Dr Hon Helena Wong Pik-wan's question is as follows:
(a) When handling domestic conflict reports, the Police would classify the cases, according to the degree of seriousness, into three categories, namely "Domestic Violence (Crime)", "Domestic Violence (Miscellaneous)" and "Domestic Incidents".
Domestic violence refers to "any behaviour involving an assault or a breach of the peace between parties who can generally be described as married or having a family relationship". "Married or having a family relationship" refers to married, separated or divorced couples, cohabitants or former cohabitants (irrespective of gender) and lovers or former lovers (irrespective of gender). Domestic Violence (Crime) cases include murder, manslaughter, wounding, serious assault, rape, indecent assault, criminal intimidation, criminal damage, possession of offensive weapon, etc. Domestic Violence (Miscellaneous) cases include common assault and when harm is likely to be done to a person etc.
The Police created the "Domestic Incident" category in January 2009 to include non-violent incidents occurring in a "married or having a family relationship" context, which are without any crime element, such as dispute, nuisance, annoyance, distress, etc. These cases are also recorded in the Enhanced Central Domestic Violence Database (ECDVD) to ensure that the overall situation of domestic conflict is fully reflected.
The Police have provided training to the frontline and supervisory officers so that they can classify the cases appropriately according to the situation. An officer of the rank of Sergeant or above must attend the scene of every domestic conflict case to supervise and to ensure that the case is properly handled and classified. Supervisory officers are required to review the cases to ensure that their cases are appropriately classified.
Figures of domestic conflict cases received and handled by the Police in the past five years are at Annex.
(b) Handling domestic conflict reports professionally is one of the Commissioner of Police's Operational Priorities. The following measures have been adopted so that the Police could prosecute the culprits and protect the victims and their dependants effectively.
Initial Actions
- an officer of the rank of Sergeant or above must attend the scene of every domestic conflict case to ensure the case is properly handled;
- victims and their dependants will be referred for welfare and medical assistance if appropriate;
- the ECDVD is an electronic database that records details of all domestic conflict cases. Officers handling a new domestic conflict case must check the ECDVD to see if the persons involved in the case have a previous record on domestic conflict; and
- there is an automatic alert system in the ECDVD. When a person is involved in domestic conflict cases repeatedly, the ECDVD will automatically "bring-up" a message to the officer-in-charge of the case and his supervisor for risk assessment.
Investigation and Follow-Up Actions of Domestic Violence Reports
- if there is evidence that a domestic violence offence took place, the culprit will be arrested as soon as possible to protect victims from being attacked again. Offenders will be charged or bound over if there is sufficient evidence;
- the Police adopt the "One-family-one-team" system. The same investigation team will investigate cases involving the same family;
- each Police District has at least one "Designated Domestic Violence Investigation Unit" that handles all serious domestic violence cases; and
- the Police will deal with the victims of domestic conflicts carefully, having regard to their feeling, providing them with security advice, referring them for welfare assistance and medical attention as appropriate, and keeping them informed of the progress of the investigation and any subsequent legal procedures.
The Social Welfare Department (SWD) has set up 11 Family and Child Protective Services Units specialising in providing one-stop support services for victims of child abuse and spouse/cohabitant battering and their families. Social workers would render outreaching, social investigation, crisis intervention, casework counselling and group treatment, etc according to the needs of the cases. Social workers would also arrange referrals for various services, such as clinical psychology service, legal aid, financial assistance, temporary accommodation, housing assistance and child care service etc as necessary so as to help the victims and their family members tide over the difficulty, lessen the trauma brought by violence and start a new life.
On the other hand, refuge centres for women, the Family Crisis Support Centre and the Multi-purpose Crisis Intervention and Support Centre provide immediate shelter and support to individuals encountering serious personal or family problems and those suffering from domestic violence.
To further support victims of domestic violence, in particular those undergoing legal proceedings, SWD has launched the Victim Support Programme for Victims of Family Violence (VSP) since June 2010. VSP provides emotional support and community support services to victims as well as information on legal proceedings so as to alleviate the victims' feeling of fear and helplessness and help them resume normal living.
Apart from supporting the victims of domestic violence, an important component of the strategy on preventing and handling domestic violence is counselling for the batterers. SWD provides various types of counselling service for batterers, such as the Batterer Intervention Programme and Anti-violence Programme, to help them change their abusive attitude and behaviour.
For individuals facing family disputes, they may seek counselling from the Integrated Family Service Centres (IFSCs). Currently, there are 62 IFSCs run by SWD or non-governmental organisations. The Administration will set up three additional IFSCs in early 2013, bringing the total number of IFSCs to 65.
(c) We have consulted the Judiciary on part (c) of the question and have received the following information.
"The Family Court will normally accord priority to applications for injunctions under the Domestic and Cohabitation Relationships Violence Ordinance (Cap. 189) to ensure the timely handling of domestic violence cases. For such urgent applications, the Family Court Registry will make arrangement for the applicant to see a Family Court Duty Judge as soon as practicable.
The District Court and the Magistrates' Courts have put in place an expedited mechanism since 2009 to enable the fast-track listing of suitable domestic violence cases. This mechanism is found to be working satisfactorily. The situation will continue to be closely monitored to ensure that domestic violence cases are appropriately dealt with."
(d) The Administration has strived to improve the system of collection of maintenance payments and enforcement of maintenance orders. The Administration has also carefully examined the suggestion of setting up a maintenance board. We consider that the setting up of a maintenance board to collect and enforce maintenance payments would unlikely bring to either the maintenance payees or the taxpayers any significant benefits over and above those which could be achieved by improving the existing system.
Measures that have been pursued by the Administration to improve the system of maintenance include: (i) relaxing the requirement for the Court to make Attachment of Income Orders to make the issuance procedure more flexible; (ii) imposing interest or even surcharge against defaulting maintenance payers; (iii) working on the proposed legislative amendments on relaxing the service requirements for the judgment summons to be serviced personally on the maintenance payers to combat the problem of maintenance payers evading service of the judgment summons and empowering the Court to make an order for the arrest of the maintenance payer pending examination, an order prohibiting him/her from leaving Hong Kong, and an order that he/she be imprisoned until the resumption of the adjourned judgment summons hearing; (iv) allowing designated government departments (ie Immigration Department, Transport Department and Housing Department) to release the addresses of maintenance payers against whom legal actions will be taken to sue for arrears in maintenance free-of-charge upon the request from legal professionals who could provide sufficient information; and (v) working on publicity and education programmes to strengthen public understanding of the responsibilities of maintenance payers, rights of maintenance payees and services available to maintenance payees for the arrears of maintenance.
Ends/Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:05
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