Queensland researchers studying intimate-partner killings have found that a victim's own sense of fear about their impending death is the most reliable predictor of domestic violence homicide. The finding comes from a review of seven years of data, with more than half of cases sharing this common factor.
Hannah Clarke, who was murdered along with her three children in 2020, had expressed this fear six weeks before her death. In an affidavit seeking a domestic violence order, she wrote: 'I believe that Rowan is totally capable of killing himself and killing our children to get back at me. This scares me beyond words.'
Guardian Australia's two-year investigation, Broken Trust, has uncovered multiple cases where victims' fears were not taken seriously by police. Kardell Lomas sought help from government-funded agencies more than 20 times before she was killed by Traven Fisher. Gail Karran had documented her husband's abuse on a hidden audio recorder and told police she was scared on the night she was fatally attacked.
Emma Buxton-Namisnyk, a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales who has reviewed over 4,000 domestic and family violence-linked deaths, says women are 'not getting the help that they are asking for. They are instead getting met with racist responses and harmful responses and responses that undermine their agency.'
Studies in Queensland suggest nearly half of women murdered by an intimate partner had previously been labelled as a perpetrator of domestic violence by police. New laws passed in September allow police to issue year-long protection notices, which advocates say could worsen the problem of misidentifying victims as offenders.
The Queensland police union head, Shane Prior, claimed there was 'no hard data' to support claims of misidentification. However, a 100-day review of the Queensland police service proposes reducing police involvement in domestic and family violence matters, stating that case management is not 'core business'. Deputy Commissioner Cameron Harsley acknowledged that even with a perfect police response, domestic homicide cannot be stopped entirely.
