FEATURE ARTICLE: EXPERIMENTAL FAMILY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STATISTICS

BACKGROUND

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is investigating the augmentation of existing recorded crime statistics with Family and Domestic Violence related information. This project is being undertaken, with funding from the Department of Social Services, to build a stronger evidence base for family, domestic and sexual violence in support of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022 (the National Plan). The National Plan places a high priority on a comprehensive approach to building the evidence base to inform short and long term policy and service delivery decision making about violence against women.

An efficient way to improve the current family, domestic and sexual violence evidence base is through the enhancement of existing sources of data. In the context of offender statistics, this refers to administrative by-product data collected by state and territory police agencies. The use of administrative data can provide significant benefits as it uses existing infrastructure, can be timely, and has the potential to yield information about specific target populations. Police services have the potential to capture unique information pertaining to both victims and offenders of family and domestic violence. The information extracted from police information systems differs across the states and territories according to business practices and legislative and legal frameworks. Although the underlying police processes are similar, some differences remain and can influence the comparability of the data that are collected.

This publication is the second time the ABS has released experimental statistics in relation to family and domestic violence, using augmented recorded crime data. A supplementary release in September 2015 of Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2014 (cat. no. 4510.0) provided experimental data regarding victims of selected Family and Domestic Violence related offences for selected states and territories.

INTRODUCTION

The data presented in this release are drawn from police crime recording systems and are based on a Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) flag as recorded by police officers.

One key difference between police jurisdictions is the method used to identify family and domestic events. The practice of identification of these events is embedded in relevant legislation and policy. Practice varies from professional judgement through to the use of screening tools as part of risk assessment frameworks. Regardless of the identification process utilised, all of the states and territories in this article have an FDV flag in their administrative datasets. However, as there is no uniform process to identify these events across state and territories in the data the resulting statistics are unsuitable for national comparisons.

COUNTING METHODOLOGY

A person was counted as being an offender of family and domestic violence if they were recorded as having at least one selected offence that was flagged by police as being FDV related. If multiple FDV flagged offences were committed by an offender, then the principal offence was determined by ranking these offences using the ABS National Offence Index (see Explanatory Notes paragraph 54). Offenders were categorised against their highest ranking FDV related offence, and any non-FDV offences were excluded from this ranking process.

This counting methodology was selected as the best option to explore statistics relating to offenders of family and domestic violence with the available data. However, this method does not allow for comparisons of the FDV statistics to the statistics presented in the general publication. The exclusion of non-FDV offences in this process means that if an offender was proceeded against for multiple offences during the reference period they may be represented in the FDV and general statistics against different principle offences.

FDV flagged data has been published for the following selected offences:

• Homicide;
• Acts intended to cause injury;
• Sexual assault;
• Abduction/harassment; and
• Property damage.

KEY FINDINGS

Data relating to FDV offenders were requested from police for the first time for the 2014-15 collection, and business rules, standards, classifications and requirements are still being refined to improve the comparability of data between jurisdictions. Further work is required to develop and implement a uniform set of business rules to guide the national recording and counting of FDV-related offences. As such, it is not recommended that the experimental statistics in this issue be compared between jurisdictions.

Age profile of offenders

The age profile of offenders of selected FDV flagged offences was similar across the selected jurisdictions with the:

• highest proportion in the 20-34 years category
• second highest proportion in the 35-54 years age category
• second lowest proportion in the 10-19 years age category
• lowest proportion in the 55 years and over category

New South Wales

There were 19,942 offenders of selected FDV flagged offences in New South Wales, which equated to 302 offenders per 100,000 persons (aged 10 years and over). The most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence was Acts intended to cause injury (17,448 offenders, or 87%). The second most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence was Property damage with 1,745 offenders (or 9%).

There were more than four times as many male offenders (16,273) as female offenders (3,670).

The age group 20-34 years had the highest proportion of offenders at 44% (or 8,779 offenders). This was followed by the 35-54 years age group at 38% (or 7,602 offenders).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders represented 12% (or 2,411) of offenders of selected FDV flagged offences in New South Wales. The most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders was Acts intended to cause injury with 2,107 offenders (or 87%).

The majority of offenders were proceeded against only once for a selected FDV flagged offence during the reference period (88%).

Victoria

There were 11,312 offenders of selected FDV flagged offences in Victoria, which equated to 220 offenders per 100,000 persons (aged 10 years and over). The most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence was Acts intended to cause injury with 8,766 offenders (or 77%). The second most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence was Property damage with 1,180 offenders (or 10%).

There were more than five times as many male offenders (9,507) as female offenders (1,790).

The age group 20-34 years had the highest proportion of offenders at 47% (or 5,267 offenders). This was followed by the 35-54 years age group at 39% (or 4,389 offenders).

The majority of offenders were proceeded against only once for a selected FDV flagged offence during the reference period (86%).

Queensland

There were 1,477 offenders of selected FDV flagged offences in Queensland, which equated to 36 offenders per 100,000 persons (aged 10 years and over). The most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence was Acts intended to cause injury with 1,053 offenders (or 71%). The second most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence was Property damage with 392 offenders (or 27%).

There were more than six times as many male offenders (1,287) as female offenders (193).

The age group 20-34 years had the highest proportion of offenders at 59% (or 877 offenders). This was followed by the 35-54 years age group at 32% (or 474 offenders).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders represented 45% (or 668) of offenders of selected FDV flagged offences in Queensland. The most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders was Acts intended to cause injury with 522 offenders (or 78%).

The majority of offenders were proceeded against only once for a selected FDV flagged offence during the reference period (94%).

Northern Territory

There were 2,446 offenders of selected FDV flagged offences in the Northern Territory, which equated to 1,185 offenders per 100,000 persons (aged 10 years and over). The most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence was Acts intended to cause injury with 2,266 offenders (or 93%).

There were five times as many male offenders (2,040) as female offenders (407).

The age group 20-34 years had the highest proportion of offenders at 56% (or 1,375 offenders). This was followed by the 35-54 years age group at 33% (or 814 offenders).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders represented 89% (or 2,183) of offenders of selected FDV flagged offences in the Northern Territory. The most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders was Acts intended to cause injury with 2,041 offenders (or 93%).

The majority of offenders were proceeded against only once for a selected FDV flagged offence during the reference period (88%).


Australian Capital Territory

There were 330 offenders of selected FDV flagged offences in the Australian Capital Territory, which equated to 98 offenders per 100,000 persons (aged 10 years and over). The most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence was Acts intended to cause injury with 238 offenders (or 72%). The second most prevalent principal FDV flagged offence was Property damage with 58 offenders (or 18%).

There were more than eight times as many male offenders (292) as female offenders (36).

The age group 20-34 years had the highest proportion of offenders at 49% (or 162 offenders). This was followed by the 35-54 years age group at 32% (or 107 offenders).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders represented 16% (or 53) of offenders of selected FDV flagged offences in the Australian Capital Territory.

The majority of offenders were proceeded against only once for a selected FDV flagged offence during the reference period (95%).


COMMENT AND FURTHER INFORMATION

This release of data is experimental and subject to further evaluation. The ABS is interested in feedback from users of these statistics. Users are invited to provide comments to the ABS on any aspect of the release. Please send written feedback to crime.justice@abs.gov.au.

RELATED PUBLICATIONS

While these data can inform our understanding of offenders of FDV flagged offences, data may be subject to input quality issues because they were collected for operational rather than statistical purposes. Not all offenders of crime are apprehended and, as such, are not counted in official police recorded data. Further information about the use of administrative data sourced from police agencies may be found in Measuring Victims of Crime: A Guide to Using Administrative and Survey data (cat. no. 4500.0.55.001).

Experimental data regarding victims of selected Family and Domestic Violence related offences for selected states and territories can be found in Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2014 (cat. no. 4510.0)

Statistical conceptual information relating to family, domestic and sexual violence, including a description of the main concepts, sources and priorities in this field can be found in Defining the Data Challenge for Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence, 2013 (cat. no. 4529.0).

Advice about strategies and actions required to address critical data gaps and improve the evidence base in this field can be found in Bridging the data gaps for family, domestic and sexual violence, 2013 (cat. no. 4529.0.00.002).