Director of Public Prosecutions v. Bracken

This decision concerned the admissibility in a murder trial of expert evidence regarding the effects of family violence. The defendant argued self-defense, claiming that because of the deceased’s physical and verbal violence towards him, he reasonably believed that he had to kill her in order to prevent her from killing or seriously injuring the defendant or his father. The expert evidence in question was a general report on family violence, which considered (among other things) the cumulative psychological and social effects of family violence on an abused person. The Court found that the evidence was admissible on the basis of section 9AH of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic). This section of the Crimes Act was enacted on the recommendation of the Victorian Law Reform Commission in 2004, to ensure that juries have the benefit of the current state of knowledge regarding family violence. The Commission expressed the view that, although community awareness about family violence was improving, there was “widespread misunderstanding about the nature and dynamics of abusive relationships and their impact.”