Family violence incidents in Victoria are skyrocketing, with more than a 60% increase in the number of incidents recorded over the last four years. Figures released by the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) show in 2015-16 the total number of incidents was 76,529, compared to 46,993 in 2011-12.
Victoria’s CSA chief statistician Fiona Dowsley said the steady rise in reporting of family violence was due to a combination of factors, including more incidents, an increased focus on family violence by police but importantly an increased willingness of victims to make official complaints.
“What we are definitely seeing is increased demand coming to the service sector. I think there’s been increased community recognition of the issue and that tends to encourage people to come forward,” she said.
[infogram id=”1f16c812-f405-49ef-85b2-654dce24d6a0″]There has also been a dramatic increase in the reporting of the number of young children affected over the last year, with a 49.5% increase of male victims aged 0-4 years and a 40.6% increase of female victims aged 0-4 years. But Ms Dowsley said this is probably due to improved recording.
“In the past the recording would have just focused on the adults in the scenario and I think there has been a much greater awareness of the importance of capturing children’s experiences as well,” she said.
[infogram id=”90ed2efd-80b3-4e5b-8512-ec2adc0c13ac”]Looking at where these incidents are occurring, Casey recorded the most number of incidents in the last year, with 4,222 incidents, while LaTrobe has the highest family incident rate per 100,000 people, with 3,571. Over the same period, Hindmarsh recorded a 63% increase in family incidents.
Despite the rise in recorded domestic violence incidents, there was actually a 1.7% decrease of incidents where charges were laid but a 19.4% increase of incidents where charges were not laid in 2015-2016. Over the last year, family violence incidents peaked over Christmas, during December-January.
[infogram id=”f0aa3be1-05fa-4073-addc-7d2eec516f80″]These figures come after the conclusion of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence, which Premier Daniel Andrews announced in December 2014 to fix a “broken” system. The finished report contained 227 recommendations, including implementing “Respectful Relationships Education” in schools and establishing support and safety hubs.
Ms Dowsley said “a lot of changes are going to occur” because of these recommendations.
“But what that means for people’s responses to family incidents is a little bit of an unknown,” she said.
Family violence still affects females significantly more than males, with 57,365 female victims recorded last year compared to 18,868 recorded victims who were male in 2015-16. Over this period, male victims were most prevalent in the 40-44 year age range (2,043), while for female victims it was the 25-29 year age range (7,728).
[infogram id=”0f1001bc-3ada-4110-805e-c4426afbedce”] [infogram id=”b4ecdcf8-d2c9-4512-9baf-9e48e4c6bc5a”]Recent research from the CSA found re-offending perpetrators to be involved in almost three-quarters of Victoria Police recorded family incidents over the last ten years. There are a number of risk factors which the data found to be prominent in recidivist perpetrators during their first incident.
These included being unemployed, suffering from mental health issues and drug use. The victim being pregnant or having recently given birth was also a found to be a severe risk factor, as was the presence of children during a perpetrator’s first offence.
Ms Dowsley said it is very hard to predict if family incidents will continue to rise in the future.
“Certainly in the short term, I don’t see anything suggesting it’s going to slow down rapidly. At some point, it makes sense that they’ll be a ceiling that we reach, but it’s very hard to guess when that will be,” she said.
“We’ll be looking very carefully at the data to see any emerging trends that we can spot, but at the moment it’s still continuing upwards.”
The National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line can be contacted by calling 1800RESPECT.
