2.2 Victim survivors are safe

Indicator: Decrease in family violence deaths

Analysis of data over the past seven financial years indicates that the number of family violence homicides has not significantly decreased. However, 2015–16 had the highest number of family violence-related homicides over this period, with a lower number of homicides in every year since.

Most family violence related homicide victims are women and girls, representing 14 of the 18 victims in 2021–22.

The time lag between when a homicide is reported to the register and when an investigation concludes (and identifies whether a homicide was related to family violence) is the key reason for the higher number of ‘yet to be determined’ homicides in the two most recent years, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Number of homicide victims, Victoria 2015 – 2022

Source: Coroners Court of Victoria data extracted from the Victorian Homicide Register by the Crime Statistics Agency

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Type of homicide victim	2015–16	2016–17	2017–18	2018–19	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22
Family violence related	33	25	21	16	21	26	18
Not family violence related	38	29	39	34	48	28	22
Unknown	≤3	7	≤3	4	4	7	16
Total	73	61	62	54	73	61	56

Table 1 provides Victorian data on the number and rate (per 100,000 people) of family violence related homicide victims from 2015–16 to 2021–22. While it may appear that family violence related homicides are decreasing, figures for 2021–22 are likely to increase as investigations into ‘yet to be determined’ homicides are finalised.

Table 1: Family violence related homicide victims - number and rate per 100,000

Type of homicide victim	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Number of family violence related homicide victims	33	25	21	16	21	26	18
Family violence related victims - rate per 100,000	0.53	0.40	0.33	0.24	0.32	0.40	0.27¹

Source: Coroners Court of Victoria data extracted from the Victorian Homicide Register by the Crime Statistics Agency

About this data

Item	Description
Indicator	Decrease family violence deaths
Source	Data in this measure is from Coroners Court of Victoria data extracted from the Victorian Homicide Register by the Crime Statistics Agency.
Definition	Numerator – All homicides reported to the Coroners Court of Victoria, indicating where homicides were family violence related. Denominator – Total number of reported homicides.
Time period	Data captures seven financial years, 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 through to 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022.
Data details	A homicide incident is 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. A family violence related homicide is defined as one which 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). The Victorian Homicide Registry is a live database and historical records may be updated over time. Data used in this report was extracted on 2 August 2022 and is subject to change. For information contained within these data tables concerning age, individuals with a recorded age > 110 were classified as age unknown.
Data quality	It is difficult to assess changes in the number of family violence homicides over time, in part due to the small number of incidents. There may be large fluctuations over time that are not statistically significant. Data in most recent years: Perpetrators of a homicide may be unknown, particularly in cases where criminal or coronial investigations are ongoing. A file with an unknown perpetrator is unable to be flagged definitely as either family violence or not family violence related, and in the tables above these cases are classified as 'unknown'. Comparing family violence data from the most recent financial years with prior years is not recommended, as newer cases are more likely to be ongoing investigations, and therefore may fail to identify all family violence homicides. Homicide deceased: Homicide deceased is a count of all people who have died at a homicide incident. This count may include a small number of perpetrators of family violence homicides in incidents where the perpetrator also died. As homicide incidents may record more than one deceased, the total number of deceased may exceed the number of incidents.
Full / Partial / Proxy / Ideal	Full data.

Notes

¹This figure is likely to change as more ‘yet to be determined’ homicides are finalised by investigations and the Coroner.

2.2 Victim survivors are safe

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Indicator: Decrease in family violence deaths

Measure: Number of family violence-related deaths

Figure 1: Number of homicide victims, Victoria 2015 – 2022

Table 1: Family violence related homicide victims - number and rate per 100,000

Notes