WA'S 'ONE PUNCH' LAW: SOLUTION TO A COMPLEX SOCIAL PROBLEM OR EASY WAY OUT FOR PERPETRATORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Abstract

This article examines Western Australia’s controversial “one-punch law” and questions whether it has achieved the purpose for which it was enacted. The one-punch law was created specifically to punish committers of fatal one-punch assaults. Therefore, its creators did not consider if and how it might apply in the punishment of recidivist domestic violence perpetrators. This article highlights the major shortcomings of Western Australia’s one-punch law through an examination of the separate cases of four Western Australian women who suffered enduring physical violence at the hand of their male partners, each meeting their death by that same hand.  The author questions the “one-punch law’s” place in the conviction and punishment of perpetrators of intimate partner homicides, especially when such killings are preceded by long-term abuse.