Leading and Managing Change - Essay Example

Leading and Managing Change s Submitted by s: Domestic violence was among the most widespread social issues that faced Victoria and even though it remained hidden, it affected almost a quarter of the population of women in this area who were in long-term relationships each year since 2000 (Hunter, 2008, p. 3). The police in this area had recorded more than twenty thousand incidents. According to the police in this area, there was more likelihood of a woman being killed by their male partner or an ex-partner than other people and the killings made up almost twenty percent of all the homicides.

The Victoria police was among the largest organizations in the state that served the public sector and had more than thirteen thousand people working for it to serve more than five million people. It operated three hundred and twenty stations while operating on an annual budget of more than a billion dollars. Dealing with family violence was one of the most difficult and challenging attributes of police work in this area and accounted for almost a third of all the police callouts (Alexander and Seddon, 2002, p. 89). The police had to take a just and artificial position when they were called to an incident and mainly put their attention towards quelling the situation through separating the couple.

Attempts by the officers to do more were not successful in some cases since some of the victims withdrew their charges. Breaking these kind of fights was not considered to be a core part of police work.Although the Victoria Police had a unit that was dedicated to dealing with sexual offences as well as child abuse, family violence was dealt with as part of normal police duties and officers had varying attitudes concerning these cases. Some thought that family violence was not very serious and that the victims provoked the offenders.

The situation is further complicated when the victims reside in the remote areas those from native cultures and non-English speakers experienced more hurdles (Barclay, 2007, p. 37). The police did not always develop sensitivity to circumstances a victim was in as a result of the male culture that prevailed. The manner in which the police dealt with the victims on their initial encounter greatly determined whether they would report subsequent cases and pursue charges. The new Police Commissioner, Christine Nixon made the announcement that three main areas namely burglary, auto theft and violence against women would be the areas that she will focus on (Sarre, Das and Albrecht, 2005, p. 229). The commissioner created a team that was supposed to listen to the issues of the people on how the Victoria police could be able to better deal with the issues that were at hand.

Police response had to improved, and this involved enforcing the law in a more vigorous manner while providing a more flexible approach. Since majority of the service providers had restricted contact, they developed the perception that the police yielded more powers than what they actually had and they thought that the police were holding back on exercising this powers.Later in 2004, Victoria Police made public their code of practice that would guide investigations of family violence and it chose a compulsory action policy as opposed to compulsory arrest so that it would not discourage the women who were not comfortable to enter the criminal justice procedures (Nakray, 2013, p. 82). Police were also supposed to fill a report after they attended a family violence incident irrespective of the action that was taken and this made them responsible for their actions and justified their decisions.

BibliographyAlexander, R. and Seddon, N. (2002). Domestic violence in Australia. 1st ed. Sydney: Federation Press.Barclay, E. (2007). Crime in rural Australia. 1st ed. Annandale, N.S.W.: Federation Press.Hunter, R. (2008). Domestic violence law reform and womens experience in court. 1st ed. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press.Nakray, K. (2013). Gender-based violence and public health. 1st ed. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.Sarre, R., Das, D. and Albrecht, H. (2005). Policing corruption. 1st ed. Lanham: Lexington Books.