DOMESTIC violence will continue to increase unless police tackle the crime more seriously, according to a women's rights group.

And changes to the law are also needed to make the prosecution of offenders easier, according to Women's Resource Centre executive director Penny Dill.

Ms Dill spoke out after Assistant Police Commissioner Carlton Adams this week claimed that officers could do little to prevent some violent crime because "they sometimes involve people in domestic issues".

Yesterday Ms Dill hit back, saying that victims would be more willing to cooperate with police if their concerns were taken seriously.

"The problem we find from our clients is with the police response, which can be improved," Ms Dill said.

"Very often the support from the police is not there when the victim reports, especially if they are not willing to press charges. In most cases these individuals are sent to us for a protection order and a statement by the police is not taken. Victims of violence will continue to be reluctant to press charges if they feel that their situation is not taken seriously.

"The other problem that the WRC deals with is the breaching of protection orders, which should result in the arrest of the offender. In some cases the person 'disappears' and the police can't find them to arrest them, or the next shift is not given the information that the order has been breached and to look for the person. This places the person who is supposed to be protected by the order in a very dangerous position.

When we complain about this we are given the same excuse - 'we are understaffed'. We have heard this same story for years, yet, for a small island we have a large amount of police officers. The question may be for us to ask where are they deployed?"

Ms Dill acknowledged that officers frequently faced hurdles when dealing with incidents of domestic violence. She said that some victims are reluctant to press charges because of the publicity.

"We are aware of the frustrations of police officers responding to complaints from the same people who then don't press charges," she said.

"If they do press charges, very often their name will be in the newspaper and their 'business' will be on the street - this is itself a very big deterrent. There are legislative changes that need to be made which allow officers to make arrests, for example things such as breaches of the peace. The UK has recently made amendments to the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 to give the police more power to prosecute.

"Over the past few years figures have been steadily climbing and until we address domestic violence with the same degree of seriousness as other crimes we are not going to be able to prevent it.

"It is a community problem that affects everyone.

"It spills over into the workplace and yet we are becoming more and more complacent to this type of violent behaviour. Domestic violence often starts with harassment to an individual and if this was addressed in the initial stage by the police when reported by the complainant I think we would see a slight decrease in violence.

"Domestic violence should not be considered a problem that happens to that 'other' group of people, it can happen to anyone and affects everyone in one way or another.

"We have, as a community, got to come to grips with our social problems, address them and stop putting band aids on a problem and hope it will go away. It won't."