Local Court Bench Book — Specific Penalties and Orders

This table of maximum penalties is populated using Lawcodes data. For more information, see Changes to Specific Penalties and Orders at the end of the introduction.

Sentencing for domestic violence offences

For discussion of the principles and approach when sentencing for a domestic violence offence: see Sentencing Bench Book at [63-500].

Recording on criminal record of domestic violence offence

If a person pleads guilty to an offence or is found guilty of an offence and the court is satisfied that the offence was a domestic violence offence, the court is to direct that the offence be recorded on the person’s criminal record as a domestic violence offence: s 12(2).

Note

An indication in the charge for an offence that a person has committed a domestic violence offence will be relevant in bail proceedings in determining whether there are any “unacceptable risks” in the granting of bail to the person. The recording on a person’s criminal record that an offence is a domestic violence offence will be relevant to ss 7 and 8 of the Act, where previous behaviour constituting a domestic violence offence is taken into account for the purpose of determining whether a person’s behaviour amounts to intimidation or stalking, and to ss 27 and 49 of the Act, which requires police to make applications for apprehended domestic violence orders in situations where the person in question has already committed a domestic violence offence. Section 21A(2)(d) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 provides that a record of previous convictions is an aggravating factor to be taken into account when determining the appropriate sentence for an offence.