Behind the blow: Why ‘coward punch’ laws are failing to deliver justice

The terminology relating to one-punch attacks began to change 10 years ago as the awful toll in Australia became clearer.

These are the attacks where one man hits another man (for it’s almost always men) with a single blow to the head or neck, usually without warning, leading to impact from the punch, but also impact with the ground, killing 172 Australians since the year 2000.

They used to be called “king hits”, an Aussie term dating to the early 1900s, but it began to be seen as denoting something heroic or kingly. Likewise the term “sucker punch” borrowed from boxing.

Instead, in the law, the media and among the public, it’s now changed to the more appropriate “coward punch”, turning attention to the perpetrator.

“‘Coward punch’ attaches a strong negative connotation to a despicable act, serving as a deterrent,” says the founder of the Stop the Coward Punch Campaign, former Australian boxer Danny Green.

Until now, the act of violence has not been researched, but a groundbreaking study led by Monash and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine has shone a bright light on the perpetrators – their profiles, the circumstances, and what happened before the courts.

Study reveals troubling statistics

Dr Reena Sarkar and Associate Professor Jennifer Schumann analysed 287 convictions over 30 years between 1990 and 2020. Their findings are now published in the journal Medicine, Science and the Law. Two years ago in Forensic Science International they looked at fatalities. A forthcoming paper looks at survivors.

The research is funded by Green’s campaign (though the funding organisation wasn’t involved in any aspect of the study design, collection, analysis and data interpretation).

The newest paper is troubling. As the Herald-Sun reported this week, few have been sentenced in Victoria under the coward punch offence because it’s so hard to prove, despite the laws being introduced in 2014.

“We have specific legislation for these exact types of assaults in most Australian states,” says Associate Professor Schumann. “But the majority of these coward punch assaults aren’t being charged or convicted under this legislation – we see a relatively low utilisation of the laws designed for this purpose.

“In Victoria, the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt the perpetrator intended to punch the victim in the head or the neck, and also prove foreseeability and intent.”

This means, as the Herald Sun report noted, that the high burden of proof in Victoria means prosecutors need to show “the perpetrator intended to punch the victim, that they knew the victim was not expecting the punch, and that the punch was the direct cause of a victim’s death”.

Without CCTV all this is extremely difficult to prove.

The challenges of existing legislation

State legislation varies, but in Victoria, Associate Professor Schumann says, proving it was the punch that caused the death is “very challenging” because the attacks have a “two-stage injury profile, in that there’s the punch that incapacitates a person, sending them falling to the ground, and the secondary head impact which typically causes the fatal injury”.

As a result, the Monash study reveals, many perpetrators are prosecuted under manslaughter or murder laws instead, especially in Victoria. Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales have similar coward punch laws; South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, so far, do not.

Associate Professor Schumann points to the Victorian case of David Cassai, in 2001. He was coward-punched outside the Portsea Hotel. His mother, Caterina Politi, with other parents of dead young men, have been lobbying for law changes. Cassai’s attacker appealed his sentence, but had it doubled to more than nine years in jail.

“His mother is very vocal about these laws and how they can be made more effective,” she says. “We can see differences with other jurisdictions where use of the laws are higher. I think it’s interesting that of all of the Victorian coward-punch assaults, since the one-punch laws were introduced, only 35% of those perpetrators are charged and convicted with this legislation.”

“In most instances, they’re not known to the perpetrators.”
– Dr Reena Sarkar 

The very nature of a coward punch is that a person is hit by surprise, so they’re not braced for impact, and usually hit the ground after being knocked out by the punch. The ground is usually concrete, such as footpaths and roads. The result can be death or permanent mental and physical disability.

“One-punch assaults are characterised by a punch to the face, neck or head, often resulting in the victim falling with a subsequent head strike to the ground or another rigid surface,” the paper says. “The resulting head injuries may be due to the punch, the fall, or a combination of both, which can cause death.”

The key findings are:

• The vast majority of offenders are male, with a median age of 26.

• 61% of cases were prosecuted in New South Wales and Victoria.

• Sentences for manslaughter convictions ranged from 3.8 to 11.5 years.

• 62% of offenders received prison sentences, while 19.5% were given community-based sentences.

• Self-defence was a successful argument in 2.1% of cases.

• Most incidents (65%) occurred in public places, predominantly between 6 pm and 6 am. Most are in or around licensed premises.

The research is a world-first. One of the surprising things it dives into is drugs and alcohol – substance use was reported in 64.8% of cases, with alcohol a factor in 39%, while illicit drugs such as ice were involved in less than 2%, and no substance abuse was reported in nearly 20% of cases.

“Given the low numbers, these findings have limited application,” the paper says.

Targeted interventions needed

The research suggests more “targeted interventions” to stop the assaults, which have also been reported in the UK, Ireland, the US, and New Zealand, where a specific law was introduced five years ago setting down 20 years in jail as a maximum sentence.

Dr Sarkar says the targeted interventions such as public health campaigns need to be designed around the known facts – the age of the men involved, the locations, and the times. She says most coward punch attacks happen between strangers (55.2%), while 65% of attacks occur in social venues.

“In most instances, they’re not known to the perpetrators. But there is a small percentage of acquaintances or relationship rivals that are known to each other, and they come in front of each other, and the emotions get the better of them.

“A very small percentage is isolated punch incidents between people who know each other or are in a relationship, but that's really minuscule.”