Explanatory Notes and Definitions

 

This page contains all the relevant explanatory material and definitions of key terms used throughout the data dashboards and data tables. Use the following links to select the agency or data source you're interested in or download the PDF explanatory notes & definitions at the end of this page. 

• Victorian Family Violence Database

• Victoria Police

• Magistrates' and Children's Court (Courtlink)

• Victoria Legal Aid

• Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset

• Victims Assistance Program

• Victims of Crime Helpline

• Ambulance Victoria

• Coroners Court

• Specialist Homelessness Services (Homelessness Data Collection)

• Integrated Reports and Information System (IRIS)

• Child Protection

Victorian Family Violence Database 

Purpose and use of the Victorian Family Violence Database

The Victorian Family Violence Database (the Database) is a repository for a range of different datasets relating to family violence clients and service use, extracted from the data holdings of a variety of government agencies. The Database has expanded since its inception to include a broader range of datasets, as more information has become available.

By collating these various datasets in one place, the Database enables complementary analysis of disparate datasets, which would otherwise be a challenging exercise.

While there are limitations, the Database provides a valid and useful picture of the demand for family violence related services recorded by responding agencies, and the trends and characteristics of those seeking help over time.

History of the Victorian Family Violence Database

The development of the Victorian Family Violence Database was initially funded in 2000 by Partnerships Against Domestic Violence, an Australian Government initiative. The database was conceived as a solution to the fragmented data collection often found across agencies with involvement in family violence, bringing together information collated from a range of sources to provide a single, statewide repository of data relating to family violence (Department of Justice & Regulation, 2012). In 2007, management of the Victorian Family Violence Database moved to the Victims Support Agency within the then Department of Justice.

Six previous iterations of the Victorian Family Violence Database have been produced and resulting reports published in five separate volumes. These volumes have been produced and published by the Victorian Community Council Against Violence (volumes 1 and 2) and the Department of Justice & Regulation’s Victims Support Agency (volumes 3, 4 and 5).

The last iteration was produced by the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) on behalf of the Royal Commission into Family Violence (RCFV). In their findings, released in 2016, the RCFV recommended that the CSA undertake an update and redevelopment of the Database, and maintain the ongoing production of it. This report can be found in Volume VII of the report on the RCFV website: www.rcfv.com.au/Report-Recommendations (External link)

Challenges in collating the Database

All forms of administrative by-product data, used for statistical purposes, have limitations. In order for a record to be made in the recording systems of the various agencies, a referral, report or call must first be made to the responding agency. As a result, statistics held in this Database will not include all incidences of family violence that may be experienced within the community, but will only include those that are reported or recorded.

Identifying family violence records

Unless the service is solely dedicated to family violence cases, the data will usually require a flag or other variable to be recorded indicating that it does relate to family violence. For a variety of reasons, this may not be disclosed to the person making the record. The client may not be asked or relevant family violence information may not be recorded. This contributes to a potential undercount of family violence related events covered by the Database.

Data entry errors

Simple data entry error may create false positives and false negatives in the datasets, impacting upon the quality of the information in the Database. Some variables are also subject to high levels of missing or unknown data, which may impact on the ability to draw firm conclusions based upon the remaining completed data.

Using operational data for statistical purposes

The scope of data collected is often less than may be desirable or useful for research purposes, as the data is sourced from systems which have primarily been designed to meet business requirements, rather than statistical or research purposes. Additionally, as the Database contains data provided separately by each contributing agency, it is possible that individuals may appear in more than one dataset. Therefore, figures from different sources cannot be summed to create a total representative figure for the prevalence of family violence seen by service agencies in Victoria. It should also be noted that not all agencies in Victoria who respond to family violence victims or perpetrators are currently contributors to the Victorian Family Violence Database. The scope of the Database will continue to be evaluated and expanded on as data is made available.

Data relating to family violence, collected by the agencies contributing to the Database, is collated according to counting rules and classifications unique to each service. Details about each data source contained in the Database are provided in the sections below.

Data sources included in the current Database

The current Victorian Family Violence Database contains five years of data from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2022 and includes the following data sources;

• Ambulance Victoria
• Child Protection
• Coroners Court of Victoria
• Courtlink - Magistrates’ Court and Children’s Court (Court Services Victoria)
• Integrated Reports and Information System
• Law Enforcement Assistance Program (Victoria Police)
• Victorian Child Protection
• Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (Department of Health)
• Victorian Homelessness Data Collection - Specialist Homelessness Services 
• Victorian Legal Aid
• Victims Services, Support and Reform - Victims Assistance Program and Victims of Crime helpline (Department of Justice and Community Safety)

The findings include information on the number of clients of these agencies, their characteristics, services provided to clients, and trends in the data over time.

Comparisons over time

While the Victorian Family Violence Database has now covered a period of 15 years, it should be highlighted that the significant cultural, legislative, policy and operational changes that have occurred during that period of time can impact upon the data that is collected by different agencies. Where there have been significant changes to business or recording practices impacting upon major counts, these have been noted in the following explanatory notes and should be taken into account when drawing conclusions from the data.

In addition, there will have been a wide range of more subtle changes which may have impacted upon the comparability of data over time and which are less obvious or not as well documented. As such, it is recommended that readers keep this in mind when reviewing data over the period of the database (especially between data held in this publication and previous volumes produced from the database) and treat the time series with caution.

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Victoria Police 

Data source

The Victoria Police data included in the Family Violence Database (the Database) was extracted from the Law Enforcement Assistance Program (LEAP) on 22 July 2022. LEAP is a live database, and the data included in the Database is subject to change over time. The primary source of family violence data from Victoria Police is the information collected on the L17 Risk Assessment and Risk Management Report.

Victoria Police are required to complete the L17 report after they have attended a family incident. It includes information on the incident itself, the affected family member (AFM) and other party (OTH), hazards/risk factors present at the time of the incident and any actions taken by Victoria Police following the incident. The quantity and accuracy of the data collected by Victoria Police on family violence is dependent upon the recording of information by police members at the time of the incident.

Reference period

The data extracted from LEAP covers all family incidents and related offences recorded in the database from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2022. The date used to derive this reference period is the ‘create date’, a system generated date field that is set the first time a record is entered in LEAP.

Geographical classifications

For each family incident and related offence, the local government area (LGA) and related Police region of the incident/offence is recorded in LEAP. There are four Police regions; North West Metro, Southern Metro, Eastern and Western. All Victorian LGAs are grouped into these four regions based on the mapping outlined in the table under section ‘Police region to local government area concordance’.

Calculating rates per 100,000 population

The rate of family incidents per 100,000 population is calculated using the count of family incidents recorded in a local government area and the estimated resident population (ERP) of that LGA. The rate is calculated using the following formula:

Family incident rate = (Number of Family incidents/ERP count) x 100,000

ERP figures for the local government areas are based on populations provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The data is extracted from the release titled Regional Population Group (3218.0).

For more information about the ABS estimated resident population, please refer to the ABS website. (External link)

Using Victoria Police LEAP data for analysis

A family incident is an incident attended by Victoria Police where a Victoria Police Risk Assessment and Risk Management Report (also known as an L17 form) was completed.

A family incident can involve one or more affected family members and/or one or more other parties. For statistical purposes, these are counted as one incident but may appear multiple times in demographic counts.

The increase in the number of recorded family incidents in recent years has in part been due to improved recording of incidents. Since 2011, initiatives such as the Family Violence Code of Practice have been put in place by Victoria Police to improve the recording of family incidents, the individuals involved and the offences committed.

Demographic characteristics of affected family members and other parties

An ‘affected family member’ is the individual who is deemed to be affected by events occurring during the family incident. The other individual involved in a family incident is referred to as the ‘other party’. The other party could be a current partner, former partner or a family member.

Where more than one affected family member has been affected one other party within a family incident, they will be counted for each involvement. For example, where a family incident involves three affected family members and one other party, each affected family member will be counted separately, making a count of three. 

Where the other party is involved with multiple affected family members, they will be counted for each involvement. For example, where a family incident involves one affected family member and two other parties, each other party will be counted separately, making a count of two.

Where an individual is involved in multiple family incidents within the reference period they will be counted for each incident that they are involved in.

Relationship between affected family members and other parties

The relationship between the AFM and other party is from the perspective of the AFM. For example, in an incident where the AFM is the mother of the OTH, the relationship would be reported as 'Family'.

Terminology and abbreviations

Family incident

An incident attended by Victoria Police where a Risk Assessment and Risk Management Report (also known as an L17 form) was completed.

L17 form

An L17 form refers to the Victoria Police Risk Assessment and Management Report that Victoria Police are required to complete after they have attended a family incident. The report is completed when family incidents, interfamilial-related sexual offences, and child abuse are reported to police.

Affected family member (AFM)

An ‘affected family member’ is the individual who is deemed to be affected by events occurring during the family incident. Where an affected family member has been affected by more than one other party within a family incident, they will be counted for each involvement.

Other party (OTH)

The other individual involved in a family incident is referred to as the ‘other party’. The other party could be a current partner, former partner or a family member. Where the other party is involved with multiple affected family members, they will be counted for each involvement.

Offences related to a family incident

Offences relating to a family incident refer to those offences that have been linked to a family incident by Victoria Police.

Family Violence Safety Notice

Victoria Police can issue a Family Violence Safety Notice in order to immediately protect the affected family members before an intervention order is able to be heard in court.

Family Violence Intervention Order

Victoria Police can apply for a Family Violence Intervention Order for a person who is experiencing family violence.

Child present flag

A record which indicates whether one or more children were identified as having been present at the time of the incident.

Hazards/Risk Factors

The risk factors identified on the Risk Assessment and Risk Management Report are the evidence-based risk and vulnerability factors outlined in the Victoria Police Code of Practice for the Investigation of Family Violence. There are three types of hazards, those relating to the AFM, those relating to the other party and those present in the relationship.

Alcohol use flag

Alcohol use flags refer to whether alcohol use was recorded as possible or definite for the AFM or other party during a family incident.

Drug use flag

Drug use flags refer to whether drug use was recorded as possible or definite for the AFM or other party during a family incident.

Recent separation

If the family incident involved current or former partners, this records whether the couple recently separated.

Escalation in severity

This measure records whether incidents between the parties have escalated over time.

Police region to local government area concordance

Eastern region	Western region	North West Metro region	Southern Metro region
Boroondara	Greater Geelong	Melbourne	Port Phillip
Manningham	Queenscliffe	Yarra	Stonnington
Monash	Surf Coast	Hobsons Bay	Bayside
Whitehorse	Colac-Otway	Maribyrnong	Glen Eira
Knox	Glenelg	Wyndham	Kingston
Maroondah	Southern Grampians	Brimbank	Cardinia
Yarra Ranges	Corangamite	Melton	Casey
Benalla	Moyne	Hume	Greater Dandenong
Mansfield	Warrnambool	Moonee Valley	Frankston
Murrindindi	Ballarat	Moreland	Mornington Peninsula
Mitchell	Pyrenees	Banyule
Strathbogie	Golden Plains	Darebin
Greater Shepparton	Hepburn	Nillumbik
Alpine	Moorabool	Whittlesea
Moira	Hindmarsh
Wangaratta	Horsham
Indigo	West Wimmera
Towong	Ararat
Wodonga	Northern Grampians
Bass Coast	Yarriambiack
South Gippsland	Greater Bendigo
Baw Baw	Campaspe
Latrobe	Central Goldfields
East Gippsland	Loddon
Wellington	Macedon Ranges
	Mount Alexander
	Mildura
	Buloke
	Gannawarra
	Swan Hill

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Magistrates' and Children's Court (Courtlink) 

Data source

The Magistrates’ and Children’s Courts data included in this report was extracted from the Courtlink database. The data includes all finalised applications for Family Violence Intervention Orders (FVIO) in which the final hearing took place between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2022. This includes original applications as well as applications for variation, extension and revocation.

The analysis of the courts data looks at the number of applications heard in the Magistrates’ and Children’s Courts, the affected family members (AFM) on the application and the person responding to the order. On each application there is one associated respondent however, there can be multiple affected family members.

The following diagram shows how the data for each application, respondent and affected family member is stored.

 

In the above scenario, an application for a Family Violence Intervention Order has been made against the Respondent. There are three Applicants/Affected family members applying for the FVIO. If the court grants the application then an intervention order is made, otherwise another outcome may be recorded.

Reference period

The data extracted from Courtlink covers finalised applications for Family Violence Intervention Orders recorded between 1 July 2017 and ending 30 June 2022. This reference period is based on the date of the final hearing.

Geographical classifications

The residential postcode of the affected family member and respondent is recorded on the application for a Family Violence Intervention Order.

In order to identify and display the geographic areas where AFMs and respondents come from, the postcode data has been mapped to Local Government Area boundaries for the purposes of mapping and creating rates per 100,000 population.

The residential postcode has been mapped to the related Local Government Area using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Postcode 2011 to Local Government Area 2011 file in the catalogue 1270.0.55.006 – Australian Statistical Geography (ASGS): Correspondences, July 2011.

Calculating rates per 100,000 population

The rate of affected family members per 100,000 population is calculated using the count of AFMs on original applications in a Local Government Area and the Estimated Resident Population (ERP) of that LGA. The rate is calculated using the following formula:

Affected family member rate = (Number of AFMs/ERP count) x 100,000

ERPs for both Victoria and Local Government Areas are based on populations provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. ERPs for the data in the current reference period are based on population projection estimates developed by the Victorian Government’s ‘Victoria in Future’ program (VIF unpublished data[1] (External link)). For years prior to the current reference period, the ERP used to calculate offence rates is the ABS ERP.

ABS ERP data comes from two publications:

• ERP by age and sex are collected from 3101.0 - Australian Demographic Statistics, Sept 2017 (Released at 11:30AM (Canberra time) 22 March 2018 – downloaded 24 April 2018).
• ERP by LGA are collected from 3218.0 - Regional Population Growth, Australia 2016-17 (Released at 11:30AM (Canberra time) 24 March 2018 - downloaded 24 April 2018).

For more information about the ABS estimated resident population, please refer to the ABS website. (External link)

Using the Courtlink data for analysis

Demographic information of affected family members and respondents

For the purposes of analysing the demographic characteristics of affected family members and respondents, the report focuses on those on original applications for family violence intervention orders. This ensures that affected family members and respondents are not double counted if subsequent applications for variation, extension or revocation were made.

Relationship between affected family members and respondents

The relationship between an affected family member and the related respondent is taken from the primary affected family member on an application. This means that where there are multiple affected family members on an application, the primary affected family member’s relationship with the respondent will be represented.

Use of interpreters

Due to data quality issues in Courtlink, figures regarding the use of interpreters have been under-recorded.

Changes in this release

Due to improvements made in data processing since the previous database release (data ending 30 June 2017), slight movement has occurred in numbers of AFMs and FVIO outcomes. All other counts concerning the number of FVIO outcomes remain the same. 

Terminology and abbreviations

Family Violence Intervention Order (FVIO)

An application for a Family Violence Intervention Order is a civil matter between the parties on the application.

The purpose of a family violence intervention order is to:

• ensure the safety of the affected family member; or
• preserve any property of the affected family member; or
• protect a child who has been subjected to family violence committed by the respondent.

Applicant/Affected Family Member (AFM)

An applicant or affected family member is the person/people who have applied for a family violence intervention order. There can be multiple affected family members on the one application.

Respondent

A respondent is the person responding to the application for a family violence intervention order. There is only one respondent on each application.

Type of application

An original application is the first application made against a respondent. Where an order has then been granted, applications to extend the intervention order, or vary the conditions on the order can be made. In addition, where an AFM wishes to revoke the order an application for revocation can be made to the court.

Outcome of application

Revoked - Where an order is made by a court on an application to revoke a previous order of the court. This order vacates the previous order.

Struck out - An application can be struck out if the Applicant does not attend Court on the hearing day, or if the Magistrate believes there is not enough evidence for the Intervention Order to be made.

Withdrawn - An application can also be withdrawn if the Applicant no longer wants to pursue it.

Dismissed - Where the Magistrate has dismissed the application for a Family Violence Intervention Order.

Reinstate - Where a respondent and affected family member have agreed to an undertaking, but the respondent subsequently breaks this undertaking, the affected family member can bring the application back before the court. This is known as a 'right of reinstatement'.

IVO made - Where the Magistrate has heard all the evidence presented to the Court and believes an order should be in place.

Complainant

The complainant on an application for a Family Violence Intervention Order is the person making the application for an intervention order.

Primary applicant

On applications where there is more than one AFM there is a flag to indicate which person is the primary applicant. For example, where there is a parent on an application with two children, the parent would be the primary applicant and children would be non-primary applicants.

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Victoria Legal Aid 

Data source

Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) operates across the state and aims to assist Victorians by providing legal information, services and education. VLA data used in the Family Violence Database (FVDB) includes records of services involving legal advice, legal information, duty lawyer services, minor work and grants of legal assistance where the primary matter was family violence related. The data produced for the FVDB includes parties accessing these services either for an application for an FVIO or to respond to an application for an FVIO or regarding a breach of a FVIO.

Each service records unique clients and the number of services provided to them, with the exception of the legal help service, which does not record unique clients. Over time a unique client can receive multiple services, and therefore there may be multiple records of one person in the VLA dataset. The diagram below provides an overview of the counting units for VLA services which capture unique clients, namely: legal advice, duty lawyer services, minor work and grants of legal assistance.

 

Reference period

The data received from VLA covers clients accessing legal advice, legal help, duty lawyer services, minor work and grants of legal assistance services between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2022. The date for the reference period is derived either from the date of service provision (duty lawyer, legal help, legal advice and minor work) or the date when an approval on a grant of legal assistance application has been made.

Operational changes to the data

For information collected prior to August 2015, records do not indicate whether a client was an applicant/victim or a respondent/perpetrator. In August 2015, VLA created a matter type which identifies whether a client is an applicant or respondent. Future iterations of the database are expected to include this information.

Terminology and abbreviations

Information for the terminology below has been sourced from the VLA website.

FV

Family Violence

VLA

Victoria Legal Aid

Duty Lawyer

Duty lawyers help people who are at court for a hearing but do not have their own lawyer.

Legal Advice

Legal advice services include sessions over the telephone or face-to-face at Victoria Legal Aid offices or via outreach services. 

Minor Work

Minor work services are legal services that are not substantial or continuing. Some examples include drafting letters, reading and explaining documents and helping a client to represent themselves in court.

Legal Help

Legal help is a telephone service and the main entry point to VLA services. The service provides legal information, advice and referrals.

Grants of legal assistance

Grants of legal assistance are provided by VLA to people who are experiencing a legal problem and meet the agency's grants guidelines.

Family Violence Intervention Order (FVIO)

A FVIO is an order made under Victorian law to protect a family member from family violence. Family Violence can include emotional, financial, physical and sexual abuse.  FVIOs include conditions to stop a respondent from using abusive behaviour against the protected person. If a respondent breaks conditions of an intervention order, the police can charge them with a criminal offence. Both perpetrators and applicants can access VLA services in the process of a FVIO application.

Affected family member/protected person

A person who needs protecting from family violence is called the affected family member or applicant (or the ‘protected person’ once an intervention order has been made).

Respondent/perpetrator

The person the intervention order is made against is called the respondent.

Breach of a FVIO

A breach of a FVIO takes place when the perpetrator/respondent breaks the conditions of an intervention order. In this case, the police can charge them with a criminal offence. Persons charged can decide whether to plead guilty or not guilty and should have a lawyer for the court hearing. Both the protected person and the respondent can access VLA services after a FVIO has been breached.

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Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset 

 

 

Acknowledgement 

The VEMD data used for this dashboard is provided by the Victorian Department of Health.

Data source

The Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) contains information detailing presentations at Victorian public hospitals with designated Emergency Departments. For the purposes of this report, patients presenting for family violence reasons are identified by the ‘human intent’ data item. 

At the Emergency Department, the clinician assesses the most likely human intent. Patients presenting for family violence reasons are those that presented with a human intent injury of 'Maltreatment, assault by domestic partner' or 'Child neglect/maltreatment by parent or guardian'. The VEMD information published under the Family Violence Database (FVDB) focuses on the demographic characteristics as well as the nature and cause of their injuries of the patients presenting for family violence reasons. The FVDB only reports on family violence (FV) related patients (as indicated by the human intent data item). Therefore, when there is a reference in the FVDB to 'patients', this only includes family violence related patients presenting to a public hospital in Victoria.

The counting unit for the VEMD is the patient presenting at a Victorian public hospital. In the dataset there is one record per patient. However, persons can present multiple times at the emergency department and thus have multiple records in the VEMD.

Scope

For the financial years from July 2013 to June 2016, patients presenting for family violence reasons were identified with the human intent injury of 'Maltreatment, assault by domestic partner' or 'Child neglect/maltreatment by parent or guardian'.

From July 2016, the human intent injury categories were further expanded to include all of the following categories:

• sexual assault by current or former intimate partner;
• sexual assault by other family member (excluding intimate partner);
• neglect, maltreatment, assault by current or former intimate partner or;
• neglect, maltreatment, assault by other family member (excluding intimate partner).

The data also now includes maltreatment by other family members other than parent/guardian or intimate partners. This has resulted in an increase in the number of presentations deemed as family violence related.

When interpreting this data, these additional categories should be taken into consideration.

Reference period

The data extracted from the VEMD covers patients presenting at a Victorian public hospital and departing between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2022.

Geographical classifications

The residential postcode of patient is recorded for every Emergency Department presentation; this is the postcode in which the person usually resides (not postal address).

ERPs for both Victoria and Local Government Areas are based on populations provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. ERPs for the data in the current reference period are based on population projection estimates developed by the Victorian Government’s ‘Victoria in Future’ program (VIF unpublished data[1] (External link)). For years prior to the current reference period, the ERP used to calculate offence rates is the ABS ERP.

ABS ERP data comes from two publications:

• ERP by age and sex are collected from 3101.0 - Australian Demographic Statistics, Sept 2017 (Released at 11:30AM (Canberra time) 22 March 2018 – downloaded 24 April 2018).
• ERP by LGA are collected from 3218.0 - Regional Population Growth, Australia 2016-17 (Released at 11:30AM (Canberra time) 24 March 2018 - downloaded 24 April 2018).

VEMD FV patient rate = (Number of patients/ERP count) x 100,000

For more information about the ABS estimated resident population, please refer to the ABS website. (External link)

Other classifications

Country of birth as collected by the VEMD is converted to world regions as specified in the Standard Australian Classification of Countries (Australian Bureau of Statistics) to avoid small numbers and issues of confidentiality.

For more information about the ABS estimated resident population, please refer to the ABS website. (External link)

Terminology and abbreviations

FV

Family violence

VEMD

Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset

Type of accommodation of usual residence of patients

'Usual' is defined as the type of accommodation the person has lived in for the most amount of time over the past three months prior to presentation. If a person stays in a particular place of accommodation for four or more days a week over the period, that place of accommodation would be the person's type of usual accommodation. In practice, receiving an answer strictly in accordance with the above definition may be difficult to achieve. The place the person perceives as their usual accommodation will often prove to be the best approximation.

Cause of injury

Event, circumstances or condition associated with the occurrence of injury, poisoning or adverse effect.

Type of visit

The reason the patient presented to the Emergency Department.

Urgency of visit

Classification according to urgency of need for medical and nursing care, using the National Triage Scale. The Triage Category is to be allocated by an experienced registered nurse or medical practitioner.

Main injury

The patho-physical nature of the injury primarily responsible for the patient’s presentation at the Emergency Department.

Body region

The region of the body where the injury was sustained.

Referred to VEMD by

Source from which patient was referred to this Emergency Department.

Place where the injury occurred

The specific physical location of the person at the time the injury occurred.

Activity when injured

The type of activity being undertaken by the person, at the moment the injury occurred.

Bed requested

Records whether a bed was requested for the patient from 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2014. This data item was replaced in 2014 by the data item ‘Clinical Decision to Admit’.

Referred to

The agency to which the patient was referred for continuing care.

Departure status

Patient destination or status on departure from the Emergency Department.

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Victims Assistance Program 

The Family Violence Database (FVDB) presents statistics about the characteristics of cases recorded by the Victims Assistance Program (VAP) in their records management system. The following explanatory notes are designed to provide additional information about the data received from the Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS) regarding the VAP, including how it is processed and how to interpret the summary statistics.

Data source

The family violence measures produced from the FVDB are derived from administrative by-product information collected by the community based Victims Assistance Program which is funded by Victim Services, Support and Reform (VSSR) within DJCS.

 

Scope and coverage

The VAP provides flexible case management services to meet the practical, emotional, and psychological needs of victims to help manage the effects of crime and assist in the recovery process. The Department funds VAP agencies to deliver services across nine regions in Victoria.

The VAP data within the FVDB includes information pertaining to cases and services initiated for new clients who have received at least one VAP service within the relevant reference period.

However, the scope and coverage of the data, is not representative of all individuals in Victoria who have sought assistance in response to family violence. For example, clients are typically required to be victims of a crime against the person in order to be eligible for services offered through VAP.

Counting methodology

Number of services

Each record represents a new case received by the VAP within the reference period. A case relates to an individual victim of a crime event or episode. Therefore, each record within a financial year is a count of the number of cases initiated in the reference period for VAP clients.

Financial year

Records are compiled on the basis of the date that a client was first recorded seeking a service. Therefore, financial year refers to the financial year in which a client first sought access to a service from the VAP.

Family violence indicator

In the VAP record management system case workers can flag a case with a family violence indicator to denote that a client is seeking supports in response to family violence. This indicator is used to identify clients who were victims of family violence.

Definitions

Victims Assistance Program

The VAP provides flexible case management services to meet the practical, emotional and psychological needs of victims to help manage the effects of crime and assist in the recovery process. The Department funds VAP agencies to deliver services across nine regions in Victoria.

Crimes against person

Includes offences and related offences of homicide, assault/s, aggravated burglary, sexual offences, abduction, robbery and armed robbery, blackmail, stalking/harassment, culpable driving offences and dangerous/negligent driving offences causing serious injury.

Family violence case

A case that has been flagged with an indicator to denote whether a client is seeking assistance in response to a family violence matter.

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Ambulance Victoria 

Data source

In June 2016 Ambulance Victoria began capturing information about family, domestic or sexual violence as part of the administrative data collected by paramedics who have attended an event. The data received from Ambulance Victoria for use in the FVDB concerns all records where family, domestic or sexual violence was identified and recorded by attending paramedics.

Reference period

The family, domestic or sexual violence flag was initiated by Ambulance Victoria in June 2016. The reference period for this data source runs from July 2017 until June 2022.

Calculating rates per 100,000 population 

The rate of patients per 100,000 population is calculated using the count of events occurring within a Local Government Area and the Estimated Resident Population (ERP) of that LGA. The rate is calculated using the following formula:

Rate per 100,000 = (Number of events/ERP count) x 100,000

ERPs for both Victoria and Local Government Areas are based on populations provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. ERPs for the data in the current reference period are based on population projection estimates developed by the Victorian Government’s ‘Victoria in Future’ program (VIF unpublished data[1] (External link)). For years prior to the current reference period, the ERP used to calculate offence rates is the ABS ERP.

ABS ERP data comes from two publications:

• ERP by age and sex are collected from 3101.0 - Australian Demographic Statistics, Sept 2017 (Released at 11:30AM (Canberra time) 22 March 2018 – downloaded 24 April 2018).
• ERP by LGA are collected from 3218.0 - Regional Population Growth, Australia 2016-17 (Released at 11:30AM (Canberra time) 24 March 2018 - downloaded 24 April 2018).

Using Ambulance Victoria data for analysis

Victims and perpetrators

At present victims and perpetrators of family, domestic and sexual violence cannot be easily distinguished in Ambulance Victoria records. As such, data pertaining to patients (including demographic information) should not be used to form analysis concerning victims of family, domestic and sexual violence, as patients may also include perpetrators.

Family, domestic and sexual violence

During data collection, paramedics have an option to flag a record as ‘family, domestic or sexual violence’ if this has been identified. At present, family, domestic and sexual violence cannot be easily disaggregated, and it should therefore be noted that Ambulance Victoria data used in the FVDB includes records of sexual violence perpetrated by individuals who do not meet the definition of a family member as it is defined under the Family Violence Protection Act.

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Coroners Court 

Data source 

The Coroners Court of Victoria data included in this report was extracted from the Victorian Homicide Register (VHR).

The VHR is a database maintained by the Coroners Court of Victoria (the Court) which contains detailed information regarding the offender(s) and deceased(s) in all Victorian homicides reported to the Court since 2000. 

The VHR record for a homicide death includes a core dataset of variables and an enhanced dataset. The core dataset encompasses the basic information that is available to coders when the death is first reported to the Court. This usually includes the name, age and sex of the offender(s) and deceased(s), the details of the
relationship between them (if any), the location of the homicide incident, the location of the death, the cause of death and the mechanism of death.

The enhanced dataset encompasses the information that is usually only available in a sufficiently reliable and detailed form after the Court has received the coronial brief of evidence and any other medical records, witness statements and/or other relevant material that the Coroner has requested, and the coronial case has been closed. The enhanced dataset comprises variables across eight domains which relate to both the offender and the deceased, including inclusion criteria (relating to whether the death was included in the Victorian Systemic Review of Family Violence Deaths), socio-demographics, identity, context, mental and physical illnesses, mental health treatment, and service contacts. The enhanced dataset also includes detailed information about the mechanism of death, criminal justice system outcomes, information regarding family violence risk factors, and information regarding any history of family violence.

 

The above diagram depicts how data outputs concerning the Coroners court has three different counting units: unique incidents (an incident from which a single or multiple deaths resulted), unique offenders (the number of people charged with causing or contributing to the death of another person) and unique victims (the number of people who died as a result of an incident).

Reference period

The data extracted from the VHR includes all homicides reported to the Coroners Court of Victoria between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2022. This reference period is based on the date the homicide incident occurred. This data includes cases where the coronial investigation has not yet been closed, where only the core dataset is available. As such, the data in this report is restricted to the core dataset of the VHR and does not include the extended dataset.

Live data

The VHR is a live database based on open and closed criminal and coronial investigations and is subject to re-classification and updating as further information becomes available.

Terminology and abbreviations

Family violence related: the homicide occurred in circumstances where there was a familial relationship between the homicide offender and the homicide victim, as defined by the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic), whether or not there was an identified history of family violence prior to the homicide. This may include current or former intimate partners or kinship relationships as defined by the Victorian Indigenous Family Violence Taskforce (2003).

Homicide incident: an incident of violence from which single or multiple deaths may have resulted. The date of the homicide incident may be different to the date of a death in circumstances where injuries were inflicted upon a person during a homicide incident, but the death occurred as a result of those injuries at a later date.

Homicide offender: a person who has been charged with causing or contributing to the death of another person during a homicide incident.

Homicide victim: a person who died as the result of a homicide incident.

Mechanism of death: the primary means by which the death was caused.
Blunt object – an object was used to inflict the fatal injury by striking and transfer of force.
Bodily force – the fatal injury was inflicted without the use of a weapon, such as via an assault using hands and/or feet. This includes strangulation inflicted using the body (e.g. hands).
Firearm – the fatal injury was inflicted through the discharge of a firearm. This does not include the firing of arrows, which are classified under ‘sharp object’.
Sharp Object – the fatal injury was inflicted using a sharp object which caused a penetrating or cutting injury. This could include a range of implements such as knives, bottles, razors or the pointed tip of an umbrella.
Threat to breathing – the death was caused by a deliberate restriction to breathing using an object or implement. The cause of the restriction may be from a range of methods including ligature strangulation, suffocation using an object such as a pillow, drowning, or otherwise using an object to cause a restriction to breathing.
Other – this classification is used where none of the other mechanisms apply, or where there were multiple
mechanisms which contributed equally to the cause of death.

Location of incident: the location where the homicide incident occurred.

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Specialist Homelessness Services (Homelessness Data Collection) 

Data source 

Specialist homelessness services are services funded by the state and federal government to support people experiencing homelessness, and people who are in crisis situations or at risk of experiencing homelessness. They provide support services and help to find stable accommodation.

Data outputs pertaining to specialist homelessness services were provided by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) as part of the Homelessness Data Collection (HDC).

The data used for analysis from this source has been collected from Victorian homelessness-funded agencies through the HDC. These agencies report the same data to the Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC), a national collection managed by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The SHSC collects information about all people who are referred to, or seek assistance from specialist homelessness services agencies.

The following diagram depicts the three specialist homelessness services populations examined in analysis for the FVDB.

Reference period

The data extracted from the HDC covers all homelessness service periods which were active at any point in time from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2022. The reference period is based on a record’s date of closure (if a service period has been closed) or the last date that data was reported for that service period.

Calculating rates per 100,000 population

The rate of clients per 100,000 population is calculated using a count of service periods by the residential Local Government Area of a client at the time of presentation, and the Estimated Resident Population (ERP) of that LGA. The rate is calculated using the following formula:

Rate per 100,000 = (Number of service periods/ERP count) x 100,000

ERP figures for the Local Government Areas are based on populations provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The data is extracted from the release titled Regional Population Group (3218.0).

For more information about the ABS estimated resident population, please refer to the ABS website.

ABS population data concerning the most recent financial year is not available. To calculate these numbers, the CSA uses estimates created by the Victorian Government’s ‘Victoria in future’ report.

Using Specialist Homelessness Services data for analysis

Differentiating between victims and perpetrators

Specialist family violence service clients are understood to be victims of family violence, while clients with a case management for ‘men who use violence’ are identified as perpetrators of family violence.

Clients who make up the general specialist homelessness services population have identified that family violence is an issue relevant to their need for service, however further disaggregation cannot be made on this population to distinguish between family violence victims and perpetrators.

Undercounts for sensitive data items

A number of variables require consent before responses are provided to the AIHW and DHHS as part of the SHSC or HDC. These variables will therefore only be counted where client consent was given, and as such numbers for these measure are likely an undercount. Variables requiring consent include:

- Is the client of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin?

- If the client is under the age of 18 and has a care or protection order, and/or what were their care arrangements?

- Has the client ever been diagnosed with a mental health issue by a health professional?

- What is the client's country of birth?

Terminology and abbreviations

Client: A client is a person who receives a specialist homelessness service. A specialist homelessness service is assistance provided to a client aimed at responding to or preventing homelessness. A client can be of any age—children are also clients if they receive a service directly from a specialist homelessness agency.

Families and clients: clients: To be a client, a person must directly receive a service and not just be a beneficiary of a service. Children can also be recorded as clients if the agency completes a needs assessment for them as an individual. This includes a service that they share with their parent or guardian, such as accommodation. Children are clients if the agency completes a needs assessment as an individual. Children who present with a parent or guardian but do not directly receive a service are not considered to be clients. This includes situations where the parent or guardian receives assistance to prevent tenancy failure or eviction.

Periods of support: The period of time a client receives services from an agency is referred to as a period of support. A unique client can have multiple periods of support. One period of support typically represents a single client engagement with a program. This includes but is not limited to program types such as intake, case management or refuge accommodation. Client engagement with similar program types at different agencies would be represented by a separate support period for each agency.

A period of support ends when:

• the relationship between the client and an agency ends
• the client has reached their maximum amount of support an agency can offer
• a client has not received any services from an agency for a whole calendar month and there is no ongoing relationship.

Presenting unit head: A person in a presenting group who is identified to represent the household in the data collection. If a person presents alone, they are the presenting unit head. If there are children under 18 in the family, the presenting unit head is general the parent or guardian representing the children, or the person with the most direct relation to any children if a parent or guardian is not present. If there are no children under 18 present, the presenting unit head could be the source/partner of another person, or related in some way to another person.

 

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Integrated Reports and Information System (IRIS) 

The Family Violence Database (FVDB) presents statistics about the characteristics of cases and clients recorded in the Integrated Reports and Information System (IRIS) database concerning programs funded by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH). The following explanatory notes are designed to provide additional information about the data received from DFFH, how it is processed and how to interpret the summary statistics.

Data source 

The family violence measures produced for the FVDB are derived from administrative information recorded by agencies that are funded by DFFH to provide Women and Children’s Family Violence Services (W&C FVS) and Family Violence Perpetrator Interventions (FVPI). The information is input by the agencies that are providing the services, and de-identified data is extracted from the IRIS database by DFFH and provided to the Crime Statistics Agency for input into the FVDB.

As the IRIS database is a live operational data system and updated regularly, the data presented reflects only the information in the database at the date and time of extraction. This means that as additional annual years of data are released by the CSA, the data relating to previous periods may change as data are updated in IRIS, and as cases progress and are completed by agencies.

Scope and coverage

The scope of the data presented in the data tables and visualisations cover all cases and related clients accessing either FVPI services or W&C FVS. For the purpose of these outputs, clients who have come through FVPI have been excluded.

The data presented is not representative of all family violence intervention efforts undertaken by DFFH as there are other services provided that are not currently within the scope of the FVDB.

Counting methodology

1.1 Hierarchy of record types in IRIS database

Cases recorded

Cases are a record of an agency having received a referral for a client to participate in FVPI or receive service under W&C FVS. Each record is therefore a count of a unique case which have recorded active service hours within a financial year.  

Previous reporting completed for the FVDB used a different counting method when describing FVPI and W&C FVS cases. In prior years cases were counted based on incoming referrals within a financial year, rather than by dates in which a case recorded service activity. Numbers in this version of publication will therefore not be consistent with numbers published in the past.

Financial year: Case records are compiled on the basis of the financial years in which a case records activity. Thus, a case may be counted over several years in the data where it recorded activity over a number of financial years.

Program type: Each case is broadly classified as either FVPI or W&C FVS. As program type is not recorded in the IRIS database, program type is derived using the client’s recorded age and sex at the date of referral. Cases with adult male clients are classified in FVPI and cases with women or children clients are classified as W&C FVS. Where age or sex information is insufficient to determine program type, cases may additionally be classified based on the recorded funding source (e.g. ‘DHS – Men’s Behaviour Change Program’ or ‘DHS – Women and Children’s Family Violence Services’). Where cases are unable to be determined based on these variables, program type is listed as unknown.

It should be noted that the present method of deriving program type is vulnerable to some instances of misclassification. For example, if a client’s date of birth is incorrectly recorded, a young male child may have a case classified as FVPI. Additionally, this system does not account for situations where discretion may have been exercised by a service provider. For example if a 17 year old male was referred to an agency to attend FVPI, because of his age at referral his case will be classified under W&C FVS.

Unique clients

A unique client is defined as an individual who has had one or more cases recorded in the IRIS database within the relevant reference period. One unique client may have more than one case during the reference period, but will have a count of 1 in the data presented concerning unique clients.

Unique individuals are identified using a unique identifier (‘STATSLINKAGE’) which is automatically generated based on a client’s recorded name, sex and birth date upon the creation of a client record in the IRIS database. The FVDB does not receive identifiable information concerning clients of these services, however the STATSLINKAGE variable can be used to recognize clients who have received service at multiple agencies for cases under IRIS reporting.

Date of referral: Unique clients are compiled on the basis of the date that their first case was referred to an agency in the IRIS database within the reference period. The date may not be the actual first date of service for a client, as records only extend as far back as the reference period.

Program type: As unique individuals may have several cases across the IRIS database, program type is derived by summarizing the cases that a client has had over the reference period. Many clients are found to have cases associated with only one program type, so this is listed as their program type. Some individuals may be associated with both programs however it should be noted that due to limitations discussed above with deriving program type, some of these individuals may have been classified in both programs by error. If a client has a case with a named program and a case where the program is unknown, the client is listed as program type unknown.

Definitions

Family Violence Perpetrator Interventions (FVPI): A range of perpetrator responses captured in IRIS including men's behaviour change programs, perpetrator case management and other new interventions. Please note that prior iterations of the Victorian FVDB referred to FVPI as 'Men's Behaviour Change Program'.

Women and Children’s Family Violence Services (W&C FVS): DFFH funded services available for women and children impacted by family violence, including counselling and support groups.

Agency: An organisation who offers one of the above DFFH funded programs or services. An agency is responsible for creating the records contained in the IRIS database.

Integrated Reports and Information System (IRIS): IRIS is a database used to record and describe all clients and cases referred to an agency for the FVPI or a W&C FVS. Records are recorded and stored locally within an agency, and de-identified information is extracted to DFFH on a quarterly basis.

Case: Represents a referral made for a client to receive service from an agency under the FVPI or W&C FVS. A client may have several cases over the reference period at multiple agencies.

Client: Represents an individual attached to a case. Statistics concerning clients may refer to characteristics of the clients attached to all of the cases recorded in the IRIS database, or it may refer only to unique clients who appear over the reference period.

Issue: Represents all noted concerns relevant to a case that an agency is hoping to address over the course of the case. Examples of issues include family violence issues, financial issues, and substance abuse issues. Recorded issues are used to flag which cases are related to family violence.

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Child Protection 

Data Source

The Victorian child protection program (the program) is a service which provides assistance to vulnerable children who are suspected of being abused, neglected or harmed, and whose parents are unable to provide adequate care or protection.

The main functions of the program are to:

• Receive and assess new reports concerning children under 17 (including unborn children) regarding abuse and neglect.
• Investigate matters where it is alleged that a child is at risk of significant harm.
• Refer children and families to services that assist in providing the ongoing safety and wellbeing of children.
• Make applications to the Children's Court if the child's safety cannot be ensured within the family.
• Administer protection orders granted by the Children's Court.

Populations

Data included in visualisations and data tables published within the Family Violence Data Portal concerns four populations of administrative data:

1. Investigation of reports: The number of investigations commenced following a notification made to the program about the welfare of a child.
2. Substantiated reports: The number of reports of alleged risk of harm or abuse to a child made to child protection, which were substantiated by an investigation.
3. Children on orders: the number of unique children who were on a protection order (as at the last day of each specified month).
4. Children in care: The number of unique children who were in care (as at the last day of each specified month). Children are placed in statutory care when child protection has substantiated abuse or neglect and makes an application to the Children’s Court for an order to protect the child from further harm that has the effect of the child being placed outside parental care. Where the Children’s Court determines the child is in need of protection and makes a protection order that has the effect of the child being placed outside parental care or the child is unable to reside at home while the matter is considered by the Court (interim Accommodation Order), the child may be placed in care.

Reference Period

Data in the current reference period covers a five financial year span, dating from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2022. The number of investigations and substantiated reports counts all records occurring within a specified financial year, while data pertaining to children on orders and children in care counts all children as at the last date of a specified financial year (30 June).