What are ‘related acts of violence’?

If the applicant is the victim of multiple offences committed at approximately the same time, or over a period of time by the same person or group of people; or if the multiple offences have other common factors; or the acts contributed to the injury or death on which an application is based, these are treated as a single act of violence (FAS Act s 4). The effect of this is that there is only one award of assistance as opposed to multiple separate awards of assistance, including multiple awards of SFA.

The FAS may, however, treat these multiple offences as separate acts of violence having regard to the ‘circumstances of those acts’ if it considers they ought not to be treated as related criminal acts (s 4(1)).

Repeated assaults over a contained period of time by the same offender may, for example, be considered related acts of violence unless reasons are accepted as to why these multiple acts ought not be considered related. Submissions ought to be made that multiple acts of violence were not related in appropriate circumstances. Examples may be where: the acts were perpetrated over a long period of time and the applicant had recovered in the interim; the applicant suffered different and discrete injuries from the various acts of violence; or the acts of violence were very different in nature.

Legal remedies available

Chapter: 10.6: Assistance for victims of crime

Contributor: Marita Ham, Barrister

Current as of: 18 November 2024

Law Handbook Page: 878

Next Section: What is an ‘injury’?