Six Month Review: Discussion

The period following the enactment of the Amendment has been "business as usual" for Police.

The current review period of 29 September 2007 to 4 April 2008 has shown a slight increase in the total volume of 'child assault' events Police have attended: (288), compared with the initial three month review period (111). This is to be expected due to the current review period being six months in comparison to the initial three month review period.

As Graph 1 below shows, events of "minor acts of physical discipline" have increased over the review period. The initial three month review volume was 12 events, while in comparison the six and nine month post enactment periods are 32 and 37 events respectively.

Graph 1:

The initial three month review showed no change in the volume of "smacking" events reported to Police. The current six month review period showed an initial increase in "smacking" events, however, the volume of events has since decreased to a level that reflects pre-commencement.

The current review period resulted in no prosecutions for "smacking" events. This reflects the initial three month post enactment period, where no prosecutions occurred.

There were a total of four prosecutions for "minor acts of physical discipline" during the current review periods. This differs from the initial review, where no "minor acts of physical discipline" were prosecuted.

The current review period volume of 13 child assault events involving "smacking" and 65 of the total 69 "minor acts of physical discipline" events were determined to be "inconsequential" by either the attending and/or investigating Police Officer, and therefore not in the public interest to prosecute.

Explanations for increases in the volumes of reporting to Police of these events may have been driven by one or more of the following:

• Seasonal variation; or
• Random variation from year to year; or
• Changes in reporting driven by a number of factors (such as the effect of media coverage of child murders, children self-reporting because of awareness of the Amendment, social marketing campaigns such as the Campaign for Action on Family Violence, or changes in Police recording practice); or
• Changes in the "threshold" defining what is acceptable discipline