Services offered to victims of sexual violence, information system and professional training

1. The CEASE Crisis Centre, continues to provide timely, professional and specialised services to victims of both genders and their family members on a 24-hour basis. In addition, meetings were held on a need basis with the participation of SWD, the Police, HA, the Forensic Pathology Services of the DH and the CEASE Crisis Centre for sharing and exchanging views and experience on handling adult sexual violence cases.
2. On the law enforcement front, to ease the anxiety of child/mentally incapacitated victims of sexual violence in recounting their ordeals, the Police have set up the Vulnerable Witness Interviewing Suites to provide a friendly environment and “one-stop” facilities for conducting video-recorded interview and, if necessary, forensic examination.
3. The Police handle all reports related to sexual violence professionally and conduct thorough investigation. If sufficient evidence of an offence is obtained, the Police will take firm and decisive action to effect arrest. The Police will also combat sexual offences through prevention and education, and provide suggestions such as ways to avoid falling victim of sexual offences. In addition, the Police will continue to monitor local and overseas trends of sexual violence cases in order to improve service for victims.
4. The Judiciary has amended their Practice Directions to make it a standing procedure for the prosecution to give consideration to the use of screen to shield the victims while giving evidence in court for every sexual offence case. In this connection, the Police have also launched a set of practical tools (namely the “Information to Adult Sexual Violence Victims”, “Sexual Violence Victim Management Form” and “Proforma Statement”) in August 2016 to inform victims of sexual violence of their rights and what to expect, while guiding frontline officers through the process of handling sexual violence victims professionally.

Cross-sector collaboration on combating violence

5. As reported in the previous report, SWD and the Police continue to strengthen collaboration in handling high-risk domestic violence cases including making non-consensual referrals or emergency referrals if the case is assessed as high-risk; and establishing a direct referral line between the Police and SWD.
6. Besides, the Police have implemented the “Family Support Service Information Card” scheme, under which the Police have prepared a “Family Support Service Information Card” in collaboration with SWD, for those in need (including victims and offenders) to facilitate the latter to contact SWD or NGOs for service and assistance. To cater for the needs of ethnic minorities, the “Family Support Service Information Card” has been translated into 17 languages and all versions have been uploaded to the Police website and can also be collected at various Police stations.
7. SWD continues to maintain close liaison with the Housing Department (HD) to provide housing assistance to individuals and families (including victims of domestic violence) who have genuine and imminent housing problem. HD will undertake initial screening and eligibility vetting for all applications for various forms of housing assistance from public rental housing applicants and tenants. For applications which do not meet the criteria under HD’s prevailing policies but appear to have social or medical grounds warranting special consideration, HD may seek advice and assistance from SWD or NGOs concerned as necessary.

Information system

8. To monitor the trend and understand the characteristics of domestic violence cases in Hong Kong, two central information systems, namely the “Central Information System on Spouse/ Cohabitant Battering Cases and Sexual Violence Cases” and the “Child Protection Registry”, are maintained by SWD to capture statistical information of domestic violence cases reported by different parties including the Police, HA, casework units, etc. The statistical information are reported to Committee on Child Abuse and shared with relevant departments/organisations regularly. Moreover, the statistical figures on reported domestic violence cases are uploaded on SWD’s website – “Statistics on Cases Involving Child Abuse, Spouse/Cohabitant Battering and Sexual Violence” quarterly for information of the general public.
9. The Police continue to maintain an Enhanced Central Domestic Violence Database which captures information including domestic violence, family violence, child abuse, elder abuse and missing persons reported to the Police. It automatically generates alert messages on repeated cases occurring within a defined period of time for the attention of supervisory officers. The database facilitates better assessment of individual cases and enables officers to make a more informed judgment of the circumstances and the risk level of the case.
10. Some commentators suggested that a central data bank should be set up for the purpose of combating domestic violence. Currently, both the Police and SWD collect statistics concerning domestic violence cases. Nevertheless, the statistics collected serve different purposes. For the Police, the data collected is for police intervention and crime prevention purposes, while for SWD, the data forms the basis for providing support and preventive services for victims of domestic violence and families at risk. Where necessary, the Police and SWD will exchange information on domestic violence cases upon obtaining the subject’s consent.

Enhancement of professional training

11. The Government continues to enhance professional training to staff to enhance their ability in identifying and attending to the needs of victims of domestic and sexual violence.

SWD

12. SWD continues to provide various kinds of training in enhancing the capabilities and sensitivity of social workers in attending to the specific needs of the victims and their families, including those of ethnic minorities and sexual minorities. The training programmes are targeted to equip social workers and related professionals with knowledge and skills for early identification of cases at risk of domestic violence and to render assistance to the individuals and families in need.

Police

13. The Family Conflict and Sexual Violence Policy Unit of the Police has put in place various training programmes to enhance the capabilities and sensitivity of frontline officers in handling domestic violence cases. These programmes also cover domestic violence cases involving sexual minorities and ethnic minorities. Training courses on skills of handling domestic violence and opposite sex/same-sex intimate partner relationships, psychology of victims and handling of conflicts were incorporated into the “Basic Training Course for New Recruits”, “Criminal Investigation Course”, “Continuation and Development Training Courses” and “Professional Training for Domestic Violence Unit Officers”, etc. To support and encourage frontline officers’ self-learning, the Police have developed a series of e-Learning Package with topics related to the “Domestic and Cohabitation Relationships Violence Ordinance” and the “Sensitivity in Handling Cases Involving Same Sex Partners”, etc and disseminated these to the frontline officers.
14. The Police have also arranged sharing sessions for frontline officers to meet persons of different sexual orientation, transgender persons, ethnic minorities and social workers, etc, in order to enhance officers’ sensitivity in case handling. Besides, the Police have regular meetings with SWD, other stakeholders and concern groups of domestic violence to gauge their comments and exchange views.

Health professionals

15. DH continues to provide training for healthcare professionals on gender awareness in collaboration with other organisations. In addition, staffs in the Forensic Pathology Services of DH are empowered with skills to promote care and service to sexual violence victims through the multi-disciplinary experience sharing events organised by the Police. On the other hand, HA also seeks to enhance the awareness of healthcare staff in detecting and treating victims of sexual violence through various training.

Judiciary officers

16. The Judiciary has all along been providing training for Judges and Judicial Officers (“JJOs”). JJOs attended training on dealing with domestic violence cases in 2014, and on family law from time to time. With the recent establishment of the Judicial Institute, the Institute will also attend to the need for training for JJOs in this regard.

Multi-disciplinary training

17. SWD, the Police and the Education Bureau (EDB) regularly organise different training programmes and invite different organisations to speak on tackling domestic violence for frontline personnel to strengthen their capabilities in risk assessment and intervention, violence prevention and post-trauma counselling. The content of these training programmes includes the laws regarding protection for the victims of domestic violence (e.g. application of injunction order under the Domestic and Cohabitation Relationships Violence Ordinance (Cap. 189)), the knowledge and handling skills of the problems of domestic violence that involve ethnic minorities and same sex cohabitants.