Threats of suicide are a weapon of domestic violence. How can police balance mental health needs with victim protection?

It is relatively common for perpetrators of domestic violence to threaten suicide to control the actions of a victim-survivor. A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology suggests that 39% of women subjected to coercive control are subject to threats of self-harm from their attackers.

Suicide threats may be related to mental health issues, domestic violence tactics, or sometimes both. As a result, victim-survivors may feel pressured to remain in an abusive relationship.

Men who kill their partners are 2,000 times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than the general population. For example, the man who killed Hannah Clarke and her children had threatened suicide several times before their murders.

It can then be difficult for the police to react to these situations. Victoria Police officers who participated in my recently published research were concerned that when they prioritized suicide prevention over responding to domestic violence, victim-survivors were sometimes left unprotected.

Read more: Perpetrators of domestic violence sometimes use threats of suicide to control their partners

What is standard police protocol?

The intersection between mental health and domestic violence is a challenging area for both legal and health systems, with a variety of laws surrounding both. These laws also differ between states and territories.

In Victoria, police have two main ways of responding to threats of suicide from an attacker: mental health legislation and domestic violence legislation.

Under mental health laws, the police can place a person in the custody of a hospital or medical professional to prevent them from harming themselves or others.

At the same time, threats of suicide can constitute a form of domestic violence and coercive control. The police can issue a domestic violence safety notice to the abuser. A notice sets out the conditions to prevent family violence and protect the victim-survivor. For example, standard conditions of a safety notice include not committing domestic violence against a victim-survivor, nor exposing a child to domestic violence. If any of the conditions are violated, the police can charge the perpetrator with a criminal offense punishable by up to two years in prison.

Depending on the perpetrator's receptiveness to a safety notice, it may prevent them from committing further abuse against the victim-survivor and promote accountability.

In Victoria, there is no formal process telling police how to deal with incidents of domestic violence where the abuser has threatened suicide. The police must therefore decide how to handle the case based on their experience and knowledge.

In Australia, Queensland is the only state with publicly available guidelines on how police should respond to suicide threats from perpetrators. This framework focuses on managing immediate risks and referral pathways.

Unintended consequences

The ten police officers who participated in my study all specialized in domestic violence. They all indicated that suicide threats were a commonly used coercive control tactic.

Most participants reported that when they witness a domestic violence incident in which the abuser has threatened suicide, they are likely to consider the abuser's mental health as their priority. The abuser then often goes to the hospital for evaluation and treatment, if necessary.

When a person is being treated in hospital, the police cannot issue a domestic violence safety notice. Police can ask a hospital to be notified when a person is released if they pose a risk to others. However, this does not always happen, according to police.

As a result, the perpetrator may be released from hospital without a security notice being put in place. Therefore, they can commit certain forms of domestic violence against a victim-survivor without consequence, if their actions are not criminalized by another law.

The victim-survivor may then be at increased risk of domestic violence and the perpetrator may avoid accountability for his or her actions. Several officers indicated that there had been instances in which perpetrators were released into the community without an order in place, posing a real risk to victim-survivors.

Learn to balance risks

Some police stations are developing processes to change the way they deal with suicide threats from perpetrators. One participant suggested that domestic violence safety advisories should be issued first, before hospitalizing an abuser.

Improvements in policing could prevent further violence from occurring. A nuanced approach is needed to train police to balance the mental health needs of perpetrators, as well as the safety of victim-survivors and the community at large.

However, gaps in service provision cannot be filled by policing alone.

The exchange of information between hospitals and the police is limited in certain circumstances. We need more communication and collaboration to ensure police can issue safety advisories when necessary.

Regardless of whether suicide threats are due to mental health issues, they can be used as weapons by perpetrators of domestic violence. Change is needed to ensure victim-survivors are protected and perpetrators are held accountable.

It is important that we continue to research and learn more about the interactions between family violence and mental health, both for perpetrators and victim-survivors. In this way we can move more effectively towards the elimination of family violence.