Victorian Family Violence Research Agenda 2021-2024

The Royal Commission into Family Violence acknowledged significant gaps in the family violence evidence base, including how systems and services that prevent and respond to family violence are working. Ending Family Violence: Victoria’s plan for change outlined government’s commitment to developing a robust evidence base to inform decision making.

The Family Violence Reform Rolling Action Plan 2020–23 strengthened that commitment to research on family violence and sexual violence and harm, through development of a Victorian family violence research agenda and research program.

• The Victorian family violence research agenda articulates government’s research priorities and is intended to inform strategic decision making and reform delivery.
• The research program will detail how government will work with Victorian universities, the sector and industry to deliver research under this agenda.

Collectively the research agenda and program will support the whole of government approach to research on family violence and sexual violence and harm, across primary prevention, early intervention and crisis and recovery responses. It will also complement monitoring and evaluation, outcomes measurement and monitoring and data development activities underway across government, as detailed in the Rolling Action Plan.

A strong and effective family violence evidence base is key to delivering long-term, sustainable reform of our family violence system. It tells us what is working, what needs to be adjusted, and where to focus our efforts for the greatest effect.

Articulating our research priorities

The Victorian family violence reform is unique in its ambition, to bring together family violence and sexual violence and harm prevention, early intervention and response through a cross-system reform agenda. This is complex because it relies on multiple systems, including justice and police, family violence and community services, health, child protection, housing and education – all working together to deliver services and supports. The family violence reform also intersects with other key social policy reforms in children and families, justice, housing, and those arising from the findings of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

This cross-system reform approach provides an opportunity for research to influence change on a broad scale. The Victorian family violence research agenda supports government, universities and the sector to maximise this opportunity, by articulating the Victorian government’s family violence and sexual violence and harm research priorities.

The research agenda provides a focus point for research, whether it be commissioned by government, or initiated by universities, the sector or industry. Research delivered under this research agenda will contribute to the broader research and evaluation program, articulated in the 2020-23 Rolling Action Plan, and help shape future reform directions by building evidence to underpin the development of future Rolling Action Plans.

The research agenda was developed through consultation across the Victorian government and builds on the significant engagement undertaken on the 2020-23 Rolling Action Plan. It also draws from key reviews and recommendations, including from the Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor, engagement with representatives from sector peak bodies and organisations, and government’s ongoing discussions with key stakeholders on reform implementation. The primary prevention research priority is based on consultations from 2020 led by Respect Victoria. Further consultation will be undertaken as part of development of the research program.

This research agenda has been developed with the recognition that there is a broad range of research on family violence planned and underway across Australian universities and through the work of Australia’s National Research Organisation on Women’s Safety (ANROWS) and Our Watch and led by Respect Victoria.

While these areas of interest will overlap, the Victorian research agenda is not intended to duplicate this work. Instead, it applies a Victorian specific lens to shared research interests, and a focus on opportunities for synthesis and knowledge translation that support application of research to policy and practice.

This research agenda does not propose specific research questions or presume research methodologies. However, government does recognise that certain types of research may be more beneficial at this stage of continuously improving our evidence base.

This could include:

• research that collates and translates existing evidence into policy relevant information that is firmly situated within the Victorian context, such as literature reviews or meta-analysis
• research activities that focus on knowledge translation to help ensure that existing research is relevant and accessible to the people who work to prevent and respond to family violence and sexual violence and harm
• action-oriented research that focuses on tangible outcomes that readily translate to reforms, policies and practice.

The research agenda articulates areas of research interest under high-level priorities. This is done with recognition of the overlap and intersection between the people, groups and experiences that are described under those priorities. Each person’s experience of family violence or sexual violence or harm is different. Further, some factors may combine to affect the risk, severity, frequency and diverse ways in which an individual might experience or use family violence. When conducting research aligned to the Victorian family violence research agenda, researchers and organisations are encouraged to consider those overlapping areas and interplays, and the extent to which they can provide nuanced evidence that supports the Victorian reforms.

Underpinning principles

In line with the scope and approach of the Victorian family violence reform, there is an expectation that research delivered under this agenda will apply or be underpinned by core principles. This includes consideration of the role of Aboriginal self-determination, gender inequality, intersectionality, and lived experience, and application of a system lens that recognises the cross-system nature of the Victorian reform.

It is more important to prevent a problem rather than spending a lot of money, time, lives lost [and] children’s lives destroyed in trying to correct the problem in the aftermath.

On average, one woman per week is killed in Australia by a current or former male partner. Primary prevention is a long-term agenda that aims to prevent family violence and violence against women from ever happening in the first instance.

Primary prevention works by identifying and addressing the underlying drivers of violence – the forms of discrimination and inequalities that are present in the social norms, structures and practices that create environments where violence is more likely to occur.¹

Everyone has a role to play, from grassroots community-based organisations to women’s health services, education providers, sporting associations, the arts, workplaces, all levels of government, local communities and individuals.

Family violence and all forms of violence against women are driven by particular expressions of gender inequality and other forms of discrimination that give rise to power imbalances.

Whilst there is solid knowledge on some aspects about primary prevention of family violence and violence against women, there are still major gaps in knowledge and evidence on ‘what works’. There is a robust and still-evolving evidence base for addressing men’s violence against women and an understanding of the gendered drivers of this violence.² However, there is relatively limited evidence for preventing other types of violence within the family context, outside the common dynamic of male perpetrator and female victim survivor.

Further evidence is required to understand how systemic inequality and forms of discrimination:

• interact with the gendered drivers and reinforcing factors of men’s violence against women
• drive family violence outside the common male to female dynamic.

The overarching priority for primary prevention research should be strengthening our understanding of the drivers and contributing factors of family violence and violence against women, with an intersectional lens.

This may include exploration of systemic inequality and forms of discrimination and how they drive and perpetuate family violence and violence against women.

This includes but is not limited to:

• sexism
• impact of colonisation and dispossession
• racism, xenophobia and ethnocentrism
• ableism
• homophobia, biphobia transphobia and intersex discrimination
• heteronormativity and cisnormativity
• ageism
• classism
• adult-child power dynamic
• other forms of discrimination, inequality and stigma.

Research should also explore how such inequality and forms of discrimination play out via structures, norms and practices at various levels in society – individual and relationship level, organisational and community level, system and institutional level and at a societal level.

Research may also explore the different settings in which such inequality and forms of discrimination occur, as well as where primary prevention interventions need to implemented, for example:

• education and care settings for children and young people
• universities, TAFEs and other tertiary education institutions
• workplaces, corporations and employee organisations
• sports, recreation, social and leisure spaces
• art and cultural spaces
• health, family and community services
• faith-based contexts
• media
• popular culture, advertising and entertainment
• public spaces, transport, infrastructure and facilities
• legal, justice and corrections contexts.

Critically all primary prevention research apply principles of intersectionality – namely it should meaningfully recognise that forms of discrimination and systems of oppression do not exist in isolation from one other.

Further research, alongside monitoring and evaluation, is required to better understand ‘what works’ in the primary prevention of family violence and violence against women.

Research into critical elements of primary prevention work may include topics such as:

• backlash and resistance
• the role of bystanders
• continuing to track community attitudes and behaviours relating to the primary prevention of family violence and violence against women, etc.³

Additional research to support primary prevention action relating to particular forms of family violence and violence against women would be beneficial, for example, including but not limited to:

• sexual assault and harm
• the role of coercive control as an underpinning element of family violence and violence against women.

This research agenda recognises children and young people as victim survivors in their own right, and the need to better understand the drivers of such violence. Research into the drivers of adolescent violence and/or sexually abuse behaviours in the home and/or in intimate partner relationships is also underexplored.

The priority areas for government and other stakeholders who undertake research are:

• the drivers and contributing factors of family violence and violence against women
• particular forms of family violence and violence against women to support primary prevention action
• ‘what works’ in primary prevention.

This research will build evidence for a shared understanding and approach to stopping family violence and violence against women from occurring in the first instance.

References

1. Our Watch, Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) and VicHealth (2015) Change the story: A shared framework for the primary prevention of violence against women and their children in Australia, Our Watch, Melbourne, Australia.
2. Ibid.
3. The National Community Attitudes to Violence Against Women Survey, led by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, currently tracks attitudes and knowledge relating to violence against women. It also gauges attitudes to gender equality and people’s preparedness to intervene when witnessing violence or its precursors.

Children and young people with lived experience of family violence should be ongoing partners in design and implementation, with their voices sought, listened to and acted upon. This is an important area of improvement to ensure systems and services are designed in a way that directly considers the needs of children and young people.

Family violence has particularly significant consequences for children and young people.

Children and young people must be recognised as victim survivors in their own right whether they:

• are directly targeted
• have witnessed violence toward another family member
• are exposed to the effects of violence such as:
  • living with constant tension and fear
  • instability due to needing to seek refuge
  • broken property and injured family members.

Children and young people’s experiences of family violence differs from those of adults. Including because children are dependent on adults to meet their physical, emotional and development needs, and this dependency can add an additional power dynamic. Children and young people may also be subject to violence from more than one perpetrator within their family, including from siblings.

Family violence can impact children and young people’s physical and mental health; neurological and emotional development and cognitive, behavioural functioning and their ability to cope and adapt to different situations. This may impact their attachment to primary caregivers and relationships with family members and peers. Children and young people who have experienced family violence may display behaviours of concern or that are unexpected for their age and stage of development including emotional dysregulation, hypervigilance and withdrawal. These experiences can also vary across age groups, communities, and within the same family or household.

As victim survivors in their own right, we need to recognise children and young people’s unique experiences, additional vulnerabilities, and consider these in the contexts of their ages and stages of development. Equally, some groups of children and young people have a particularly limited voice and may be additionally vulnerable, for example, infants and very young children, and children and young people from certain communities. Research delivered under this agenda must find ways for children and young people to participate in research for and about them.

We need to intervene as early as possible and to deliver high quality and timely supports to children and young people in order to mitigate short- and long-term impacts and assist with recovery. To achieve this, we need to comprehend children and young people’s experiences of family violence from their perspective, including through the lens of an adult-child power dynamic. We need to hear their voices regarding support and recovery needs and service experience. We also need to recognise how these may vary depending on their individual needs.

The following research areas are proposed in consideration of these factors and the Victorian reform context.

• Prevalence of family violence involving children and young people and connections between family violence and other risks and issues effecting children and young people’s safety, for example sexual abuse and neglect.
• Protective factors within or surrounding families that decrease the likelihood of children and young people experiencing family violence.
• Research that assists to better understand children and young people’s experience of family violence and its impacts including on:
  • family and interpersonal relationships, social inclusion, and connections to community
  • substance abuse
  • youth offending
  • educational attainment and participation in formal education
  • how these experiences and impacts differ across age groups and communities, and from adult victim survivors
• Research on technology-facilitated abuse, and other emerging methods of violence and abuse, and their specific manifestations and impacts when used against children and young people.
• Increasing our understanding of access to and effectiveness of services for children and young people who experience family violence, including:
  • identifying key settings or circumstances that support early identification and intervention
  • the extent to which children and young people are receiving appropriate supports for family violence, including barriers to service access and ways to address this
  • how children and young people’s experience of supports differ based on factors such as age and stage of development, gender, family composition and social and economic circumstances.
  • effective trauma-informed therapeutic approaches that support immediate and long-term recovery, including multi-disciplinary approaches
  • responding to children who may have experiences of repeated current or historical violence and abuse

All research regarding children and young people who are victim survivors should consider differences in experiences across cohorts and communities, this includes:

• Unborn children, infants and very young children
• Aboriginal children and young people
• Children and young people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
• Children and young people who identify as LGBTIQ+
• Children and young people with disability
• Children and young people with mental health concerns
• Siblings (and children from the same households)

A deeper understanding of how children and young people experience family violence and its impacts is essential in identifying risk and improving our ability to intervene early. Children and young people’s needs and experiences are unique and differ not only from adults but also from each other. By recognising how these needs vary in connection to such factors as age and stage, culture, gender, identity and community of origin, government, universal and specialist services can tailor programs to specifically meet children and young people’s needs and help them to recover and thrive.

Aboriginal communities and services need meaningful access to evidence about family violence in their communities and must be supported to lead research.

Aboriginal people and communities experience disproportionate impacts from family violence, particularly women and children. Aboriginal people’s experience of family violence remains under-researched. Likewise, there has been insufficient attention paid to building the evidence base on culturally appropriate approaches to assisting victim survivors recover from the impacts of family violence and to support people who use violence against Aboriginal people to change their behaviours.

The research agenda applies the Dhelk Dja: Safe our way – strong culture, strong peoples, strong families definition of family violence. Dhelk Dja describes family violence as an issue focused around a wide range of physical, emotional, sexual, social, spiritual, cultural, psychological and economic and legal abuses that occur within families, intimate relationships, extended families, kinship networks and communities. It extends to one-on-one fighting, abuse of Aboriginal community workers as well as self-harm, injury and suicide.

The Dhelk Dja definition also acknowledges the impact of violence by non-Aboriginal people against Aboriginal partners, children, young people, extended family on spiritual and cultural rights, which may manifest as exclusion or isolation from Aboriginal culture and/or community. Elder abuse and the use of lateral violence within Aboriginal communities are also within scope.

The experience of family violence must be understood in the historical context of white settlement and colonisation and their resulting and continuing impacts: cultural dispossession, breakdown of community kinship systems and Aboriginal law, systemic racism and vilification, social and economic exclusion, entrenched poverty, problematic substance use, inherited grief and trauma, and loss of traditional roles and status.

Aboriginal people are diverse and have diverse cultures and experiences. Likewise, Aboriginal peoples’, communities and families’ experiences of family violence are diverse. Responses to family violence as experienced by Aboriginal people and communities must recognise this context and be able to adapt to the varying experiences and needs of Aboriginal people.

Research aligned to this priority must be underpinned by self-determination as detailed within Dhelk Dja and summarised in the introduction section of this agenda. This includes an expectation that Aboriginal communities and organisations lead or partner in culturally safe research, and that Aboriginal communities have control over th collection, ownership and application of data about them. Research should also closely consider work underway through Nargneit Birrang – Aboriginal holistic healing framework for family violence, Korin Korin Balit-Djak: Aboriginal health, wellbeing and safety strategic plan 2017-2027 and Balit Murrup: The Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing framework 2017-2027.

The priority research topics for the subject area include:

• Better understanding of the prevalence, protective factors and additional drivers of family violence for Aboriginal people and communities, and how these may differ across families, communities and different cohorts or groups
• Research that builds a stronger understanding of Aboriginal people and communities’ experiences of family violence and its impacts including how these may differ across individuals, families, communities and from non-Aboriginal people
• Similarities and differences in types of violence and patterns of violent behaviours used by people against Aboriginal victim survivors, including unique manifestations of violence and how this may affect service delivery
• Research focused on access to and effectiveness of services for Aboriginal people and communities that builds on a strong understanding of peoples’ experiences of services and applies a holistic healing framework, and includes:
  • gaining a better understanding of key settings and circumstances that support early identification and intervention
  • barriers to service access and usage for Aboriginal people and communities, including negative or unintended consequences of service engagement
  • best practice culturally appropriate and trauma informed approaches for Aboriginal victim survivors and people who use violence, that are based on self-determination

Aboriginal communities and services need meaningful access to evidence about family violence in their communities and must be supported to lead research. To invest in Aboriginal-led research we need to ensure that the collection, ownership and application of data is culturally relevant and driven by Aboriginal communities and services. This is required to understand what is working and what is not working well for Aboriginal Victorians and ensure Aboriginal-led collection and sharing of data and evidence is driving family violence system reform, policy, practice and innovation.

We all know that people from diverse communities have fundamentally different experiences of family violence. Those differences are often shaped by social attitudes, which in turn create structural barriers and long-term disadvantage and marginalisation including from the family violence service system.

Victorians from diverse communities can face be at greater risk of violence and face challenges accessing supports, because of social structures of disadvantage that marginalise their cultural or social identity or their personal circumstances. This includes people from:

• multicultural and faith communities
• lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and questioning (LGBTIQ+) communities
• people with disability
• people experiencing mental health difficulties
• older Victorians
• women in or exiting prison or forensic institutions
• people working in the sex industry
• rural, regional and remote communities
• male victims
• young people aged 12–25.

Diversity may be intersectional, and an individual may identify with one, two or multiple communities. The experiences of individuals who identify with a diverse community may differ significantly from others in those communities.

Research into family violence as experienced and perpetrated by people from diverse communities is an emerging field. We need to better understand, the differing needs of individuals who identify with one or more diverse community, the unique dynamics of violence within diverse communities, and the drivers and protective factors that may increase or reduce that violence. There is also a significant gap in research and data collection around availability, access, inclusion and family violence service system use for people from diverse communities. This needs to be addressed in order to prevent family violence and enhance the Victorian service system response.

Research relevant to all cohorts within this priority includes:

• Better understanding prevalence, protective factors and additional drivers of family violence within diverse communities, and how these may differ across groups of people and communities
• Research that builds a stronger understanding of how family violence is experienced by people belonging to various diverse communities and how these experiences and impacts may differ across individuals, families, communities
• Similarities and differences in types of violence and patterns of violent behaviours of people using violence against victim survivors from diverse communities, including unique manifestations of violence, and how this may or should change or affect service delivery
• Ways of translating the lived experiences of people from diverse communities to effective and appropriate service delivery responses, including through the application of an intersectional lens to family violence practice
• Building a stronger understanding of systemic and social barriers to disclosure, help seeking and access to services for people from diverse communities, and ways to address this.

Additional areas of focus relevant to specific communities or groups of people include:

• the role of faith and multicultural leadership and communities in family violence prevention and response, including how they interface with the service system
• family violence where visa status is being used as a tool of coercion and control, including barriers to service access and use. This should include consideration of impacts for children and young people
• inclusiveness of service responses for trans and gender-diverse people who experience or perpetrate family violence
• family violence where the victim survivor works in the sex industry, including understanding ways stigma and discrimination surrounding sex work contributes to structural barriers in accessing services
• effective service responses for people with disability experiencing family violence. Research in this area must consider the recommendations and implications of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability for the family violence and disability services sector
• types and prevalence of family violence experienced by older Victorians beyond financial abuse.

The Royal Commission called for more accessible, inclusive and non-discriminatory service provision, and an improved understanding of how family violence is experienced by people from diverse communities. Research under this agenda priority will support the Victorian government to continue to strengthen the system to ensure consideration of the needs and experiences of people from diverse communities is embedded into service design and delivery.

Sexual assault is a common form of family violence and is recognised as being an indicator of heightened family violence risk. Intra-familial sexual assault is underreported, and women and children are overwhelmingly the victims.

The Royal Commission recognised that sexual violence and harm is a common form of family violence and often an indicator of heightened family violence risk. This includes sexual violence and harm within intimate partner relationships and within the broader family, including abuse of children and older people.

Sexual violence and harm also occurs in public, social, institutional, online and workplace contexts and can be perpetrated by strangers or by people known to the victim survivor including single incident and protracted abuse. All types of sexual violence, assault, abuse, harassment and sexualised behaviours of concern are within the scope of this research agenda priority.

Sexual violence and harm is a gendered issue. Women and children are predominantly victim survivors and men predominantly perpetrators. Sexual violence and harm is also experienced at a much higher rate by some groups of people including Aboriginal people and women with disabilities. Victim survivors of sexual violence and harm can experience immediate, ongoing and severe impacts, including poorer mental, physical and sexual health, and impacts to interpersonal relationships. Victim survivors may also experience social exclusion and victim blaming.

Many victim survivors experience barriers in reporting, access to the justice system and other support services. Like family violence, sexual violence and harm is underreported, under-prosecuted and under-convicted.

Priority research areas under the subject area of sexual violence and harm include:

• improved approaches for changing social norms and societal attitudes to sexual violence and harm, including attitudes that underpin victim blaming and discrimination against victim survivors
• prevalence and drivers of sexual violence and harm including how these vary across communities and contexts
• research that provides insight into the patterns and types of sexual violence and harm used by perpetrators including:
  • connections between perpetration of sexual violence and other forms of violent and criminal behaviour, including family violence
  • technology-facilitated harm and violence, including image-based abuse, online grooming, and other emerging methods of sexual violence and harm
• research that strengthens our understanding of the impacts of sexual violence and harm for victim survivors including:
  • the differing experiences of sexual violence and harm for victim survivors across cohorts, groups and communities
  • physical and mental health, including risks of suicide, self-harm and substance abuse
  • social inclusion, connection and interpersonal relationships
  • contact with the criminal justice system, including as offenders
• increasing our understanding of access to and effectiveness of services in response to sexual violence and harm including:
  • identifying key settings and circumstances that support early identification and intervention, including how this may differ across types of environment in which the sexual violence and harm occurred, and with a focus on both victim survivors and perpetrators
  • understanding the barriers for victim survivors in reporting and/or accessing services and approaches for addressing them
  • identifying how services can support increased confidence and competence of practitioners in asking questions about sexual violence safely and sensitively
  • improving the understanding of attrition of sexual offences through the Victorian justice system, including of the causes of attrition and identifying practical ways to improve reporting and address attrition
  • effective trauma informed approaches that support immediate and long-term recovery for victim survivors, including those with complex support needs, and those who may have repeated current or historical experiences of violence and abuse
  • effective service responses for perpetrators of sexual violence and harm, including consideration of variations in effectiveness across types of violence and the environment in which it occurred.

All research regarding sexual violence and harm should consider the differences in experiences and impacts across groups and communities, including for:

• Aboriginal people
• victim survivors of childhood institutional abuse, building on the work of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
• women who have experienced incarceration
• people who work in the sex industry
• people with disability
• older Victorians
• people from diverse communities

The Victorian Government is committed to reducing sexual violence and harm and assisting victim survivors to recover from the impacts of sexual violence. To achieve this, we require a fuller understanding of the prevalence of sexual violence and harm and its drivers. We further need a deeper understanding of victim survivors’ experiences and how to best respond to their needs.

Adolescent violence against family members occurs in a specific context and requires interventions that treat it differently from adult-perpetrated family violence.Given young people’s need for care and protection, services responding to adolescent family violence require a specialist approach.

This research agenda uses the terminology of adolescent family violence to broadly refer to situations where adolescents use violence and/or sexually abusive behaviours in the home, and situations where adolescents use violence in intimate partner relationships. The dynamics relating to adolescent use of violence within the home and adolescent intimate partner violence are different to each other, including the settings in which they can occur. These differences need to be considered when conducting research.

Adolescent family violence is different to adult perpetration of family violence, and adolescents who use family violence require a differentiated response to that of adults. Maturity and development of adolescents varies significantly particularly if impacted by trauma. An adolescent’s development may not represent their chronological age or the expectations of justice and community services. Adolescents who use family violence and/or harmful sexual behaviours may also be victim survivors of adult perpetrated family violence or have other traumatic experiences. Their behaviour may be a response to these experiences.

Research on adolescent family violence needs to be considered in context of the young person’s family situation, life experiences and developmental stage. In recognition of this and as recommended by the Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor, research under this priority should consider age groups that overlap with adolescence such as children 8 to 12 years and young people 17 to 25 years.

The below priority research subjects for adolescent family violence focus around deeper understanding regarding the drivers and types of adolescent family violence and effective responses. This includes research that:

• contributes to our understanding of the prevalence, drivers and protective factors of adolescent family violence in the home and/or in intimate partner relationships including:
  • the extent of any overlap between adolescent violence in the home and adolescent intimate partner violence
  • connections to current and previous trauma, including a young person’s experience as a victim survivor of family violence
  • protective factors associated with prevention and the reduction of violence and that indicate likelihood of positive behaviour change and lessening risk
• increases our understanding of the impacts of adolescent family violence on the adolescents involved, with consideration of family and peer relationships, social and emotional well-being, disability and mental health, education and life opportunities
• provides increased insight into the types of violence and the patterns of violent behaviour of adolescents who use violence in the home and/or in intimate partner relationships including:
  • building our understanding of technology-facilitated or online abuse, as well as other emerging methods of abuse, with consideration of the broad range of settings in which this may be used
  • connections between adolescent family violence and harmful sexual behaviours, substance abuse and youth offending
  • types of challenging behaviours that may assist early identification of family violence risk
  • behaviours that may indicate a likelihood of escalation and continuance into their adulthood
• increases our understanding of access to and effectiveness of responses to adolescent family violence, including research regarding:
  • key settings or circumstances that support early identification and intervention, including education settings, and on mechanisms that may support early disclosure and help seeking from parents or other relevant adults
  • trauma informed therapeutic approaches and/or diversionary responses that consider the adolescent’s environment developmental needs
  • responses to sexual harm, dating and intimate partner violence within settings such as schools and community groups with consideration to impacts on the victim survivor, other young people in the setting and the adolescent using violence

Responding effectively in adolescent family violence situations represents a significant opportunity to facilitate and support change in behaviours of young people and limit use violence into their adulthood. Research under this priority will assist government to intervene early and to tailor supports to the distinct needs of adolescents using violence in the home or intimate partner relationships.

Building an integrated perpetrator interventions system is a long-term goal requiring time and sustained commitment, including to prevention and early intervention initiatives which bolster tertiary interventions

The Victorian Government is committed to the development of a system-wide approach to keeping perpetrators accountable, connected and responsible for stopping their violence. These priority reforms will be supported by research that strengthens understandings of perpetrators and people who use violence and helps build the evidence base of effective approaches to perpetrator accountability and behaviour change. When perpetrator accountability is strengthened and they are engaged to change their behaviours, victim survivors are safer.

Research should consider and support the whole of Victorian government work program to strengthen perpetrator accountability included within the 2020-23 Family Violence Reform Rolling Action Plan, including the perpetrator-focused MARAM Practice Guides.

Priority subjects within the research area of perpetrators and people who use violence include:

• strengthening our understanding of the characteristics of perpetrators and people who use violence, including:
  • comparisons of factors in internationally recognised perpetrator typologies
  • social preconditions and the underpinning intent and choice to use violence, including attitudes, beliefs, needs and circumstances of perpetrators and people who use violence
  • prevalence and contribution of current or historical trauma, including from experiencing family violence and child maltreatment
• strengthening our understanding of the dynamics and tactics of coercive control and its impacts on victim survivors
• building a more in-depth knowledge of types of violence and patterns of violent behaviour including:
  • technology-facilitated abuse and other emerging methods for facilitating violence and abuse
  • forms of violence that are most likely to indicate high risk perpetration
• understanding conditions that are associated with an increase or reduction of violence and the ways these may vary across cohorts and communities, including:
  • identifying any risk factors that may correlate to likelihood of change or escalation of risk or recidivism
  • identifying protective factors and interventions that may support positive behaviour change or lessen risk
• issues relating to misidentification of the predominant aggressor, particularly in respect to:
  • prevalence of misidentification of victim survivors as perpetrators across system settings, including consideration of the identity, circumstances, presentation and experiences of each party
  • characteristics, circumstances, narratives and behaviours of people using violence and their use of systems abuse to cause victim survivors to be misidentified as a perpetrator
  • effective practices and service responses likely to prevent misidentification of the perpetrator, with consideration of their application to key Victorian reforms such as information sharing and coordinated risk assessment.
• increasing our understanding of access to and effectiveness of approaches to changing perpetrator behaviour including research directed at:
  • identifying key settings or circumstances that support early identification and intervention for perpetrators and people who use violence
  • identifying gaps and constructing an evidence base of effective interventions for facilitating positive change, with consideration of the perpetrators’ characteristics, attitudes and beliefs, needs and circumstances and the types of violence used
  • culturally and cohort-specific responses, including for people from culturally diverse communities, LGBTIQ+ people, people from regional and rural areas, and people with disability, and Aboriginal people who use violence
  • identifying core elements within successful interventions, including key practice approaches, responsivity factors, alternative service delivery models, to inform the design of future interventions
  • understanding the effective sequencing or staging of interventions, supports and sanctions and their relationship to both short- and long-term behaviour change, with consideration of supports from across the early intervention to crisis response continuum and how this may support a whole of system approach to perpetrator accountability
  • understanding how to intervene and respond to high risk perpetrators, including the relatively small proportion of perpetrators who commit a disproportionately large volume of family violence offending
• building the evidence base on best practice approaches to working with victim survivors as part of a perpetrator intervention or response

A range of factors underpin someone’s intent and choice to use violence. Continuing to advance our understanding regarding perpetrator intent and choice, including the types of violence used and patterns and tactics relating to these, is fundamental to keeping victim survivors safe and strengthening perpetrator accountability. Insights about perpetrator behaviour, including tactics of coercive control, are significant when understood in the context of social and cultural environments that may escalate risk or support positive behaviour change.

Research under this priority will support the government and the sector to strengthen risk identification and assessment, the effectiveness of interventions that facilitate or promote behaviour change, and tailor interventions for specific individuals, families and situations. It will also build knowledge on appropriate service system contact points to intervene early.