Mandatory reporting of domestic violence cases in Cyprus; barriers to the effectiveness of mandatory reporting and issues for future practice

Domestic violence and child abuse rates have been slowly but steadily increasing since 2000 in Cyprus. Both the police and social services departments report alarming changes in the way families function nowadays in Cyprus. However this is not a new problem. In order to monitor the phenomenon and to be able to design policy programmes, the law services introduced, in 1998, mandatory reporting of all child abuse and domestic violence cases to the Attorney General's Office. Seven years later there were no signs of significant changes, and the real causes for this were unknown. The aim of this paper is to report on the evaluation of mandatory reporting. The study investigated causes and obstacles that seemed to lead to the insufficient implementation of mandatory reporting. The views of all stakeholders involved were collected. Findings indicated that although several services make use of mandatory reporting, they report gaps in the policy, poor planning on behalf of the law services and lack of coordination and communication between all the services involved. Findings suggest the development of a mediator scheme, which can act as a screening point and liaise with the final service (Attorney General's Office) and reporters/services.