11 December 2020
Seven distinct ‘types’ of family violence perpetrators can be identified using police records, research released today by the Crime Statistics Agency shows.
Among the groups identified were four groups who perpetrated violence against their intimate partner and three groups who perpetrated violence against another type of family member (not against an intimate partner).
The study found there were notable differences between groups in terms of their demographic characteristics, risk factors identified by police, frequency of family violence perpetration and other offending behaviour.
Two groups of prolific family violence perpetrators were identified, with these perpetrators the most likely to also perpetrate violence against non-family members, the most likely to be substance affected at the time of the incident, and the most likely to be unemployed.
Overall, the research found that 74% of recorded family violence perpetrators were male, with an average age of 35.5 years, and five per cent were Aboriginal.
Perpetrators were over-represented in regional areas of Victoria, with 23% of perpetrators living in regional areas compared to 15% of the population of Victoria.
In terms of where perpetrators resided, the most disadvantaged areas of Victoria were also substantially over-represented, with 50% of perpetrators living in the 30% most disadvantaged areas of the state.
Half (51%) of perpetrators had been recorded for at least one other family violence incident in the previous 12 years.
The paper Finding typologies of family violence perpetrators using police records is available here.
The media release for this paper is available here.